<< Background >>The Launch and Thrive project is an innovative project between 7 European countries, from the north (Sweden, Denmark), the south (Spain/Italy), the east (Ukraine) and the west (Germany/Switzerland). It responds directly to a request and situation in which civil society networks feel the need to strengthen themselves, since the multiple crises (climate, democratic and social) requires the mobilization of all actors. Some countries have national networks of thriving ecovillages that have existed for years. However, others are characterized by absence or failure due to lack of coordination and synergy that do not promote movement. Until now, there has been no systemic approach to the development of national ecovillage networks. Therefore, guidelines (manuals), assistance (tutoring) and coordination (ICT platform) are needed, but it is also essential to make visible the impact of national networks (videos), their successes and challenges (exchange). GEN Europe as the lead organisation proposes this project in order to better support national networks in a diversity of stages - from its infant steps to mature movements. For this reason, the project has the general objective of helping national networks across Europe to launch and prosper (Online Learning Package), thus strengthening European cooperation in the field of ecovillage development, SDG awareness and advocacy capacity through coordinated, legitimate and representative national networks.<< Objectives >>What we want to achieve throughout the project is to reach a more informed and qualified level from which assistance to national network building can be given. We explore in the project different means and paths, as learning styles and needs can vary. The ultimate aim is to create helpful resources (IO’s) that can be disseminated and utilized for all kinds of networks. The project pursues the following immediate objectives:- Creation of a qualitative framework for country-to-country assistance in Europe, in the creation of functional and prosperous national networks, through a MANUAL to guide the process.- Development of a MENTORING PACKAGE as part of the manual, creating and piloting twinning schemes between national networks throughout Europe with an exchange programme between the twinned partner organisations is to establish long lasting collaborative relationships and allow for in depth exchange of good practices and peer learning.- Establish an ICT PLATFORM to systematize the provision of information on the different national networks, the exchange of knowledge and the resolution of problems, to strengthen cooperation.- Present ecovillage networks on a national scale through SHORT VIDEOS that promote networking activities for active citizenship, with a European component that strengthens national efforts.- Develop an Online Learning Package (OLP) using the different educational resources and training materials available through this project, promoting innovation in ecovillage networks. The main target groups and participants involved in this project are the board members, staff and permanent volunteers of the existing national ecovillage networks and the capacities of the thriving national networks, who can offer their expertise and participate in the development of the necessary IOs, from their position and perspective. At the same time, it is important to include initiators of new national networks that are not yet well consolidated and where the project can contribute to their immediate needs. The long-term and secondary target group are all national networks that do not yet exist or that need assistance to thrive. Every national network initiative can benefit from the results of what the core group of 6 partners will bring to bear on this nearly 2-year project. These, in turn, can only do so with strong backing from their national groups, where some 20 people will participate in each country. As such, the project seeks to build on the collective wisdom and experience already present, but also to explore and co-create, through the partnership, to design patterns and pathways.<< Implementation >>The project activities are centered around three transnational meetings and the production of three intellectual products, a manual for networks (including a mentoring package), an ICT platform (including videos) and an Online Learning Package to transmit the gathered knowledge. A twinning process between partners will be directly integrated into the mentoring package, as an innovative action learning process. The partners in Switzerland, Sweden and Ukraine (networks in the process of being established) will go through the processes on which the manual will be based, thus testing the manual as it is being produced. National activities include seminars/events in each partner country, manual translation and video production.- All partners will organise local MULTIPLIER EVENTS, to be hosted in each partner country before the end of the project, to promote and present the project results and materials as well as assess the benefits of its methodology in the non-formal sector. A particularly important moment to disseminate and exploit the project's results locally and involve national stakeholders/actors that would not have the chance to be involved otherwise. - The EXCHANGE PROGRAM between the twinned partner organisations allows for an in depth exchange of good practice and peer to peer learning from both organisations. It also allows for close collaboration on the projects Intellectual Outputs, and is a practical achievement of the overall objective of the project- The TRAINING OF TRAINERS forms a key part of the project. The training will contribute to equip participants working towards the objective to build capacity and empower national ecovillage networks to Launch & Thrive; networking and regional cooperation, including civic engagement, how to influence policy makers (as a network), social mapping, use of online tools for international cooperation as well as principles of public relations and dissemination. The training will be replicable throughout the GEN Europe network (and beyond) and be the basis for the IO3, the Online Learning Package.<< Results >>The concrete results will be the manual itself, the ICT platform and the short videos of the partners, showing their differences as national networks, and the Online Learning Package. Facilitators and trainers will use these tools to work with networks to establish themselves and generate good operations and cooperation. The impact will focus on the growth of national networks in Europe, but also on supporting more established networks that prosper and become stronger. The project is called 'Launch and thrive' and that is what it offers to the long-term vision, that civil society needs to organize in networks better to gain more voice and impact, in order to promote active participation of citizenship in the climate debate, initiatives focused on the SDGs and showing a citizen path to European cooperation on these issues.

