1. What’s the idea?
“Sense of the nature as a Sense of initiative – ECO entrepreneurship” is an Erasmus + Youth Mobility Project. The main objective of the project is ” provoking the sense of initiative and entrepreneurship in young people, using innovative methods, based on environmental thinking”. The exchange will bring together 35 young people from 7 different countries, who will share experience, ideas and knowledge in the wild. The specific objectives of the project are:
– constucting a model for establishing, managing and developing a sustainable environmental organization
– improving the skills and competences of young people in the sphere of entrepreneurship, innovativeness, critical thinking, making decisions, etc. needed for the “green” leader’s profile;
– raising young people’s sense of tolerance and solidarity needed for creating a social responsible environmental organization;
The project gives the opportunity target groups to discover and demonstrate their potential and sense of initiative, their entrepreneurial nature, innate talent, uniqueness, to create unification and to pass on the good practices of eco-entrepreneurship, a theme that contain a solution to two main problems: diminishing natural resources and the problem of low entrepreneurial activity and sustainability among young people.
2. How many days?
The exchange will be for 9 days, devoted on different topics:
Day 1 – Arriving and programme introduction (location: Batulia village): Each participating organization will present itself. The guest participants will be welcomed according to the Bulgarian customs. A common group game (“Secret Agent”) will be introduced that is suitable for large cohabiting groups. An initial questionnaire will be conducted.
Day 2 – Group dynamic and green team work (Location: Batulia Village): Young people will participate in games that will help bring the group together. There will also be an outdoor game (simulation) that requires combinability and spatial thinking (“Save the Captain”).
Day 3 – settlement and topic introduction (location: the mountainous part of the village of Rebrovo): After the transition to the mountain, the young people will have to assemble the camp themselves for the nights and exchange activities. The game “Masked climber” will be introduced to get to know the other. Skill games will be organized. There will be a discussion seminar introducing the topic of the project.
Day 4 – establishing a sustainable ECO organization (mountainous part of the village of Rebrovo): A discussion seminar will be organized introducing the theme of creating an eco-friendly organization in nature. A workshop will be held in which the participants will have to create their concept of a successful ECO organization. The young people will participate in group games, through which they will learn useful information about the environment and make eco-friendly decisions.
Day 5 – Improving your personal skills in the wild nature (mountainous part of the village of Rebrovo): A workshop will be held introducing the topic of the competences, skills and knowledge needed for becoming a “green” leader. Games for group decisions and teamwork will be held. Training will be organized to learn wildlife survival skills.
Day 6 – using the resources and reusing the waste (mountainous part of the village of Rebrovo): A workshop on the use of natural resources (eco-friendly lunch) will be held and group games of skill and quizzes will be held. Another workshop will be conducted for reusing the waste and turn it into useful objects.
Day 7 – critical thinking and media literacy (mountainous part of the village of Rebrovo): A discussion seminar will be conducted introducing the topic of environmental responsibility as a pro-social activity. A critical thinking workshop will be organized. Participants will be involved in racing and role-playing games
Day 8 – social inactive and reaching out to marginalized young people (Ribrovo village): In the morning, the youth will gather camp and walk to the village. Participants will then organize an eco-initiative in the village, according to a survey done by indicating the residents’ needs. Young people from the region will be invited to dinner to share their experiences.
Day 9 – Presentation, learning by the positive example and conclusion (Svoge): The participants will prepare a presentation and present the project in the municipality of Svoge. They will visit an eco organization in the area. A discussion seminar will be held summarizing the topics of the project. Opportunities for future joint initiatives will be discussed. A final poll will be held.
3. Who is coming?
Each national group will be presented by a group of 5 participants – 4 young people (age 18-29) and 1 group leader (over 18).
The profile of the participant should be a person who is adventurous, well organized, in good physical condition. There will be many outdoor activities, hiking, cooking on camping fire etc.
4. Arriving and accommodation
29 th of August will be the arrival date. By 17.00 everybody has to be arrived. Around 17.00 all participants have to meet at the central train station in Sofia (there will be orientation provided). From there participants will take the train to Rebrovo (30 min trip). From Reborovo will be organized transport to Batulia. Participants will be accommodated in a guest houses (small hotel) in Batulia (photos below). Up to three people has to share a single room.
On the second day there will be outdoor activities in the region (a relaxing area with a small river). There will one game organized – Save the captain – where participants need to find (treasure hunting) the materials need to build a small bridge. The sleep over will be at the guest House in Batulia.
The next 5 days participant will be accommodated in the mountains. The place is about 2 hours slow walking up the hill. The luggage and all needed for the camp will be transported to there, but participants need to walk that distance.
Once they arrive participants need to make simple constructions – a shelter tent, benches, tables and so. All needed materials and tools will be provided, participants will need just to assemble them using tools like hammer and so.
There will be tents provided and camping mats for about 15 people. Rest of them will be accommodated in taditional adobe houses around the camp (common space). The participants need to take sleeping bags with them.
There will be electricity in the houses and one boiler. The outdoor camp showers will be sun heated/fire heated and participants will be asked not to use big amounts of water. Drinking water will be provided.
The last 2 days the participants will be accommodated in Batulia guest house again. On the first day they need to perform an eco initiative (cleaning up a place and setting a place for relaxing with benches and so.) in Rebrovo. The participants need to organize a dinner outdoor party for the young residents of the village. On the last day there will be a presentation of the project in the municipality of Svoge. On September, 7th, participants will be supported regarding there departure matters.
6. What to bring
A sleeping bag and positive emotions.
7. Preparation activities
Each national group has to prepare :
a presentation of the partner organization and sending country (preferable in multimedia presentation in ppt format).
a presentation of national customs and traditions – interactive presentation at the Traditions Evening – evenings dedicated to the culture of one of the participating countries (includes traditional music, art, food etc).
a single module from the programme schedule – each group has to pick a single module (topic) form the programme and prepare the whole activity (for example: “Moving to Nature for a Better Organization” – Discussion seminar introducing the theme of creating an eco-friendly organization in nature. A brief lecture with a discussion will address the need and opportunities to create a sustainable and successful organization. Terms such as market analysis, marketing strategy, business plan, etc. will be introduced. Pre-made visual materials – boards, collages, etc. will be used).
8. Spreading the results
When the participants arrive they need to organize one information meeting and hand out some promotional materials (brouchures). That must be documented by photos. An article on your site, Fb and a on-line media must be published.
