We Are All Made Out Of Mud (WaAMOoM) is 2 year long Capacity building project which involves 10 organization from WB region (Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro) and program countries (Croatia, France, Slovenia, Turkey, Serbia). The main topic of the project is natural building (eco building) as innovative approach to social cohesion and inclusion, gender equity, development and youth empowerment. The approach is based on natural building tecniques and different ways for engagement and learning through this practise. It also combines youth work, volunteering aspects and alraedy exisiting tools and methods for inclusion and development of skills, knowledge and attitudes. The project is consisted of 12 activities: preparation meeting in Slovenia, Training on organizing youth exchanges, volunteering teams and workcamps on natural building in Croatia, Youth exchange on gender eqitiy in Kosovo, Youth exchange on social inclusion in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2 volunteering activities in Kosovo for 4 volunteers from France, Study visit for Croatian youth workers in Kosovo, midterm evaluation meeting in Albania, Training course on volunteering in natural building in Kosovo, Local dissemination actions and Final conference in Serbia and Evaluation and follow up event in Montenegro. In international activities in total 196 participants wil be involved, out of which 102 persons with fewer opportunities. At least 150 participants will be invovled involved in local dissemination actions. Results and outcomes of the project will include creation of standards for working with youth in the field of natural building, two training curricula, one handbook and documentary video about the project. The aims of the project is to build capacity of organizations and youth workers for implementation of international and local activities on natural, through ESC, Erasmus+ and other programs, which will be inclusive, empowering, open for all, and especially encouradging for those with fewer opportunties. The project will include initial research and mapping of organizations and initiatives as well as systematic evaluation of the impact and success. Finally, the project will explore potential of natural building for different ways and methods for working with youth, local communities, international exchange, building of resilience and key competences of individuals, valorisation and recognition of nonformal education and acknoledgment of rural lifestyle and initiatives.

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.