This strategic partnership is centered on the exchange of good practice regarding sustainability youth exchanges and specifically the question how the partners can support young people to create successful and high quality youth exchange projects. It reflects the European Youth Goal ‘Sustainable Green Europe’.The project partners are:- the German branch of the Global Ecovillage Network of Europe (coordinating partner);- the Spanish branch of the Global Ecovillage Network of Europe;- GEN Deutschland (Germany)- Red Ibérica de Ecoaldeas (Spain)- Rete Italiana Villaggi Ecologici (Italy)- Ecodorpen Netwerk (Netherlands)- Zavod Veles (Slovenia)- Zeleno Doba (Serbia)‘YES to Sustainability‘ (YTS) is a series of youth exchanges in ecovillages and local sustainability projects for young adults that address different aspects of sustainability, around which an informal and very loose network of individuals (mainly young people) and organisations has formed.An ecovillage is an intentional or traditional community that is consciously designed through locally owned, participatory processes to regenerate social and natural environments. The 4 dimensions of sustainability (ecology, economy, the social and the cultural) are integrated into a holistic approach.Ecovillages have been piloting low carbon lifestyles inspiring bottom-up changes that complement policy reform. Lifestyle changes and climate-friendly choices are needed to keep global warming within planetary boundaries. Ever more youth are becoming aware of the climate crisis and other global issues, demanding change and looking for answers.The partner organisations know many very motivated and engaged young people willing to put time and effort into developing and applying for YTS youth exchanges, but success rates are discouragingly low. How can we support youth to develop quality youth exchanges? This is the main focus, topic and aim of this project.The project output is a 20-page brochure ‘Success factors in sustainability youth exchanges’ that will be freely accessible online. Through a peer learning process, where the partners exchange their experiences and good practice around sustainability youth exchanges, success factors and quality indicators for designing sustainability youth exchanges are identified. The brochure includes good practice examples that may be helpful for others in designing their sustainability youth exchange projects. One topic is how to design a youth exchange sustainably with a low carbon footprint.The project activity ‘Mentoring and YTS Youth Exchanges Support Scheme’ aims at supporting newcomers to design quality projects - usually participants of YTS youth exchanges (= young people) who want to step up to become organisers and group leaders of sustainability youth exchanges. The partners share their experiences and reflect together - experiment with different modalities - run small pilots testing different mentoring approaches - ask for detailed feedback from the target group - identify the most promising ones (possibly to be fully developed in future projects). This process allows the partners to develop capacity to better respond to the need of willing and motivated youth for support in developing quality projects.Part of the exchange process are two peer-learning trainings for the youth workers of all participating organisations and four long-term mobilities of youth workers. These activities significantly deepen the exchange between partners and improve the quality of project results.The consortium will reach out to a large number of stakeholders, young people and particularly those who are willing to step up and become organisers of sustainability youth exchanges, local sustainability projects that are potential hosts and youth organisations. Various networking activities, particularly on social media, will contribute to making ‘YES to Sustainability‘ more well known among young people, promote exchange about sustainable ways of life and foster peer learning.The project results will be widely disseminated online and offline to many relevant stakeholders. The partner GEN Europe, the European umbrella organisation of ecovillages, plays a crucial role in spreading widely to a very large number of sustainability projects in over 30 countries. It’s youth wing NextGEN will contribute to making the project more well known among young people.Through the project, young people are supported to become active citizens and change agents towards a low carbon society as organisers and group leaders in sustainability youth exchanges.

