Green Fridays for young people

Project Description

The Challenge

“Green Fridays for Youth is an initiative that will contribute to solving two problems:

Firstly, supporting the development of more youth communities organised around ideas to improve the quality of the environment. “Green Fridays are days for meetings, discussions, trainings and practical work where young people can get involved in four main areas – “Healthy living environment in the city”, “Green household practices”, “Healthy and environmentally friendly eating”. During these meetings, they will have the opportunity to meet important personalities in the different fields. They will be able to exchange information, knowledge with their peers.

Secondly, providing opportunities for young people to engage their free time with a meaningful social cause such as environmental protection. “Green Fridays are meeting days. Twenty-four in total. Each week young people will have the opportunity to engage with different causes.

Actions

Every Friday a topic will be opened. The young people who join will be able to meet experts in the field who will introduce them to the topics, hold discussions or training sessions or workshops as appropriate. Each topic remains open at the end of the project. This means that on the other days the young people can continue to be active and undertake activities planned by the meetings. The topic speakers become mentors and are available on the other days to help and advise the groups formed on the respective topic. By creating online groups the mentor can be in daily contact with the group. Two of the Fridays where the topics will be related to agriculture and biodiversity will take place outside Varna at our Eco Centre in the village of. We will be holding two meetings in the Eco-centre of the village.

The topics around which the twelve (24) Green Fridays will be organized and held are as follows:

Sustainable mobility – Organising workshops on alternative modes of transport, such as cycling, walking and using public transport. Participants will learn about their positive environmental and health impacts.

Recycling and Waste Reduction – Conduct workshops and demonstrations aimed at learning proper methods for sorting and recycling waste. Participants will be encouraged to reduce single-use consumption and use sustainable packaging and products.

Household chemistry – 1) introduction to the topic of household chemistry and its impact on human health, and presentation of alternatives for making cleaning products from natural products; 2) visit to small organic shops that offer ready-made natural household chemistry; 3) conduct a workshop to learn about old home techniques for making cleaning products and cosmetics from natural products.

Organic gardening – Organizing workshops and practical lessons on organic gardening and growing your own vegetables and fruits, herbs, flowers. Participants will learn about the benefits of organic gardening and how to use sustainable methods to grow food in urban settings. Planting plants and herbs workshop (growing cherry tomatoes on the terrace, flower bombs).

Healthy and environmentally friendly eating – 1) introduction to the selection of healthy and environmentally friendly products and ways to prepare food in an environmentally friendly and healthy way; 2) visit to one restaurant and one shop preparing healthy and environmentally friendly food; 3) conduct a food preparation workshop. Workshop on making homemade chutney/juices/sweet. Waste-free cooking workshop.

Energy Efficiency – Conduct trainings and discussions on energy efficiency in households and workplaces. Participants will learn about the importance of energy saving measures and receive practical tips on reducing energy consumption and using renewable energy sources.

Healthy Urban Living Environment – 1) introduction to measuring and ensuring a healthy urban living environment; 2) visit different urban areas – public building, beach, school, etc. and measure dust, radiation and other parameters in them; 3) practice using specific equipment and tools to measure the quality of life in urban environments.

Wild inhabitants of the city – Participants will learn about the wild inhabitants of the urban area of the city. The participants will learn about the wildlife of Varna, what difficulties they experience and how they can be helped.

Artificial Intelligence and Environmental Protection – this topic will be mostly discussion-based and will seek the opinion on how young people accept the introduction of new technologies.

Young media and the environment – participants will work on the topic of how to get the media on their side,for environmental protection.

Fundraising to support charitable causes – participants will learn about different techniques to raise funds for charitable campaigns.

After all, it’s all politics. How to work with politicians.Young people will gain knowledge on how to campaign for the environmental causes they set out to protect. Youth will meet with sitting politicians or operational secretaries to tell them a little more about how to be successful.

How to make a compost system in an urban setting.

How to make homemade cosmetics with organic ingredients (soaps, creams, mosquito spray, polish remover).

How to make household cleaners (surface cleaner, laundry powder)

Construction with natural materials in s. Ezerets

Results

50 young people aged 15 to 30 years directly involved in Green Fridays activities. Anyone who would like to volunteer can email us: ecovarna.info@gmail.com