project gallery

Short stories of all national implementations
carried out by Youth Workers

Greece

Hello, I am Anthi Paschalidou, 29 years old from Thessaloniki, Greece. I am a geologist and I hold a master’s degree in Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. I am a ConsumeLess Advisor and I participate in many environmental programmes.

Hello! I’m Maria Zisi, 27 years old from Drama, Greece. I hold a degree in Architecture and currently am engaged as a multimedia and project manager in youth and environmental projects.

Over four months, we collaborated with teenagers to promote sustainability through workshops and community engagement. After training in Asturias, Spain, we launched our local implementation in September 2024, partnering with the Parish youth center in Evosmos, Thessaloniki. In October and November, we formed a youth group and held seminars on the climate crisis and sustainability. Despite the challenge of high school students’ limited availability due to school pressure, those who joined showed great enthusiasm and commitment. Together, we co-designed a plan of environmental actions tailored to their interests.

December focused on preparation and implementation. We conducted a questionnaire on environmental awareness and developed educational games. The month culminated in an interactive final event, where participants engaged with the games and discussed key environmental issues. In total, 65 youth center members completed the questionnaire, and 30 primary school students joined the final event. A lasting outcome of the project was the introduction of a composting bin at the youth center—an initiative inspired by our work with the teens. This practical step toward reducing food waste highlights how even small-scale actions in environmental education can lead to meaningful, community-driven change.

Hello! I’m Eleni Antoniadou, and I hold a degree in Education and Social Policy. I work as a special education teacher in primary education and I am also part of Ecogenia, serving as a Program Coordinator. During the implementation phase of LOCALY, I acted as a Youth Worker in my hometown of Chania, Crete.

In September, following our training in Asturias, Spain, we kicked off the implementation phase equipped with the LOCALY toolkit and a wide range of creative activities. I collaborated with the 1st Experimental Junior High School of Chania, working with a group of 12 students aged 12–14. 

Over the course of 11 weekly sessions, the students explored topics such as sustainability, climate change, carbon footprint, and how to design their own community-based project.

In December, they carried out their final community action: a beach clean-up. They collected 22 bags of waste (2,200L), revitalizing the area. The students designed and organized the entire event—from identifying needs and gathering materials to promoting it and even creating the poster graphics. At the closing, a group of girls performed a song about recycling and environmental awareness, accompanied by a violin, adding a powerful artistic and emotional element.

Over the course of these three months, I discovered how much students need programs like this and how much they truly enjoyed it. They felt seen and heard, expressed their creativity freely, bonded as a team, took ownership of their ideas, and experienced a sense of pride and purpose. It was inspiring to witness their transformation from curious participants into motivated young changemakers. I’m proud to be part of this initiative, and I hope our efforts will continue to inspire more young people to become active citizens for a greener future.

Italy

Hi! We are Marghita D’Alò and Chiara Storsillo. Between September and December 2024 we implemented the Localy! project in Matera, Basilicata, in collaboration with the youth association Yepp.

We worked with a group of girls and boys aged between 13 and 17, involving them in a series of workshops dedicated to the circular economy.

Our aim was to make them aware of reuse, recovery and re-use of materials, starting with what they had available and enhancing their ideas.

From the beginning, we chose a participatory approach, letting them drive the project. After some shared reflection, they decided to focus on the acoustic improvement of the association’s headquarters, a space they often use to record podcasts.

We organised a clean-up activity in the area and then used waste materials already present in the premises to create sound-absorbing objects: sponge and fabric cubes and a screen. In addition to concretely improving the space, this work strengthened the group’s sense of responsibility and belonging.

It was not all easy: initially it was complicated to form a stable group of participants. Interest was not always constant and maintaining a high level of attention required a lot of flexibility. However, meeting after meeting, we managed to involve everyone, building a climate of trust and collaboration that allowed us to bring the project to a satisfactory conclusion.

This experience was a valuable opportunity to better understand how to relate to children of this age group, listen to them and stimulate them to become active agents of change, starting from their everyday context.

Spain

Hello! I’m Ana González, and I carried out the implementation in Gijón, Asturias (Spain), between September and December 2024. In my case, the project was carried out in two phases. The first attempt was with young people from the El Telar Association, but we didn’t reach the target number of participants (3 or 4). However, we carried out environmental observation and education, and generated a collection of ideas. With the second organization, we formed a group of six teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15 with the Mar de Niebla association, located in the western part of the city, where environmental problems are very common among residents, as it is surrounded by industrial factories. We organized several discussion forums, as well as educational activities, and decided to clean the green areas around, where we managed to collect 24 kg of garbage in 1 hour.
The main problems I encountered were, first, the difficulty in finding organizations willing to participate in the activity, either due to a lack of schedules or participants. At the same time, the young people were under considerable pressure from educational demands to dedicate their free time to this activity. In addition, there was the pressure of time, which passed quickly when contacting organizations, and the numerous vacations that interrupted the school calendar. I believe that planning the agreement with the organization in advance, so that the process can begin immediately in September, would allow for greater commitment to the issue at hand.

Hello! I’m Inés Villa García (Biodiversa). The Loca(L)y Project was something I never expected to do at first given that I had no prior experience working with young people and felt unsure. However, after the training in July, I became more confident and eager to put it into practice.

Even though finding the right project took time and effort, the process taught me patience and adaptability and eventually, I connected with the Scout Group Kelthiké, a group formed by 15 youngsters between 14 and 17 years old.

It was the Dynamization and upgrading of the route ¨La Camocha¨ the project that finally found its way through.

This consisted on placing small decorated wooden boxes along the trail, each one containing a laminated “Did you know…?” environmental fact in order to make local people more conscious about the nature surrounding its area. 

After placing the boxes, we registered them on the Geocaching App, turning the walk into an interactive, educational activity for locals.

I also used many tools from the project toolkit—especially from Chapter 4—which helped me plan effectively most of the process. Activities like “Find your climate superpower” and “Systems thinking – The game” sparked reflection and learning in the group.

Feedback from the youngsters was very positive. They enjoyed the process, learned about local nature, and only wished for more time to engage in the project in a deeper way.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.