GREEN UP - youth for green change... Elbląg, 18-19.10.2022

A project entitled "GREEN UP - Youth for green change in schools and communities" has been launched in Elblag's Old Town Hall during two-days confeence.
This valuable initiative is the result of months of work by a project team headed by the WAMA-COOP Association in partnership with the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic, Elblag Technology Park and FONIX A.S. partner from Norway. Such a strong combination of entities can give a lot of good - knowledge, diagnosis, solutions where it is most needed, at the level of local government, province, schools and residents. The project involves 3 local government units and 9 educational institutions and their work will be on pro-environmental measures.

The conference on the first day was attended by representatives of local governments and schools of Dzierzgon, Braniewo, Elbląg, Gietrzwałd, Olsztynek, Nowe Miasto Elbląskie and a strong representation of the Marshal's Office of the Warmia Mazury Voivodeship. Our distinguished guests were welcomed by the host of the city of Elblag in the person of Deputy Mayor Mr. Artur Zielinski and also by the President of WAMA-COOP, Mr. Dariusz Węgierski.

Project leader and also coordinator of this project, Mateusz Dobkowski of WAMA-COOP presented key issues and steps to achieve the goal, which is to actually solve problems in the field of green and blue growth, which should start with the young but already aware generation. The pro-environmental activities of the GREEN UP project will be aimed at: involvement of various communities; internationalization of activities to learn best practices; participation of schools in living laboratories for pro-environmental education; creation of new solutions; creation of a regional platform for cooperation and multi-stakeholder dialogue for the benefit of local communities and environmental protection; development of a long-term ecological strategy.

At the meeting, very relevant information resounded, which concerned the acquisition of specific knowledge and experience, which in the context of the future of youth showed topics worth pursuing. An example of which was a presentation by the Mayor of Olsztynek, Mr. Robert Waraksa on youth initiatives as a stimulation of social development of municipalities. The GREEN UP project is also an opportunity to get to know the communities of Youth Councils operating in municipalities as a support for those newly created.

In this project, schoolchildren with the support of relevant educators will expand their knowledge of climate change. - With this project we are also part of the European Commission's recognition of 2022 as the European Year of Youth," said Marcin Żuchowski, Director of the Secretariat of the Association of Polish Municipalities Euroregion Baltic. In his presentation, he also mentioned the European Youth Goals, which are contained in the slogan "engage, connect, empower," as it is necessary to meet all these elements.

The conference is not just about presentations and gaining theoretical knowledge. There was time for concrete knowledge during the workshops, which showed the process of climate change in an innovative way. The workshop titled Climate Mosaic was conducted by representatives of the Gdansk University of Technology, Prof. Magdalena Gajewska, and Magda Kasprzyk, Dr Eng.

The second day of the conference was mainly a partner meeting, which was devoted to discussing the tasks for the upcoming period of each partner.

What lies ahead in the GREEN UP project:

1. Diagnostic meetings in municipalities
2. Methodological meetings in schools
3. Local study visits to green economy entities
4. Interactive environmental education workshops entitled SferaLab - conducted by ETP
5. Innovative international workshops in Norway
6. Development of youth initiatives - roundtables
7. Public hearings and presentation of the Book of Good Practices
8. Final conference

We would like to thank everyone who came to the GREEN UP kick-off conference!