"PROJECT OBJECTIVES1. Educational goals- strengthening and motivating ecologically responsible consumer choices - raising awareness of the connections between private economic decisions and global climate change- mastering scientific concepts helpful in discussing macro-economic models- discarding the exploitative paradigm contained in most board and computer strategic games2. Publishing goals- publishing 200 copies of the full-size board game ""The Circular Maring World""- equipping teachers, educators and youth-workers with an innovative tool of climate education- promotion of non-formal educational tools in a wide and diverse audience3. Strategic goals- strengthening cooperation of partner organizations included in the consortium- increasing the prestige of partners by publishing an attractive and original board game- transgression of board games into the territory of theater and online interactive performances- establishing cooperation with representatives of schools and public institutions4. The environmental objectives - reduce air pollution- empower responsible economy and sustainable developmentPROJECT STRUCTURE- 3 designers' meetings (TPM) aimed at constructive criticism of 3 Prototypes of the Board Game- cooperation with 160 young people committed to climate education and/or designing board games- 2-year quantitative and qualitative research on the impact of the game, influencing the modification of its rules- 1 mixed mobility of young people, the culmination of which is an interactive theater and internet game set in the story of the board game- 3 multiplier events in a XVIII century tropical setting transporting future users to the imaginary world of the Game- 160 game sets distributed to at least 80 institutions acting for climate education on the local and European levelTHE CIRCULAR MARING WORLDIn short, the idea of ​​the game is to combine high competitiveness between factions with sustainability of their economy (break with the paradigm of unlimited exploitation) and to embed local cultural values ​​into the winning-conditions of each faction (break with the paradigm of linear evolution). As a result, we obtain a model of harmony between human population and natural environment, as well as the mechanisms of maintenance and disturbance of this model. The innovativeness of the game is based on anthropological research (Roy Rappaport, ""Pigs for ancestors. Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People"", Yale University Press, 1967; AP Vayda - afterword). The plot of the game uses the economical and environmental models of indigenous people of New Guinea, described by anthropologists, found at the time of the arrival of the first settlers from Europe. The interaction between these completely alien parties forces both to abandon their negative cultural patterns (on the one hand - superstition and ritual violence, on the other - unrestrained exploitation economy) and develop a synthesis enabling survival on an island with limited space and resources.We do not want to convey to young people the imperative ""do not pollute the air"". Instead, we want to equip them with a conceptual apparatus that makes it easier to understand the mechanisms behind the fact that buying certain products locally and using certain resources causes air pollution somewhere else on the planet. As experienced educators, we believe that it is a more effective way of making a change.The first spark of the Maring World appeared in 2018 while attending anthropology classes at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The idea was kept at bay, due to limited funds and opportunities. While on another project (DiveIn Larp Project, 2019-1-PL01-KA205-063392) in Poland, 2020, the partners accidentally discovered the Maring sketches and appreciated their educational potential. This project is based on using some ideas from the past in order to create a high-quality product that would help to shape the future, thanks to joint forces of several specialists and enthusiasts from three European countries."

