Sustainability Cooperation Network in the South Baltic

Project description
In the 21st century, climate change has emerged as humanity's most pressing challenge. The next generations must equip themselves with the knowledge, skills, and determination necessary to confront and resolve this critical issue. Regrettably, many individuals perceive the problem as overwhelming, leading to a rise in climate anxiety among young people worldwide (European Climate and Health Observatory, 2022).

While some youth are motivated by these concerns to engage in climate action, many others find themselves paralyzed . They struggle to see how their individual efforts can make a difference, particularly in isolation.
While many countries provide some form of sustainability education, there is a notable dearth of efforts focused on education for sustainability and action competences.

Our project aims to address this crucial gap by developing and implementing innovative educational programs that empower the youth with the knowledge and skills needed to take meaningful action in the face of the global heating crisis. By fostering a sense of agency and collective responsibility, we seek to inspire and equip the coming generations to be leaders in the fight against climate change.

The SCONE project is centered around enhancing cooperation within the South Baltic region by addressing students climate anxiety through cross-border collaboration. It aims to foster cooperation, knowledge sharing, and innovation to support innovative teaching methods and extracurricular activities. These initiatives will empower students to inspire each other and establish regional networks for tackling global climate challenges at the local and regional levels.

Key Components
Empowered Students: Students will develop enhanced capacity for cross-border cooperation by collaborating on sustainability issues. Their efforts will be showcased at sustainability camps and hackathons, encouraging active participation in addressing climate challenges.
This will be supported by:
Collaborative Pedagogics: The project recognizes the critical role of schools and teachers in creating meaningful challenges, that inspire and offer both learning and actionable potential. Teachers will play a vital role in facilitating and supporting the learning activities of young people while allowing them the freedom to develop their initiatives.
Formalized Network: The project will result in the establishment of a network of organizations with strengthened cooperation capacity. These organizations will work collectively to promote sustainability using a holistic school-wide approach.
Enhanced Teacher Capacity: Secondary school teachers and teacher training colleges will enhance their capacity for cooperation by focusing on education for sustainability as a didactical practice. This will equip them to guide and support students effectively.
Research Advancements: Researchers will strengthen their capacity by engaging in joint action research on education for sustainability, contributing valuable insights to the field.

Scaling Up:
Methodologies and best practices will be disseminated through a MOOC, that will be shared at Euroregion Baltic, the Erasmus network, secondary educational institutions, and municipal or regional bodies.

Durability:
The formalization of the network, will allow for students and teachers cooperation to continue beyond the lifetime of the project. The MOOC will be hosted on an e-learning platform at the end of the project.

The duration of the project is from 1. July 2024 – 30. June 2027

The project have 7 full partners CELF, The Teacher Training Center at University College Absalon and Region Zealand from Denmark, The Chair for Business Economics and Entrepreneurship education at University of Rostock, The Rietavas Laurynas Ivinski Gymnasium and Rietavas Tourism and Business Information Center from Lithuania and Association of Polish Municipalities Euroregion Baltic from Poland. Associated partners are Elbląg Municipality and Gdynia City.