Ende August startet die erste Reise des Jugendbegegnungsprojekt Media4you im Libanon.
After several virtual meetings, the DIYverse project was officially launched with a kick-off meeting in Mannheim. Two representatives of each of the four participating partner organisations (Non Dalla Guerra - Italy, Petrklíc help - Czech Republic, UDRUGA ZA EKONOMIJU ZAJEDNISTVA - Croatia and Starkmacher e.V. - Germany) met over three days to concretise the first steps of the project organisation.
After an instructive and exciting MAREA training in Italy, the MAREA meeting took place from 04.04. - 07.04.2022. The project leaders of the five MAREA partner organisations used the proximity to the training to work through open questions that arose during the training. The question from the previous meeting in Croatia, how the later project results can be consolidated and integrated into rural tourism, was also taken up again and further concretised.
From 29.03. - 04.04.2022, the five partner organisations from Germany, Italy, Croatia, Belgium and Norway of the MAREA project met for a joint training. Hosted by the Italian partner Associazione Veraterra, the participants learned more about rural tourism, landscape architecture and sustainable agriculture through local encounters, various work sessions and by visiting several potential learning sites and got to know the local structures.
At the beginning of March 2022, Stephan Wolf from Starkmachern was on a project support trip to Goma (DR Congo) to assess the progress of the project and to discuss and plan further action with the local partners.
The fourth Future of Fair Finance event took place on 25 May 2021 online from Mannheim as a side event of the European Social Economy Summit. Under the title "Financing Affordable Housing and Climate Protection", innovative financing models in Europe were presented that reconcile climate protection in residential buildings and affordable housing. Numerous experts from Europe and the Rhine-Neckar region were present, resulting in a cross-regional exchange. The entire event was moderated by the organisers Markus Duscha (Fair Finance Institute) and Christian Röser (Starkmacher e. V.).
On 23 October 2021, a STRONG Sports Day took place in Heidelberg for the first time. Under the motto "Fairness rules", 17 young people from the region and five coaches from our STARKamSTART team spent the afternoon together. Getting to know each other, trying out small sports games, reflecting on them, changing and expanding them and playing the "new" games were on the programme. It was wonderful to see how individual young people, a very heterogeneous and inclusive group, became a functioning team. Playing fair, the young people learned, means much more than playing to win. Playing fair means giving everyone the opportunity to participate in the game together - with their own individual strengths and weaknesses. The feedback from the young people was positive and we coaches were also satisfied with the sports day - so we are looking forward to more sports days with YOU!
In the week from 4 October to 10 October 2021, 16 young people met in Mannheim and Cape Town at the same time to explore global connections, to experience international and local encounters and to develop strategies for multiplying sustainable ways of life. In the joint online exchange with the nine young people from South Africa, the Ubuntu philosophy was of great importance: the experience of being part of the whole. In an intensive week, the participants dealt with the SDGs - with a special focus on SDG 8 "Decent work and economic growth." In addition to various local discussions, actions and excursions around the topic, the daily digital meeting with the participants from Cape Town was an enriching and connective opportunity to engage in an international exchange. Their own ideas on the topic were also exchanged and further developed, divided into two smaller international groups.
On 4 November, the International Day against Violence and (Cyber)bullying in Schools, proclaimed by the UNESCO Commission, the project leaders of Starkmacher and Caritas Jordan were able to publicly present the project to promote non-violent conflict management and participation in Jordanian schools. The Jordanian Minister of Education was the patron of the project presentation.
After an instructive and exciting MAREA training in Croatia, the MAREA meeting took place from 22.10. - 24.10.2021. The project leaders of the five MAREA partner organisations used the proximity to the training to work through open questions that arose during the training. First and foremost, the question of how the later project results can be consolidated and integrated into rural tourism was addressed. In the MAREA training, potential learning sites were visited and concrete training contents were presented. Based on this, concrete ideas were collected in the meeting, resources and stakeholders were identified and contents were discussed in order to adapt the training formats to the requirements of rural tourism. Pilot courses were worked on together and it was decided to implement them in each country with the target group in order to gain further and comparable insights.
From 18.10. - 22.10.2021 the five partner organisations from Germany, Italy, Croatia, Belgium and Norway of the MAREA project met for a joint training. As guests of the Croatian partner, the participants learned more about sustainable agriculture and architecture, biodynamics and eco-tourism through local encounters, various work sessions and by visiting several potential learning sites and got to know the local structures.