"<< Background >>The most general need is to fight with the climate change, and the field of fight of our choice is Education. We don't possess the capacity to impact the climate by our own hands, but we can contribute to the development of proper Climate Education on the European level, which may have positive impact on the climate itself in the long run. The last two years of activity of such movements like Fridays For Future have shown that the young generation has a great potential for the implementation of systematic changes in the climate policy on the national and European levels. Moreover, young environmental activists are more and more often taking on the role of educators themselves, teaching other people of the same age, few years younger, or even older. However, the methods which young people use for teaching can be improved by the methodologies and tools of non-formal education. This is where the Larp For Climate cooperations begins. We chose to implement the Edu-Larp Methodology to create a set of tools (Games) for transformative Climate Education.Each of the Partners of this project has started creation and implementation of Edu-Larp Methodology to Climate Education within last few years, but these were small and local initiatives. We want to boost the capacity of our previous actions, connect our strength, expertise and operating range, establish a lasting cooperation on the European level. More to that, we want to focus the attention of the European larp communities on the environmental issues and socially engaged educational games. Larp - Live Action Role Playing - Games are highly practical, emotional and transformative. We believe that they should be used not only for fun (although fun is actually what drives the players to learn), but also for the transformation of the attitudes and mobilization to act.The unique character of Larp For Climate Project lies in close participation with the young activists themselves, who will take active part in the creation of the Games. We want to break the traditional gap between older people teaching and younger people learning. This is not a new thing for us, as the decisive members of all our organizations have personally participated in various manifestations and strikes organized by high-school students (Fridays For Future, Extinction Rebellion) - and we have learned a lot from them. We also have personal access to these Movements, which will let our Games enter the society of climate activists from the inside and launch a cascade process of non-formal learning which will last and spread father than our own reaches.The educational impact of our proposed Games can be summarized into the competence of Climate Literacy. We don't want to make the player memorize particular information about the environmental issues. Instead, we want them to train the skill of critical thinking about the environmental issues and resilience to greenwashing manipulation. Later, the players will be able to judge the facts more clearly by themselves.<< Objectives >>OBJECTIVES #1. Establish long-term international cooperation between LARP-designers with environmental activists and educators, both grassroot and formalized.#2. Raise the competence of Climate Literacy among young Europeans (13-30 years old), including people with fewer opportunities and limited access to non-formal education.#3. Deliver high-quality, innovative, open-source learning agenda for Climate Education on double channel: online and in-person.#4. Empower international digital youth work and youth participation by involving young people from many countries in the online process of creating, adapting and implementing LARP games.<< Implementation >>1. Launching the work (November 2021 - December 2021)The Project will start in November 2021. We will meet online to prepare the documents and arrange the first in-person meeting - “Kick-Off” TPM #1 in December 2021. There, besides getting the management matters done, we will launch the process of creation. Each partner will share their ideas about the Environmental Edu-Larp game which they would like to develop within the Larp For Climate project. Digital tools will be arranged to enable all Partners to work together on all of the Games. 2. Creation of Environmental Edu-Larp Games (January 2022 - February 2023)The creation process will last 14 months, including 110 working days of Researchers (game-designers and environmental specialists), Technicians (graphic-designers and programmers) and Youth-workers (local educational animators and organizers of the test runs of the Games). The Researchers from partner organizations will interchange (via digital tools) between the countries, maximizing the diversity of professional design ideas and innovations for each of the Games.We will meet in-person for a Larp Seminar (LTT mobility, September 2022), in the mixed company of game-designers from our organizations and young climate activists, who will at this stage be personally engaged in the development and further implementation of the Results. The prototypes of all Games will be tested then to check what improvements should be made and how to adjust better to particular needs of young activists and educators. We will also organize local Play-Tests of all the Games, targeted to over 200 young activists and young people with social and economical difficulties (these groups are often overlapping).This phase will be concluded by another in-person meeting (TPM #2 mobility, February 2023), when the final versions of the Games will be handed to the Partnership and detailed plans of the next activities will be arranged.3. Multiplication, Implementation and Promotion of the Results (March 2023 - October 2023)Each of the 4 Games will be organized and played in-person by each of 4 