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Natural Change Outdoor Education – Turning Personal Transformation into Social Action, Leadership and Sustainability
Start date: Jun 1, 2015, End date: Nov 30, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The main activity of this youth mobility project was a training course for youth workers and community facilitators on an innovative non-formal educational method fostering personal transformation and leadership for sustainability. The 7-day course was held in September, 2015 in Hungary in the Mecsek Mountain, in the small village of Kisújbánya and in the surrounding forests. 22 participants from 7 countries (Hungary, UK, Spain, Romania, Italy, Czech Republic, Liechtenstein) participated in the course, educators, facilitators active in non-formal education and in youth work. They learnt methods to engage young people in meaningful outdoor activities which promote health, personal development and provide a holistic approach to learning for sustainability. The methodology was based on the Natural Change project, pioneered in the UK. Each of the planned training activities contributed to the 4 limbs of the methodology: personal development of participants, increased knowledge of sustainability issues, increased sense of leadership, action for sustainability, and on the „meta-level”: how to apply the experiences’ methodologies. Time was also given to exploring the theoretical basis of the Natural Change, which draws from the disciplines of developmental outdoor education, psychotherapy and deep ecology. The project answered the need to involve innovative and integrative educational approaches and methods which foster leadership and action, to increase entrepreneurship and innovation and to increase the European dimension in non-formal education and youth work for sustainability. It increased initiative, employability and social entrepreneurship and the personal development of participants, created a cross-cultural community of peer youth workers and facilitators in transformative learning for sustainability, increased the motivation and capacity for entrepreneurship and innovation amongst young people, and introduced innovative non-formal educational methods in environmental/outdoor youth work and youth work for sustainability. On an organisational level it helped capacity building and professional development of the partner organisations.
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