Green Sport and Outdoor Activities for Environmental
Awareness and Lifestyle

Description

The project "Green Sport and Outdoor Activities for Environmental Awareness and Lifestyle" has been built as a response to the European Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives developed by the EC to transform the EU into a climate neutral society by 2050. While the successful implementation of the strategy heavily relies on actions taken by the industry and the governments with a goal, among others, to minimize greenhouse emissions, to further exploit renewable energy and to develop efficient energy infrastructure networks among EU member states, it is crucial that citizens and especially young people, the future generation, should not be left behind in this process. Instead, bottom-up initiatives designed and executed from the civil society and the youth sector are needed in order to achieve enhanced awareness about environmental friendly approaches on an individual level in a way that each single citizen becomes accountable for their actions towards the environment.

Understanding the importance and penetration of sports and outdoor activities in the society and young people daily routine, it is of paramount importance to comprehend, on the one hand, how sports impact the environment and, on the other hand, to identify feasible measures which will transfer traditional sports into more sustainable and environmentally friendly activities.

The project has received funding from the European Commission in the framework of a Small Scale Partnership in Youth with the participation of the following partners: Active Zone Outdoor (Coordinator; Cyprus), TDM 2020 International (Italy), CXJV Conexão Jovem Associação (Portugal), ASOCIATIA SCOUT SOCIETY (Romania).

For more information about the project, visit the project website!

Objectives

The project has set out the following objectives:

To share and exchange good practices on the impact of green sports and outdoor activities to the links between encouraging a healthy and inclusive lifestyle and working for a healthy environment; as well as spread it in the youth work field and other sectors;
To enable youth workers, organizations and young people, to develop a limited set of measures, actions and initiatives associated with green practice sports and outdoor activities;
To increase the sense of belonging and the sense of community for the youngsters in their local community through their direct and active participation obtained through the practice of green sports and outdoor activities;
To raise awareness on the environmental issues by bringing the Green Deal close to youngsters and give them the right tools to take action;
To contribute to building empowered and committed communities to increase the processes of youth participation and empower them for the environmental challenges that in today’s EU regions are facing;
To create a network of organizations in Europe that plan and implement future projects with the E+ program in order to generate further opportunities for young Europeans and their local communities.

Activities

For the successful implementation of the project, a series of activities will take place:

A kick-off meeting in Italy to officially launch the project and design the pathway for its implementation;
Research about the situation of green sport and outdoor activities in each country allowing the consortium to identify good practices in the field as well as challenges and limitations for the smooth implementation of green sports;
An International Seminar in Cyprus to share the results of the research with youth workers;
A Booklet of good practices on green sport and outdoor activities addressing the needs of youth workers, young people and those interested in transforming sports into sustainable and environmentally friendly practices
A series of activities at a local level on water sports, mountain sports, green Sports in cities and urban environments in order to disseminate the knowledge and results with young people, youth workers and other relevant stakeholders
An Evaluation Meeting & Closing Conference in Cyprus to present the outcomes and achievements of the project