Partners locally in their own country, which gives a number of 16 Events for the total of at least 240 representatives of: NGOs and teaching institutions, public institutions, universities, high-schools, environmental movements, informal groups of activists, newspapers, radios, webportals, Erasmus+ National Agencies, Youth-Salto Network and other European institutions (Multiplier Event #1-4).The same target group will also be addressed with online versions of our Games, played by at least 60 participants, probably many more (Multiplier Event #5), as well as the international dissemination conference for at least 30 carefully selected participants from other countries (Multiplier Event #6).In addition to the scheduled Multiplier Events, we will extensively promote the values and results of Larp For Climate in the social media in over 10 countries, including not only the European larp communities (approximately 40,000 followers), but also the large environmental movements, of which we are already members and regular collaborators: Extinction Rebellion (433,305 followers) and Fridays for Future International (39,943 followers).4. Launching the international cooperation (November 2023 - December 2023)In addition to wrapping up and evaluating the Larp For Climate Project, we want to go one step further into its international sustainability. Based on the extensive promotion done within the previous phase, we want to launch a cascade process of bottom-up non-formal learning, arranged by the collaboration of young climate activists and environmental movements with Edu-Larp designers, NGOs and teaching institutions. It should contribute to the fight with climate change by providing and implementing at a larger scale the in-person tools and good practices of digital youth work for raising the competence of Climate Literacy among young Europeans.<< Results >>INTELLECTUAL OUTPUTS- 4 Edu-Larp scenarios with toolkit for non-larp youth-workers, activists and educatorsIO-1 - ""The Golden Sun"" - a cognitive Edu-Larp which challenges the players to find the way out of a manipulative climate-denialist press agencyIO-2 - ""SolarPunk"" - a transformative Edu-larp travel to the world of climate justice, renewable energy and environmentally mature societyIO-3 - ""The Tragedy of Commons"" - a strategic Edu-Larp with educational twist exposing the dark side of the principle of common goodIO-4 - ""Survivors"" - a highly immersive post-apocalyptic Edu-Larp focused on experiencing the results of climate change in fictional future- The Target Groups and Transferability Standards of all the Games have been unified within the Project, in order to provide a complete set of diverse non-formal learning events for the same audience in various European countries. Target Groups: young environmental activists, youth workers and street workers, students of secondary schools, high schools and universities, young people with fewer opportunities. Transferability: all ToolKits will be available not only to download, print and play in all 4 language + English, but also to modify and adapt to local needs of other players and teaching institutions.MULTIPLIER EVENTS- 16 immersive in-person games performed for educators, activists and important stakeholders (total participants: 240)- online Edu-Larp games played for at lest 60 international participants- international conference on Environmental Larp for at least 30 participantsLARP-DESIGN SEMINAR- 20 activists, educators and game-designers will meet for 6 days to test the Games together before they reach the finalized versionsOTHER- 200 local participants will play our Games as Test-Plays, before the Multiplier Events will start- a long-term international cooperation between LARP-designers and environmental activists will be establishing, opening the door for another international cooperations for the Climate Literacy and Non-Formal Education- the Edu-Larp communities of Nordic and Southern Europe will overcome the geographic and economic obstacles and meet to exchange their skills and different cultures of game-design- the 4 relatively small Partners of this project will greatly improve their self-sustainability, local recognition, digital tools and international connections"

<< Background >>Youth workers, community animators, educators, facilitators… We are all members of a wider family of “professional dreamers”, individuals who out of personal commitment, educational background and professional expertise have devoted themselves to practice “community gardening”: planting seeds for social cohesion, applying innovative and creative tools for bringing the community together, facilitating the participatory processes in which the community nurtures those planted seeds and willingly takes responsibility to make them grow, thus becoming itself more resilient to current and future challenges. In these challenging times of the pandemic, we professional dreamers have been among the first to offer help to our communities and support, especially the most vulnerable groups, constantly finding creative solutions on how to implement activities and practices in a context where physical contact is often not possible. As we need to adapt quickly to these new circumstances and constantly show a high level of flexibility and creativity to handle the emerging needs of the community, our job has become more demanding and stressful: this especially applies to the ones among us working with the youngsters whose mental health, as shown by several compelling studies and researches, has been severely affected by the pandemic. Even as the pandemic is still ongoing, the post-pandemic recovery agenda puts down to us the responsibility to be chief supporters, when not initiators, of the process. But while trying to support others in