Community Challengers: Towards sustainable & climate-smart communities through Arts & Social Entrepreneurship

Background The choice of climate action in combination with the tools of awareness raising, arts, social entrepreneurship and advocacy is defined by the need to take urgent measures to develop sustainable actions and policies to mitigate the effects of climate change. Climate change has been declared as a climate emergency by many governments and communities since 2019 and has been the target of many European and global policies. The European Youth Strategy includes green action as well as national policy frameworks that are focusing more on renewable energies, sustainable solutions and green policies. In order to support local action, but also individual responsibility, education and information for young people is needed to become drivers for change. Local groups in partner countries (Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Croatia and Latvia) decided to continue community work and further develop local action to generate activation in local youth groups. Further, developing youth participation in decision-making processes at the local level has been a priority of partners. The topics of sustainability and climate protection are not only very important for young people, but also relevant for the work of all partners. Objectives The Community Challengers project sought to empower young people with tools to take and reflect on climate action and mobilise their communities with innovative and appealing measures. Based on a learning model combining education, arts and social entrepreneurship, a 4-step methodology was developed for this project: Learn, Analyse, Create, Advocate (LACA). In this context, partners decided on the objective of promoting more active youth participation within environmental issues. The Community Challengers project, with its innovative character in bringing together climate change education with sustainable solutions, art practices and entrepreneurial solutions in local communities fit these points well. Creating local youth groups committed to climate action and developing tools to involve young people at a local level in youth participation connected to environmental issues, engaging young people and holding active participation of young people without ‘losing’ them through discouragement were defined as goals of the project. The international network of partners, opportunities for artists to participate in international exchange and deepen the knowledge of trainers on sustainability and various methods was a declared aim. Implementation Workshops on climate change mitigation and sustainability, environmental issues and sustainable solutions (2-day workshops) in Portimao/Portugal, Loano/Italy, Belgrade/Serbia, Zagreb/Croatia and Aizpute and Kazdanga/Latvia. Workshops on Community Mapping, both analogue and digital, using the Miro platform. Results created are presenting the city and community of Portimao/Portugal, Loano/Italy, the Danube region/Serbia, Zagreb and its neighbourhoods/Croatia as well as both communities of Aizpute and Kazdanga/Latvia. Art workshops were implemented on film, visual art and performance in Zagreb/Croatia; on film, visual art and song in Portimao/Portugal; on film and visual art in Aizpute/Latvia; on visual art and performance in Zagreb/Belgrade and on film and visual art in Loano/Italy. These led to: 5 videos on climate change issues, 4 murials, 5 videos and pictures on performance and 1 song. 10 Advocacy Tutorials were created with the support of European youth activists, presenting formats of advocacy on local, national and international levels. They were tested with youth workers and young people, addressing decision-makers and stakeholders in the five implementing countries. Achievements The cooperation between partners and their expertise, led to the creation of four Intellectual Outputs, available in English, Latvian, Croatian, Portuguese, Italian and Serbian: IO1.1 The Sustainability and Climate Action Handbook (79 pages) IO1.2 The Sustainability and Climate Action Handbook Trainer’s Guide: practical tips, workshop formats and tips by trainers (56 pages) IO2 Community Mapping Toolkit (61 pages) IO3 Community Challengers Guide (99 pages) IO4 Advocacy Tutorials (10 videos) All IOs provide methods and models for trainers and youth workers on implementing environment challenges, art workshops or entrepreneurship camps to support young people in creating their own business solutions. The outputs are available on the project website and are freely accessible for anyone interested. They are targeting young people and youth workers, are written in a youth-friendly language and visually attractive. Infographics, comics and tables underline the content. As for the Advocacy Tutorials, the scripts of the subtitles are available in above mentioned languages (automatic translation was fine tuned by all partners). Models and methods are written in a way to be used in local youth centres in Europe and beyond.