4 Pillars 4 Youth+ : Increasing tools for quality youth work in Protected Areas
Erasmus KA153 Youth Worker Mobility Project
Project Aim:
EUROPARC would like to build the capacity of the mentors of the Youth+ programme in order for all of them to feel confident in delivering a programme equally covering all four pillars. Bringing these mentors together to learn from one another and also to create an interactive digital toolkit to advise new mentors on how to get started would get the ball rolling on providing a better, bigger and diverse youth programme across Protected Areas in Europe.
Objective 1: Mobilise the expertise of the current EUROPARC Youth+ programmes
All 16 Youth+ programme members have been contacted and invited to participate in this programme.
Objective 2: Run a 4-day Seminar covering the 4 pillars of the Youth+ programme
The 4 day seminar will take place in the educational centre Steinmühle of Müritz National Park, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Arrival will be Monday evening and departure on Saturday morning. In between each of the 4 full days will focus on one of the 4 pillars of the Youth+ Programme (Nature Conservation, Leadership, Advocacy and Communication). In addition, some of the participants will facilitate workshops covering challenges faced by mentors as highlighted in mentor meetings in 2022 and 2023. These are (1) youth emigration from rural areas (2) Youth proactivity (3) Youth support structures in Protected Area authorities and (4) Reporting and Evaluating youth programmes.
Objective 3: Create a Toolkit for current and future Youth+ Mentors
Through the discussions at the Seminar and together with further online meetings, the participants will help create a digital interactive toolkit which will cover each pillar of the Youth+ programme with clear steps on how to set up activities and examples of activities that develop skills and competencies.
Objective 4: Disseminate the toolkit through events and by making is accessible through translations
The toolkit will be translated into the languages of the country organizations (German, Dutch, French, Latvian, Italian, Finnish). It will be shared with the EUROPARC Youth Network monthly newsletters (reach of 150 youth workers in Protected Areas) and the EUROPARC eNews (reach of 6600 contacts) as well as across the EUROPARC official social media platforms and the youth Facebook page and Instagram page. In addition it will be presented at an online workshop or webinar open to the EUROPARC network of members (over 300 in more than 30 countries).
Over the next years the toolkit will be used as part of the information package for Protected Areas who are starting EUROPARC youth programmes as well as by the Parks themselves when they are training new youth mentors or continuously developing and improving their Youth+ programme.
The Lead Partner:
EUROPARC Federation
Partner Organisations:
IVN (The Netherlands)
Gauja National Park Foundation (Latvia)
Bavarian Forest National Park (Germany)
Man and Biosphere France (France)
Julian Alps Regional Park (Italy)
Nuuksio National Park (Finland)
Gesäuse National Park (Austria)
-> with additional support by the Cairngorms National Park, the Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Parks (Scotland) and the North York Moors National Park (England)
-> additional expertise invited to attend from Youth and Environment Europe and European Young Rewilders