leveraging the stress level caused by the current pandemic, we haven’t often been able to find time to take care of our own mental and emotional wellbeing, being constantly pressured by deadlines and donors’ requirements, lack of financial stability and sustainability, and everchanging daily circumstances of lockdowns and other restrictions. In these circumstances, how can we professional dreamers keep on supporting our communities and target groups in fulfilling their dreams, without nurturing our own ones?Our main target group is made of youth workers, “professional dreamers” par excellence: in order to respond to their needs, we partner organizations have designed this project whose main goals are to put under the spotlight the theme of burnout among youth workers (a “burning issue”, especially nowadays, although still underestimated), tackle it, and especially help to prevent it – prevention being more effective and sustainable on the long term than treatment.In order to achieve these goals, the project has been thought in two steps:- The first step will be to address the mental and emotional well-being among “professional dreamers”, raising awareness on the problems and issues which exacerbate their already strained working conditions, and spotlighting the need for their social and institutional recognition: indeed, a more stable recognition of youth work would provide validation not only from a practical point of view but also empowering youth workers by enhancing their capacity to deal with issues of self-commitment, active participation and addressing negative attitudes prevalent in this post-pandemic society;- The second step involves a more proactive approach, by providing a set of tools that enable proper peer support and supervision: these new resources would allow the participating organizations, and later on other organizations and groups willing to utilize this toolset, through both informal and non-formal learning on all levels, to address and prevent burnout among their members and staff.Finally, a key feature of our project is playfulness: we believe that play is a powerful tool for learning and changing, stress-relieving, highly therapeutic, providing relief and a chance to prevent burnout at its onset. By experimenting with different tools and methods that are educational but also playful, we will provide the much-needed means for releasing youth workers’ stress in the current context.<< Objectives >>The main objective of our project is to nurture self-care and prevent burnout among youth workers. Burnout, a phenomenon observed and analysed in many professional areas but so far neither thoroughly studied nor effectively tackled in youth work, is in fact one of the roots of the degradation of quality in youth work services: the fast pace and demanding schedule of work today, combined with the sudden onset of the pandemic one year ago, have put unprecedented pressure on “professional dreamers”; we are fighting (and losing, for the moment) a battle on all fronts, struggling with peer respect, financial instability and a staggering lack of support infrastructure, as we try to tackle challenges much bigger than a single person can handle, sometimes including marginalisation, radicalization and the after-effects of the refugee crisis.More specifically, this main objective can be broken up into: 1. Raise awareness on the issues concerning mental and emotional wellbeing among “professional dreamers”, primarily youth workers2. Strengthen the capacity of participating organizations in applying peer support and supervision as a means of preventing burnout among their staff3. Increase quality and innovation in youth work through the design and test of educational tools that promote mindfulness and decrease work-related stress conditions4. Exchange good practices among partners and foster international cross-sector collaboration in the field of youth and community work5. Celebrate the joy of being a “professional dreamer”, even in the time of the pandemic, thus empowering youth workers in their daily work while contributing to foster positive attitudes of self-commitment and active participation among the organizations’ target groups, firstly youngsters.These objectives meet the partner organizations’ needs and their commitment to enhance the quality of their organizational work and of the services they provide to youth in their communities, thus benefiting the wider community of youth workers and “professional dreamers” in Europe.<< Implementation >>As outlined in the programme, the project activities will be centred in four transnational project meetings, three LTT activities, and five multiplier events. Each cluster of activities corresponds to a different phase of the Dragon Dreaming methodology and leads to the production of project results, as each phase encapsulates the essence of Dragon Dreaming, focusing on the appropriate steps. The first phase, named “Dreaming”, involves sharing and discussion of experiences, dreams and plans. Its purpose is to raise awareness among the youth workers of the participant organizations concerning burnout and mental well-being, while at the same time strengthening the organizations themselves by connecting with the individual motivations of each member, as change must begin from within. Furthermore, the discussions involve the exchange of good practices as part of the preparation for the first project result, the “Spikey's Clinic for Professional Dreamers” methodology, together with the accompanying LTTA as the first clinic in which Spikey helps youth workers learn how to “dance with their dragons”. In the second phase, named “Planning,” these discussions are taken to the next level, as the results of the first LTTA will be analysed and modified, to improve upon the