Among many problems faced by young people, two seem particularly pressing: unemployment and climate change.

According to Eurostat, youth unemployment is a problem in most EU countries, especially in those most affected by the 2008 crisis. 20.9% of people aged 25-29 in the EU did not have a job, education or active training opportunities.

On the other hand, the EU has a long-standing commitment to international efforts to combat climate change, but according to the Off Target Climate Action Network study, no EU country is making sufficient progress in meeting the requirements of the Paris Agreement. The efficiency of Spain and Hungary in achieving these goals is assessed as insufficient, and that of Poland – very poor.

Our 3 organizations decided to implement the PermaCOOLtura project to counter both problems with 2 main solutions: entrepreneurship and permaculture.

Permaculture is a discipline of designing a sustainable environment in all its dimensions: social, economic and ecological, based on 3 ethics:

-Taking care of the Earth
-Taking care of the people
-Sharing the surplus

This field is still quite little known in Poland, and in particular in our Świętokrzyskie Province: according to https://mapa.permakultura.edu.pl/ and our own research and observations, we do not have any projects related to permaculture in our region, there are no also training or even volunteering related to this topic. We want to fill this gap by training our youth workers and offering free PermaCOOLtura workshops to young people from Świętokrzyskie Province.

On the other hand, according to the Ngo.pl portal, “green entrepreneurship” is an opportunity to build a competitive advantage for social enterprises, and create an offer based on ecological solutions that are still not very popular in our country, but whose popularity will certainly increase.

Our project fits this idea through the following Goals (the corresponding specific goals, actions and results are described in the next question) and Target Groups:

C1: Increasing the knowledge of permaculture, entrepreneurship and initiatives to combat climate change among project participants, youth workers from our organizations.
GD: Youth trainers working with young people in our organizations on a daily basis.
C2: Increasing the awareness of youth workers about the use of permaculture in work on youth entrepreneurship by means of new teaching materials.
GD: Third Sector and other entities involved in working with young people from outside the Partnership.
C3: Increasing the awareness of young people on the use of permaculture in work on entrepreneurship.
GD: The young people we work with.

Our project will bring together the best practices in the field of permaculture and entrepreneurship so that young people can use them in any field. We will enable participants from Poland, Hungary and Spain to test their ideas in practice, we will also help them in developing new socially engaged projects within the permaculture model, bypassing traditional management models. The project is expected to contribute to youth and youth workers acquiring skills necessary for entrepreneurial activity, such as:

-Improvement of knowledge and skills in creating sustainable projects.
-Improvement of interpersonal relations.
-Improvement of work in a team.
-Boost in problem-solving and decision-making skills.
-Preparation to enter the labor market.
-Improvement of innovation skills.
-Acquiring public speaking and leadership skills.
-Motivation, self-esteem.

* Preparatory phase:

After approval of the project, we will notify our partners and start coordinating work. We will send the partners an internal agreement. It will include a work plan, division of tasks, responsibilities of each party, deadlines, indicators for each result and all documentation necessary for reporting.

We will start monitoring activities and a dissemination campaign, and we will carry out the activities indicated in the “Project management” and “Dissemination” sections.

We will start recruiting participants according to the process defined in the “Participants” section.
During the project, we will carry out the following international activities. An entity based in the country where the international activity takes place will be responsible for the preparatory activities:

• 1st international meeting in Spain (kick-off): PASOS
• 2nd international meeting in Hungary (intermediate): FK
• 3rd international meeting in Poland (final): OSO
• Study visit in Poland: OSO
• Course in Spain: PASOS

* Preparatory activities for international activities:

Each organization will be responsible for the following tasks:

-Tickets: Each entity will be responsible for managing the booking of participants’ tickets.

-Insurance: Each organization will issue travel insurance for each participant and ask participants to obtain an EHIC.

-Linguistic preparation: With the help of the Europass CV with the language evaluation part, we will analyze the level of English of each participant to see if anyone needs additional help before the class.

-Pedagogical preparation: We will carry out the following activities:

Preparatory meetings: the project coordinator of each organization will organize the necessary meetings with the participants to prepare them for the performance of the tasks.

* The entity in whose country the activity will take place, as the receiving organization, will be responsible for:

-Support: The hosting organization will provide participants with infopacks, answer all participants’ questions and provide the support necessary to fully participate in the activities.

-Accommodation: The hosting organization will search and reserve accommodation with mobility facilities for people with special needs.

-Kitchen service: The receiving organization will be responsible for arranging breakfast, lunch and dinner. Prior to the arrival of participants, they will be asked about their special needs and allergies in order to adjust the menu if necessary.

– Safety and security measures: The receiving organization shall establish safety measures to avoid any accident:

First aid kit and vehicle available 24/7 for emergency transport.
Staff trained in first aid
A clear evacuation program
Identification of areas or components that may be dangerous, as well as emergency exits.