Resolving conflicts without violence, mediating disputes, resolving bullying situations and practising democratic participation - the project "Promoting non-violent conflict management" aims to implement these skills in ten Jordanian schools, for which Starkmacher is working together with Caritas Jordan. The project is financed by the Federal Foreign Office and supported by the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (IfA).
In Easter week 2021, from 06-09 April, 20 young people looking for guidance on green career opportunities met in a digital work camp around upcycling, environmentally friendly production, fair fashion and zero waste: in short, around sustainable consumption. As the meeting was digital, all participants had received a wonder box with all kinds of whimsical material. From personal experiences about the SDGs to experts from the fashion industry and recyclables industry, everything was on offer.
In the project, the young people are taught basic skills with which they can better find their way in their environment. Through direct cooperation with the municipalities, mutual understanding is also promoted and opportunities for local participation are addressed. The following contents, among others, are part of the MOVE project offer: exploring the place of residence, finding out about municipal facilities, understanding municipal tasks, coming into contact with people, exploring possibilities for leisure activities, getting to know internships and apprenticeships, recognising opportunities for participation.
Together with the South African partner organisation Amava Oluntu, Starkmacher supports young people in taking challenges into their own hands and in working for a just society. Educational projects with a focus on employability and peace work are implemented in Vrygrond, a particularly resource-poor area in the Cape Town region.
From 23.11.-26.11.2020, the first digital Grünblick work camp on the topic of "Sustainable Business and Finance" took place for a group of 10 people. The aim of the week was to get guidance in choosing green and sustainable careers in the field of business and finance. Well-known speakers were invited for the days, who gave the participants an understanding of the occupational field with practical examples. In terms of content, the young people mainly dealt with new approaches to sustainable management, the topic of sustainability in European financial policy and the future of the world of business and finance.
In the week of 25.10.-31.10.2020, the third work camp on the topic of "sustainable water management" took place in Rastatt in the Black Forest for a small group of participants aged 16-25. The aim of the week was to get orientation for green and sustainable job opportunities. In order to make the occupational field of water as tangible as possible, the participants were allowed to build their own traditional wooden boat together with one of the last wooden boat builders on the Rhine. The wooden boat was launched at the end of the week so that the participants had the opportunity to experience the self-built boat in action.
The year 2020 was a real test for all of us and a difficult time for many of us. But especially in difficult phases, it is important to stick together to make the best of the respective situation. With the "Strong Advent Calendar", we want to do just that by using the pre-Christmas period to create a positive mood. We want to show what is possible together, what we can achieve together.
We start the autumn with an initiative that comes from the pens of our participants in the digital theatre and engagement project ZipZapZoom. The "Speedtalking in the Block" on 25 September was aimed at the neighbourhood in Edingen-Neckarhausen. In principle set up like speed dating, speedtalking gave two people a few minutes to talk to each other, then the partner was swapped at the sound of a gong.
In the week of 11.10-18.10.2020, 8 youths and young adults between 16-25 years of age took part in the second work camp in the framework of the vocational orientation project Grünblick on the occupational field of renewable energies in the northern Black Forest. The aim of the week was to get orientation for green and sustainable job opportunities. In order to make the occupational field of renewable energies tangible, the young people built their own 10-metre-high wooden wind turbine. The wooden wind turbine was set up at the end of the week and connected to an energy learning station.
In the week of 31.08 - 6.09.2020, the first of 23 Grünblick Workcamps on the occupational field "City & Municipality - Sustainable Coexistence of Tomorrow" took place in Seewald in the Northern Black Forest for 9 participants between 16-25 years. The aim of the week was to get orientation for the choice of green and sustainable professions. In workshops, group work and meetings, the young people got to know the eco-village Schernbach of the Sonnenwald community and the Academy for Applied Good Living as an example of sustainable coexistence for tomorrow.
Spreading hope and optimism, promoting European values - this motivated the young musicians from NRW (Dominik Maxelon, Tarik Mujadzic, Katharina Schedlinksi, Atem Morfaw, David Janßen and Johann Janßen) as well as the musician Judy Bailey with her husband Patrick Depuhl to a live show on the evening of 26 August.
In November 2019, 21 youth from the Danube region came together in Krizevci, Croatia, to find out more about waste reduction. It was an interactive and intercultural week full of new input, workshops and activities in the centre ‚Mariapoli Faro‘. The participants from Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Croatia and Germany were also raising awareness on Zero Waste practices in a public creative workshop day.
Six partners from five European countries have joined forces to develop a training concept to train young people to become influencers for European values. In Mannheim they met for a test training for future Youtuber and Instagramer.
