40th YEU Convention “Heroes of climate change” was an unforgettable experience. It was an event co-funded by the European Youth Foundation, that was held in Stratoni, Greece from 20th to 24th September and in Ohrid, North Macedonia from 25th to 29th September, 2022.  Participants from 19 different countries from all over Europe and beyond, 50 young people eager for change gathered together and for 10 days we worked in groups, discussed and started preparing our local campaigns. We discovered different local realities through various activities, listened to local storytelling campaigns and talked about the opportunities to influence our own communities.  Then it was time for action, so we created our detailed action plans!

After coming back to our town, we started implementing our action plan. Our initiative was to realize a meeting with youngsters and raise their awareness on topics related to climate changes. A workshop named “Let’s goo green” was implemented on 24th November, 2022 in the local youth center MultiКулти, where through discussion and creative process we focused on raising awareness and inspiring the participants to start making change.

After finishing with the implementation of our local projects, the 3rd activity of the project “Heroes of climate change” was held in Brussels, Belgium, from 27th November to 2nd December 2022, where 30 participants gathered together for the evaluation meeting and did something meaningful for all of us. We finalized the project by making a change. We presented our local campaigns, we worked on policy recommendations and talked about all the ways we can support other superheroes. During the activity, we had opportunity to meet up with organizations, decision makers and other stakeholders working on climate change, climate communication and green policies. Altogether, the event went perfectly well, the process of creating policy recommendations taught us a lot, and we also enjoyed sharing our experiences of the process of implementing our local campaigns and changes we made in our communities.

After this meeting, we attended the YEU General Assembly Winter edition, that was held from 2nd to 4t of December in Brussels, Belgium. On the event the member organizations representatives were welcomed and hosted. Together with other delegates we had the opportunity to discuss about the YEU 2022 Report and the YEU Work Plan 2023. Moreover, as member organizations we had the space to share our views and ideas for future collaborations. Now we are really looking forward and eagerly awaiting all the great upcoming events and project in 2023!