The historic and urban city of Tirana, Albania, recently played host to the kick-off meeting of the “Fast Forward” project at the Doro City Hotel. The event, spanning two days on the 12th and 13th of April 2024, brought together key stakeholders and experts from various sectors to delve into pressing environmental challenges and chart a course for meaningful changes.
The first day commenced with the arrival of participants, greeted with a warm welcome from the Build Green Group (BGG), the project’s coordinating organization. The agenda dived into an insightful Introduction session, where BGG set the tone for discussions and participants introduced themselves, fostering a collaborative atmosphere from the outset. The afternoon session delved into the Environmental Context and Project Relevance, offering a deep dive into the current environmental landscape and highlighting how the “Fast Forward” project aligns with and addresses critical educational environmental challenges.
Day two commenced with a focus on Detailed Project Planning, featuring presentations on proposed activities, timelines, logistics and financial considerations – a crucial foundation for project execution. This was complemented by discussions on the project’s Educational Approach emphasizing the values and educational strategies that will underpin its success.
A significant part of the agenda was dedicated to Communication & Dissemination activities, stressing the importance of effective outreach and visibility to maximize impact. Partner Presentations and Discussions followed up, with key collaborators like Albanian Skills, The Balkan Forum, BRAVO, Association BRIGAID CONNECT, and Eco-Logik sharing insights and fostering collaboration.
The meeting’s pinnacle was the Working Groups on Key Project Components, where participants engaged in in-depth discussions on youth climate change education needs, logistics, educational materials and dissemination plans. These things set up a great framework for project implementations.
The closing session encapsulated the collective efforts, summarizing key agreements, outlining immediate next steps and paving the way for a transformative journey ahead. With inspiring insights and a collaborative spirit, the “Fast Forward” project kick-off meeting in Tirana laid a strong foundation for driving environmental education and impact across borders.
MORE ABOUT FAST FORWARD:
The project “Engage, connect and empower youth for a sustainable green future” is focused on two European Youth Goals: quality learning and sustainable green Europe. It aims at implementing a creative strategy in terms of capacity building for the new generation actually facing the problems of tomorrow related to environment degradation, climate change, and sustainability issues.
The target group of the project is youth trainers/workers, organizations, young activists in Albania, local/national authorities, and citizens of Albania and Europe. The project will focus in bringing the EU practices and translate them into tangible tools for youth in Western Balkan in order to fast forward the green transition. The core of the project, capacity building, will be achieved through a critical number of activities, such as ToT, Youth exchanges, toolkits and manuals.
These activities will spill over throughout non-formal learning providers benefitting staff, youth, and key stakeholders in the process. Overall, with this project Build Green Group will promote and improve capacity building for youth in important areas such as climate change awareness, environment digitalization, environmental justice, innovation & research, contribution to SDGs, and creation of fruitful partnerships. The topic addressed and activities designed to make the project have a local, national, and EU impact, specifically in bringing EU practices in WB.