In February 2019, 22 participants from four countries of the Danube region met in Bad Urach and Stuttgart for an interactive and international seminar on waste prevention. A highlight of the week was when the Ukrainians, Romanians, Serbs and Germans motivated the public at Schlossplatz, Stuttgart, to deal creatively with the issue of waste prevention.
16 young adults from Germany and South Africa came together in Berlin from 23.8. until 6.9.2018. It was the second meeting of the project "YoUbuntu", that trains young multipliers in the field of sustainability and youth entrepreneurship.
In March, young people from different parts of the world came together in South Africa for the last phase of the project "StartUpcycling" - an initiative on job opportunities for young people in the field of environmental protection, upcycling and sustainability.
25 young coffee fans from different countries among them also particpants from Honduras, Philippines and Paraguay, have been together for one week of professional training in the coffee business at Mannheim. In this context coffee expert Andrej Godina presented even his new book "Barista in a Book".
At the beginning of March 2018, 25 participants from Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine and Germany participated in the project "FutureLab" in Mannheim and Stuttgart. In this last stage, they took stock of their previous connections, looked beyond their own network and made plans for a future of good networks.
From 28th October to 2nd November Starkmacher has co-organized and participated in the international ‘Host-Spot’- conference on Conflicts and Peace, Human Rights, Intercultural Dialogue and Migration and Integration in Alexandria, Egypt. 22 participants from nine different European and Middle-Eastern countries came together to exchange their personal experiences regarding migration.
From November 6th to 12th, a German-Turkish meeting took place in Berlin. 10 young people from Germany and 10 from Turkey met in the project “GreenUp Bridges” and got an insight into the green professional world, especially in green start-ups. Together with its partner 'Konya Metropolitan Municipality Kilicarslan Youth Center' from Turkey, this week aimed at informing young adults about the basics of green entrepreneurship and sustainability.
A group of young Europeans went to visit two southamerican countries in October 2017. The coffee industry in Honduras and El Salvador developped quite remarkably regarding agricultural and production methods. These countries are on their way to become important commercial partners on the global market and have the chance even to improve their own living, educational and working conditions. To get a better idea of the actual situation of the coffee cooperatives and to analyse and discuss possibilities of cooperation and support a small group visited some of these cooperatives.
Three organisations have invited more than 100 young people from 25 countries to join a "Youth World Peace Camp" in the city of Madaba in Jordan. They spent one week in containers that before had been used as accomodations for refugees. They learned about the life and stories of refugees, worked together in different creative and crafts projects and discovered many possibilities to understand the feelings and needs of these people. For the conclusion they all moved to the American University of Madaba to join the internationale "Youth World Peace Forum" and met with 1000 young people form all over the world.
The entrepreneurial meeting of the international initiative „Economy of Communion“ in May earlier this year really initiated a powerful boost for the German community. As one of the hosts, the Starkmacher actively helped to organize and shape the meeting.
The NEST workshops in Budapest and Luxembourg taught participants to structure, organize and design projects for supra-regional institutions to possibly fund for completion. Representatives from 9 organizations met for a training workshop in September and November 2017 in Budapest and Luxembourg. The participants came from Italy, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Czech Republik and Luxembourg.
The chosen representatives of Starkmacher e.V., Viki Bock and Yannik Seelmann, took part in an international Media-Project „Breaking Rays“ close to Rome in July 2017. Twenty-two youngsters from all over the world came together to participate in a professional training regarding communication, audiovisual production and storytelling.
From the 21st to the 25th of August, 25 young people from Serbia, Bulgaria, Germany, Ukraine and Croatia met in Krizevzi, a small town 1h north of Zagreb. "One world. One Future! ": following this motto, the group was discussing and developing ideas of how to shape the world sustainably for a bright future.
The Host Spot project promotes the intercultural youth projects on the theme of migration. For this purpose several partner organizations work together and met for a seminar at Bad Urach in Germany.
From 11 to 19 February, the seven partners of the project "StartUpcycling" met in Berlin. During the first meeting, various upcycling methods were presented and the principles of waste management in the individual partner countries were described. The week showed how much know-how the partners can offer: from experiences in the sector of awareness raising on waste prevention to knowledge about upcycling design and entrepreneurship, as well as expertise in waste research.
20°15'18 ''S, 47°28'41''W. It is Brazil, the green lung of the world, hosting this time the Umami Coffee Camp in cooperation with Starkmacher e.V., German NGO and 6 other organizations, with a total of seven different participating countries.
55 young people from different countries of the world have spent 12 days in Jordan in August this year. They came from Europe, the Middle East, three were from USA, Argentina and New Zealand.