first project result and offer a complete working methodology. This will provide a high-quality, innovative toolset for youth work which will enhance the participant organizations’ capacity to offer youth work services, in combination with a review and dissemination of results. A further exchange of good practices will be held, with the intent to prepare for the second Spikey's clinic, but this time with a focus on testing creative tools. The second LTTA will focus on testing the contents we will use for designing the “Spikey's Adventures in Youth Work” deck of cards, our second project result.The third phase, named “Doing” focuses on the practical aspects of the “Spikey's Clinic for Professional Dreamers” methodology, analyzing its implementation, success and potential shortcomings with the goal of improving upon the second project result, the “Spikey's Adventures in Youth Work” deck of cards, which is directly based on the “Spikey's Clinic for Professional Dreamers” methodology. A third Spikey's clinic as an LTTA will happen, during which the participants will exchange good practices, get feedback on the produced video material and discuss updates on the third project result, the “Professional Dreamers” video documentary series. Finally, the fourth phase, named “Celebrating”, is a proper closure for the project, with the finalization of all three project results, a final conference and evaluation of the entire project, and a discussion for ongoing collaboration after the end. Dissemination of a digital nature is also in the plans, to raise awareness about burnout, mental and emotional well-being and the need for self-care in communities of youth workers and “professional dreamers” across Europe. Coming full circle, it is also important to utilize this final meeting and the evaluation discussions and reports to actually celebrate the results and process throughout the project, emphasising the joy of youth work and giving time and space to the new dreams of the “professional dreamers”.<< Results >>The project results are grounded in the three Intellectual Outputs that we have foreseen, as outcomes of the cross-sectorial cooperation among the organizations involved in the partnership:1) a new methodology, called “Spikey's Clinic for Professional Dreamers” for training youth workers in peer coaching, will be designed and tested. In order to learn how to deal with job-related stress, the methodology will offer practical guidance through peer coaching and a collection of stress management tools and practices from different educational areas. Spikey, a crochet dragon, will be used as the main mascot, travelling around Europe and helping youth workers share their worries and obstacles in youth work. Peer coaching scenarios will be produced as a ready-made tool.2) the “Spikey's Adventures in Youth Work” card deck will be designed. This deck of cards is thought as a self-care tool in itself, aimed specifically for youth workers: in times of stress, a youth worker can draw a card and, by following the instructions on it combined with beautiful illustrations, perform specific mindfulness-inducing and stress-relieving activities based on the aforementioned methodology.3) the “Professional Dreamers” educational video documentary series will follow all 4 stages of Dragon Dreaming in youth work – from dreaming and planning to doing and finally celebrating. Through case study and practical example, they will teach youth workers how to “dance with their dragons” and what they can do to prevent burnout.From inward to outward, the outcomes of the project are designed as three concentric circles creating a ripple effect, to maximize the effectiveness of the development process: the inner circle consists of each participating organization, with a middle circle comprising of their cooperation and the final, outer circle being the youth-workers community at large.By participating in this project, the partner organisations hope to acquire further know-how not only in their field of expertise but also in other methodologies, with an aim of developing in the future holistic, integrated approaches for cross-disciplinary good practices. Moreover, the overall quality of their youth work will be enhanced and their ability to deal with job-related stress will be increased, based on the improved competences of their staff – a process that will be self-assessed, recognized and certificated in the Youthpass.Through our cross-sectoral cooperation in the field of youth among a diverse range of organisations from the public and private sector, we will firstly review and assess the sets of good practices already used in youth work, in order to better understand and implement them, and then, based on these theoretical foundations, establish new educational tools and methods that will nurture self-care and prevent burnout among youth workers. One additional capacity which will be improved upon is our networking and ability to cooperate with other organizations active in the fields of youth work and education, especially on an international level: from this point of view, the Partnership Agreement that will be signed by the participating organizations is a framework open to future collaborations, also in order to ensure the sustainability of the project.Last but not least, for the wider youth workers’ community (directly, in the case of the participants in our activities, and indirectly for the ones reached by the dissemination of our project results), the project will contribute to: raise knowledge related to the themes of self-awareness, resilience and adaptability; develop skills in stress management, space and time management, and human resources management; enhance and empower attitudes of openness, empathy, gratitude, appreciation and honesty.

