The aim of the project is to create a mobility scheme, labelled W_UP Tour, to support young people and non-profit organisations to develop entrepreneurial activities on waste upcycling both in Europe and in Asia. These mobilities will be defined as a mixture of raising awareness tours and change-making actions organised by 3 European and 3 Asian non-profit organisations working on the field, with the purpose of: offering quality-learning experiences to international participants; raising awareness at international and local level on waste issues; financially support non-profit organisations and local communities through social entrepreneurship; help the local community to manage better manage the waste. The need to promote a new mobility model specifically on “waste upcycling” steam from a common interest expressed by all partners that have noticed increasing environmental concerns at local and national level due to the lack of proper waste collection and treatment facilities. By valuing the know-how of the partners involved, the project aims to enhance the organisations’ competencies to host and implement change-making experiences on waste upcycling with common quality standards, and to develop an innovative sustainable entrepreneurial concept, based on non-formal education principles, to make positive impact in local communities. The idea of this new mobility format comes from the experience of the VolunTour in Asia and the Change-making Tour in Latin America: the most enriching part of these mobilities, according to the partners, was visiting other non profit organisations, working on a specific change-making topic, and mobilising local people to impact in their social contexts. The W_UP tour will be implemented in each partner country and it will involve between 10 and 15 foreign participants travelling with 5 to 6 youth workers from the consortium. The Tour will last 14 days and will be focused on waste upcycling for entrepreneurial activities. During the trip the participants will discover the local context on waste management together with local community and stakeholders dealing with it, like experts, local NGOs, public institutions and local people, to perform educational activities with young people, campaigns and workshops on waste upcycling. In the last days of the W_UP Tour a dissemination event with local authorities and relevant stakeholders will be organized to present the outcomes of the mobility and raise awareness in the local communities. After each W_UP Tour, there will be a local workshop on waste upcycling run by each partner organisation with the help of a local expert. The workshop will foster active participation of the local community and will contribute to help local people look for innovative solutions on waste management in their own social contexts.

The main aim of this project is to develop a new mobility scheme, fully organised and implemented by NGOs and local communities in Latin America (LatAm from now on). These mobilities are defined “Change Making Tours” (CMT from now on): a mixture of cultural awareness tours and change-making actions organized by local NGOs, with the purpose of offering quality-learning experiences to international participants, raise awareness at international and local level on local issues and financially support NGOs and local communities through social entrepreneurship.CMT will provide LatAm partners with a tool to finance their activities, help the local community and raise awareness on the Change-making Chosen Topics (CMCTs from now on) that are more relevant to their communities according to their needs analysis.