Engaging Youth in Digital Green Future 2

Published by Giannis Tsimperidis on

From Monday, the 23rd throughout Friday, the 27th of October an extensive Training Course was held in Novi Sad, Serbia about the UN 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and the European Green Deal.

The Training Course was titled Participation days and gathered twenty young participants from Spain, Greece, Lithuania, and Serbia. This TC was a part of a larger project titled “Engaging Youth in Digital Green Future” co-funded by the Erasmus+ KA3 program of the European Union.

Centre stage was given to Novi Sad to host this activity, giving way for participants to learn about the two big documents that are forging the future of Europe and the world as well as inspire them to make an impact in their local communities and on a European level, in line with the 2030 Agenda or the European Green Deal.

This Training Course was also a part of the official program of the Circular Week 2023 held live in Warsaw, Poland with numerous official activities taking place around Europe.

Each day was carefully planned out with relevant topics and excellent speakers for them.

First day introduced participants with the basics, about the 2030 Agenda and the European Green Deal as well as touching on the SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities in the context of Novi Sad, presenting through this the urban development around the Novi Sad 2022 European Capital of Culture project. Introduction to the Agenda and the Green Deal was held by Vladimir Huba Aradi, Project Coordinator at MLMDC; Final Session about the SDG 11 was held by Darko Polić, architect and urban planner and a team leader for urban planning, analysis and studies on city development at the Urban planning, Research and Development Centre “Urbanizam” Novi Sad.

Day two focused on Circular Economy, in line with the previously mentioned Green Deal (which focuses more on the energy transition) – the Circular Economy Action Plan is of vital importance for a sustainable future. This day presented young people with challenges of making a linear economy business model into a circular one. This day was led by Marco Segovia, Project Director of Circular Change, Slovenia (a non-profit organization focused on circular economy and systemic change) and is the founder of Green Heartbeat (as a consultancy for sustainability-related projects).

Third day, the group visited an impactful NGO “Vojvodina Environmental Movement” from Sremski Karlovci, and their Eco Centre. The day was about presenting participants with ways they can influence their local communities and the importance of being the bearers of change. Later that day, a field trip on a Catamaran was made, showcasing to participants the work of the NGO on the Danube Riverbanks.

Day four was about how to make an impact on the EU level, to bring a local initiative to new hights. This day brought Mrs. Violeta Bulc from Slovenia, former European Commissioner for Transport and Mr. Manuel Munteanu, Head of Press, Information and Communication Section with EU Delegation to Serbia and has 15-year experience working in the European Commission fulfilling various roles.

Mr. Munteanu presented the main pillars for EU’s functioning in the first Session. After his, Mrs. Bulc presented her time as Commissioner as well as the times she got influenced by young people for delivering new policies that impact youth. She has also presented and inspired participants to make initiatives and to look for ways they can be adopted and implemented in the wider European context.

Final day was led by Vladimira Dorčova Valtner, Editor-In-Chief of bilingual portal “Storyteller”, Maglić, Serbia. The topic of a day was about making an impact on social media; young people had a chance to learn how to create engaging content for social media about various initiatives. Living in a digital era, ideas and initiatives’ main starting point is the internet and particularly social media. Therefore, to kickstart your idea, engaging content is of vital importance.

The “Participation days” training course was organized by MINORITY & LOCAL MEDIA DEVELOPMENT CENTER (MLMDC) from Novi Sad, Serbia.

The project “Engaging Youth in a Digital Green Future” is implemented by the following organizations: DARNOJE from Lithuania, KDETYD from Greece, INERCIA DIGITAL from Spain and MLMDC from Serbia.