The core aim of YOUNGETEERS is to empower organisations working with volunteers on some of the greatest cultural programmes in Europe. YOUNGETEERS will create vibrant, innovative and long-term cooperation among young people and cultural workers, raise the quality of local youth work and promote the importance of volunteering in culture. The project will build foundations for the recognition of knowledge, skills and competences young people gain through volunteering in culture and informal and non-formal learning processes related to it and advocate for more structural support in order to build quality volunteer programmes and ensure their sustainability in a local, national, and European level.COVID-19 crisis paralysed cultural and creative sectors and created an even greater disparity between cultural events and those who benefit from them. In addition, many of the existing volunteer programmes in culture were not able to maintain their regular activities, which meant that in situations where volunteers could have been of great help for the whole community, their hands were tied since the resources were limited or physical involvement restricted by governments’ strict regulations. YOUNGETEERS results from these global challenges and builds its foundations on current young people's needs, as the newest studies report that their mental health deteriorated the most during the pandemic. This partnership emerged from the informal ECoC volunteer coordinators network, reinforced by 3 additional partners whose skills in crisis management, mental health and personal development were the missing links ECoC volunteer coordinators needed for finding ways of successfully managing volunteers during the crisis. The project is in line with the priorities reflected in the EU Youth Strategy regarding voluntary activities and is built upon European Youth Goals.With a focus on cross-sectoral cooperation in the field of youth and emphasis on the pandemic context and its effects on cultural and creative sectors, the partners from 7 countries have joined their expertise in order to find innovative solutions that could help build the resilience of volunteer programmes in culture and use volunteering in culture as a means of empowering young people to become creators of cultural activities and successful innovators in their local environment.During 24 months, the partners will design and test innovative educational tools and methods based on the needs of young volunteers and youth workers, which will strengthen participating organizations and improve their capacity for working with the volunteers and training other youth workers for developing high-quality sustainable volunteer programmes resilient to crises. A manual with a detailed description of the methodology used in this project will be published, together with examples of good practices and the lessons learned from COVID-19 crisis. The aim of the manual is to provide assistance to all organisations, institutions and non-formal groups that work with the volunteers in culture and to guide them in creating volunteer programmes resilient to crisis. The main target groups are young people aged 17 to 27, volunteers, youth workers, volunteer staff and staff from cultural and creative sectors. The main results of the project are to create:- the new methodology for training youth workers to manage volunteers in culture in times of crisis - the new methodology for training young people to volunteer in culture in times of crisis - the manual for volunteer management in culture in times of crisis The expected impact is to strengthen volunteer programmes in culture and prepare volunteer staff and volunteers to better respond to current and future pandemical and post-pandemical circumstances while using the lessons learnt from COVID-19 crisis. YOUNGETEERS intends to have a multiplying effect by connecting to different activities of the participating organizations and spreading project results to a wide range of stakeholders. Sustainability of YOUNGETEERS is ensured by engaging the local community in the activities, as well as through dissemination strategies, that would put a large focus on volunteer coordinators of former, current and future European Capitals of Culture, who manage some of the biggest volunteer programmes in Europe, with thousands of volunteers assisting in the cultural events.