Erasmus+ Youth Exchange 'NOT* for Everyone! *Needed Optimistic Treat'

In the summer of 2021, a new Youth Exchange will take place in Southern Estonia. We'll learn new things and have fun doing that with young people from 5 EU countries!

We have entered into a comfortable era - much of the products and services we use are just bank card pin entry away. Usually packaged in plastic and produced miles away, maybe even another continent, where it is cheaper to do so.

We aim to raise awareness of harm caused to ourselves and to the environment by capitalistic consumer lifestyle. More importantly we learn how to live with minimal ecological footprint. We visit several places in Estonia using environmentally friendly bicycle transport and try to live as close to zero-waste lifestyle as we can while having a good time and learning side-by-side with other participants. For example, we also eat and cook food by ourselves from local ingredients. We are also thinking more broadly and developing a social enterprise idea / design that will make life in our area more sustainable in terms of natural and environmental resources. All of that by cycling through the different locations in Southern Estonia!

Remember, the change starts with ourselves, only in that way we can make a great impact!

Objectives:

1. Learn about sustainable and zero-waste lifestyles, reducing the ecological footprint and benefits of cooking your own local raw food

2. Getting to know the concept of Eco-villages

3. Develop critical thinking through the topic of sustainable lifestyle

4. To develop entrepreneurship, to become acquainted with the principles and opportunities of sustainable social enterprise operation

5. Supporting non-formal learning by recognizing self-learning through key competences of the Youthpass certificate

6. Develop organizational and leadership skills through carrying out a variety of workshops and activities

7. Support intercultural dialogue

Erasmus+ Youth Exchange 'consPIRACY!'

Our organised youth exchange consPIRACY took place in Southern Estonia from 25.04-06.05.2019. It was funded by Erasmus+ programme.

The information spread today is combined from a variety of different media channels which are over-emotional and aren't always publishing fact-based articles or opinions. For example, it is easy to read something that person you trust has shared on social media and consider it truthful. The only way to not get caught up in false information is to develop critical thinking. We did do so during our youth exchange program by getting to know how social media is functioning and how to influence people through the internet.

Participants were young people (18-30 years old) who were interested in the media literacy topics and in information that is spread so easily through social media. There were participants from six different countries (The Netherlands, Spain, Georgia, Slovakia, Palestine, Estonia).

We analyzed different internet sources and also conspiracy theories, carried out workshops and discussions among participants and in the local community. Also, participants carried out dissemination activities back in their country after the youth exchange to share their knowledge and experience in their communities to foster critical thinking and media literacy.

Objectives:

to familiarize young people with internet marketing tricks to influence people and the principles of social media functioning

to foster media literacy ie searching for valid information on the Internet and evaluating its veracity;

get to know the basics of "The Clash of Civilizations" theory;

to analyze media sources and our societies differences through "The Clash of Civilizations" theory by Huntington;

to develop critical thinking by analyzing conspiracy theories and analyzing internet sources truthfulness;

supporting non-formal learning by recognizing self-learning through key competencies of the Youthpass certificate;

support intercultural dialogue among young people through the learning of the cultures of other participating countries.

Our organised youth exchange Oh My Sugar! took place in Southern Estonia from 24.07-04.08.2017. It was funded by Erasmus+ programme.

In Europe unhealthy eating habits and sugar overconsumption are big health risks. Many youngsters are obese and get diabetes at early age, but this could be prevented by cutting off unhealthy food and staying away from excessive sugar.

Main goal of the youth exchange “Oh My Sugar” was to make youngsters aware of the unhealthy food they are eating and the excessive sugar they consume daily. To make them think critically about their everiday decisions they make about their food and how their unhealthy decisions will affect them.

Participants were young people who were eager to learn how to be more aware about their eating habits. There were participants from six different European countries (Germany, Spain, Italy, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Estonia). Youth exchange age limit was 18-30.

During the youth exchange participants discovered the basics of healthy eating. They prepared a healthy daily menu, which was eaten in the nature, developed their group work skills and learnied about other cultures. They did visual experiments about the sugar amounts in food and drinks we consume daily. Also participants were searching for commercials from the city which they think influenced people to consume more sugars and unhealthy food. There were also workshops where they tried some alternative ways to use sugar, like making a body scrub in Estonian sauna. During the youth exchange young people also visited factories which are produceing high sugar level food and drinks. Participants saw how much unhealthy products are produced daily and realized it as a huge health risk for all. During the youth exchange participants made also videos which potentially made other youngsters aware of the amounts of sugar they consume daily and influenced them to make healthier choises through it. Video will be posted to social media to pay attention to the issue.

After the youth exchange we hope that our participants are more aware of the topic, they can think critically about food and what it consists and they can make healthier choices from then on :)