Last week, a BEECH POWER volunteer, Laura Schubert, hosted a Citizens Engagement Activity at the Slovenia Forest Service. The CEA was a one-day workshop, focused on issues of climate change, youth activism, and European Cohesion.
The workshop, titled Beyond Borders: A Transnational Climate Activism Workshop for European Youth, was attended by 37 individuals, representing 21 organizations and groups from within Slovenia and its bordering countries (Austria, Italy, Croatia, and Hungary).
The workshop schedule was broken up into three sessions: intra-organizational capacity-building, the development of a workshop output in the form of a letter to “Our Fellow Europeans…” on the topic of climate action, and finally, a session on cross-border network building.
Time was dedicated in the final session to introducing BEECH POWER and another Interreg project Links4Soils, with the intention of providing participants with an example of cross-border collaboration in action.
The workshop was declared a success, with many participants commenting on the value of connection and the broader perspective that results from meeting likeminded peers in different organizations and countries.
The possibility of being able to host a Citizens Engagement Activity is one of the defining features of the Interreg IVY program, and certainly in this circumstance, together with the two other activities our BEECH POWER volunteers have already organised, provides individuals with the space and resources to bring their wildest ideas to fruition. The workshop had the overall aim of providing participants with a primary platform—upon which they can continue to build capacities and connections with one another; thereby allowing them to move forward with greater impact in their fight as climate actors.