Prior to arrival, participants will be asked for information about their health issues, as well as for an emergency contact telephone number. This information will be shared with all trainers as well as accommodation staff.

-Transport management: before the participants arrive in the country of operation, the hosting organization will provide the other organizations with an information package which will include the best options for travelling to the site.

In order to avoid the transmission of COVID-19, preventive measures during mobility will also be taken into account, which will be adapted to the updated government recommendations.

There will be 3 international meetings (2 days each) with 2 coordinators (project and dissemination) of each entity.

One coordinator will be responsible for tasks related to management, logistics, accommodation, budget, quality control etc. The other coordinator will be primarily responsible for carrying out an effective promotional campaign for the project. Both coordinators play an important role in the proper implementation of the project and its activities, and in creating greater impact.

The international meetings will be held according to the following schedule:

1. International meeting (Kick-Off)

The first meeting will be held in Spain at the end of November 2021. Our organizations will review the evaluation of the project proposal, work plan, division of tasks and assigned deadlines.
The approved budget will also be explained. The meeting will mark the official start of the project and the preparatory phase. The 2nd stage of the selection process will also be discussed. In addition, organizations will be able to get to know the place where the course will be held in Spain.

2. International meeting (Intermediate)

At the end of September 2022, an intermediate transnational meeting will be held in Hungary in the middle of the project. The purpose of this meeting will be to conduct an assessment of the learning and skills phase. Activities such as dissemination, organization, preparation of reports, available budget, etc. will also be discussed. We will prepare a SWOT matrix, detailing the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the project. A SWOT analysis will be particularly useful for adjusting the dissemination strategy, taking into account all the key elements affecting the design and evaluation of the indicator analysis so far. The information obtained during the meeting will also be used to learn about the preliminary results of the project and to discuss the stages of the second half of the project.

3. International Meeting (Final)

The last meeting will be held in Poland at the end of May 2023. Its purpose will be to conduct a final evaluation of the project, prepare for a Final Report, analyze indicators and impact, and disseminate and engage stakeholders. The following topics will also be analyzed: execution of the individual phases of the project, objectives and results achieved, problems encountered and solutions found, level of satisfaction and learning achieved by participants reflected in their individual assessments, etc. The meeting will take place 1 month before the end of the project, which will help us ensure that it is properly closed. We will also identify opportunities for cooperation and development of new sustainable projects between partners in the near future, and thoroughly discuss the follow-up workshops, their plan and the project’s Follow up program to ensure the best possible sustainability. We will also identify thematically related events, fairs, media and other educational events, where we could further promote and use the methods of working with young people developed in the PermaCOOLtura project.

• C1

The main goals are to:
– Better understand the method of social inclusion of people with disabilities through climate change actions and best practices in non-formal and informal education provided by OSOs to empower young people, especially those belonging to disadvantaged groups
-Understand the intergenerational aspect and how older people can contribute to climate change efforts
-Visit local initiatives dealing with entrepreneurship and sustainable development and climate change

• C2

The main aim of the course will be to transfer the best PASOS and FK practices. In addition, the course will be organized in Spain as the organization has created an ecological village based on the principles of permaculture, which we will visit, and the presentation of best practices by FK during longer mobility in Spain will allow us to save costs, including environmental costs, for an additional trip to Hungary.

We will create an interactive book.

1. Fresh look
Comprehensive and free materials on permaculture based entrepreneurship for Third Sector youth workers are not widely available, especially in the mother tongue of our partnership. We want to fill this gap.

2. Digitization of work

One of the priorities of Erasmus +, as well as of the 6 priorities of the European Commission for 2019-24, is the digital strategy ensuring technological education. All our Deliverable is planned in a bimodal form: it will cover both offline and online working methods, thus adapting to the requirements of remote work.

3.Additional audiobook format

In addition, Deliverable will also have an audiobook format: according to the BBC and Deloitte (2020) report, audiobook markets and demand are growing much faster than the media market in general.

4.Financing

According to the data presented earlier in the question about the context, financial issues are seen as the biggest barrier to entrepreneurship by most people. Therefore, we will discuss this aspect and include in Deliverable a kind of “database” of methods of financing initiatives.

5.Emotional and social aspect of entrepreneurship

Talking about motivation, stress, social inclusion, etc.

• Multiplier Event 1: Poland
• Multiplier Event 2: Spain
• Multiplier Event 3: UK

Objectives:

– introducing the Erasmus+ context,
-description of our PermaCOOLtura project
– Deliverable change, creation process, free access, consultation period, etc.
– arousing interest in the subject of sustainable entrepreneurship among the newcomers,
-collecting initial commitments to implement Deliverable methods,
-networking,
-strengthening the ability to organize promotional events, etc.