Young people are facing the dilemma of maturing into adulthood facing social exclusion, difficulties securing meaningful work, and few opportunities to engage practically with sustainability issues. In many countries, youth unemployment rates are high, putting millions at risk of social exclusion, depression and lack of opportunities. The pandemic has only worsened the situation. These issues are compounded by the many socioeconomic and ecological crises we are collectively facing, and the realisation that to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement, initiatives are desperately needed to encourage young people to engage and take leadership.ECO GAMER seeks to empower young people from diverse backgrounds to assess their local contexts, and design, implement and celebrate regenerative solutions together whilst augmenting their skills to enter a competitive job market. In-line with the Europe 2020 Strategy that spotlights youth entrepreneurship as a key objective, we recognise that social inclusion can emerge from actively collaborating in beneficial community projects. Similarly, an EU Council report entitled ‘Conclusions on Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship to Foster Social Inclusion of Young People’ recognises that social entrepreneurship “present[s] great opportunities for transforming young people's creativity and human capital into smart growth and jobs’ and “is a powerful tool to promote social inclusion and social engagement especially among the youth”. To this end, and with creativity, interactivity and active engagement at its heart, ECO GAMER uses an innovatively playful approach to activate and connect youth to start social enterprise and build community 'where they stand' whilst contributing towards sense of purpose and self-esteem.Using innovative pedagogies based on Game Based Learning, Educational Live Action Roleplaying Games, Education for Sustainable Development, and Nature Based Solutions to climate change, we created a set of open source resources for young people, youth workers, students and researchers as well as for any place-based communities or projects wishing to better understand their own impact and potential. These include: 1) A holistic and scientifically sound Impact Assessment for individuals and place-based communities, projects, groups or families. The Impact Assessment is available in different online and offline formats for both individuals and groups to map and assess their lifestyles through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as well as through a set of Ecovillage Design Principles: a framework used to depict community regeneration through participatory design in four dimensions of sustainability: social, cultural, ecological and economy. The Assessment is accessible online, with live results presented visually. It can also be done through an interactive downloadable spreadsheed using radar charts to give easily comparable results, or as a live session with a group, using a deck of cards developed by the project. 2) An innovative and experiential social entrepreneurship, collaborative leadership and sustainable community building training in the form of a live action game called the Game of Regeneration, playable in teams or with individual players in multiple formats, including a live action role playing game and a tabletop version. In both versions, players solve missions and implement projects and solutions in their communities in real-time. The game contains a 95 page facilitators manual detailing all steps, excercises, sessions, necessary materials and elements of the game, a game myth. It also contains 4 decks of cards: 9 stepping stones to track the journey of the game; ecovillage design cards to map the journey through cultural, economic, ecological and social regeneration; challenge and quality cards that add randomness to the game. It also contains a tile-based gameboard for the tabletop version. Engaging primarily young people, many of them unemployed and from rural areas, students, youth-workers, teachers, researchers and local sustainable community members and project, we also achieved the following:- 8 youth-led and designed projects for local regeneration prototyped, with 3 receiving support through a social business incubator. - 200 good practices for local and community-scale action for social, cultural, economic and ecological regeneration researched and curated- 16 Regenerative Development Goals with 170 subgoals for community-led action formulated- 201 people engaged in multiplier events - 121 people, most below 25 and many from rural or economically depressed areas, played the Game, with hundreds more playing teasers during dissemination events - 20 youth and 15 youthworkers trained as Game and Assessment Facilitators - 880 people completed an Impact Assessment - strong friendships between partner organisation as well as multiple new alliances and projects created