In this article, Esther Vallado, from Biodiversa, the Spanish partner of LOCALY, explains how she experienced the conception and first months of this project.
It was 14th Feb 2023 when Biodiversa, the Spanish partner of LOCALY, received an email from the Goethe-Institut in Athens, with a cooperation proposal in an Erasmus+ project. The project was presented to us in this way:
I contact you on behalf of the EU Programmes Team of the Goethe-Institut (German Institute) in Athens (info: https://www.goethe.de/ins/gr/en/kul/eup.html).
My department is currently preparing an Erasmus+ project proposal under the Youth priority for the March 2023 call.
The proposal will focus on two main priorities: Fighting climate change, and citizen mobilisation through cooperation and fostering youth entrepreneurship. The aim of the project is to promote the engagement and participation of young people in the fight against climate change, especially in urban areas. This will be achieved through the creation of a toolkit (handbook) that will enable educators in non-formal/out-of-school education to promote climate and environmental protection initiative among young people (15-23 years old).
Among the results we will achieve:
A. Teaching materials for young people to carry out experiential learning activities through which they acquire environmental and cross-cutting competences.
B. Certified trainers who will use the didactic materials to train young people (Train the trainers).
C. Small-scale environmental projects that the young people will carry out in their communities. The projects will focus on environmental protection.
They were looking for organisations based in Spain and working with young people on environmental education, they said.
It was love at first sight for us, the project having so many points in common with our own areas of focus and interest, and the proposal coming from an institution of great reputation such as the Goethe-Institut.
The day after, we had a meeting over Zoom where we got to know each other and the organisations that we represent. Biodiversa got to know more about the project idea and the other partner organisations in the consortium. The following day we were officially invited to be part of the consortium, and we started the thorough preparation of the project write up.
Goethe-Institut was looking for a German partner, and Biodiversa suggested NaturFreundeJugend, with which we have been cooperating a lot in the past years. They eventually joined the partnership. The other two: Materahub, from Italy, and Ecogenia, from Greece, were already on board.
We met many times during the following weeks and had countless email communications. On 22nd March, finally, and just a few days before the deadline, the project was submitted. In Biodiversa we had learnt a lot during this project conception phase, so even if the project proposal would be in the end unsuccessful, we would have been satisfied with the experience, we thought.
On the 29th August, we received an email from Penelope, project coordinator for the Goethe-Institut, to communicate to all partners in the consortium that the project had been granted!! It had received 81 out of 100 points. The official project start date would be December 15th.
5 months down the line, after many more online meetings and one in-person kick-off meeting in Athens, Biodiversa created and published a landing page for the project within our website. This was sent automatically by email to our 1.800 + followers, plus it was published on the organisation’s social media (LinkedIn and Facebook). The page is targeted at the Spanish audience. It presents the project in Spanish, its aim and objectives, the general timeline and the names of the partners, including links to their websites. The promotional video for the project created by Materahub (the Italian partner, in charge of communication and dissemination) is embedded on the post.
Biodiversa also just launched the call for participants for the training of youth workers that we will host in Asturias this July. And NaturFreundeJugend is in the latest stages of developing the Toolkit on which the training will be based on. Stay tuned to be the first to have a look at our project’s outcomes.
It feels like we have already done a lot, but we have only just started. This project will go on until the end of 2025 and we have many more surprises in store for you. Follow #LOCALY!
