Community Toolset 2 (CTS2) - Songs for Awareness and Social Change

Dear potential Partner Organization,

We are pleased to invite your organisation to participate in an Erasmus+ Youth Worker Mobility we are applying for.
Between the end of August and the mid of September 2025 we are planning a 17-day program hosted by Stagones org in our picturesque off-grid permaculture farm near the village of Vlachia, in a beautiful rural part of the region of North Evia Island, in central Greece.

Program Overview:
Building on the success of Community Toolset 1, this training will dive deeper into recognizing and addressing individual and collective blockades within communities. Using music and sound as tools for exploration and self-expression, participants will collaboratively create and produce meaningful songs that encapsulate collective experiences and insights while inspiring and advocating societal change, climate action and community resilience.

Our focus areas will be:
* Fostering Self-Awareness and Connection: Supporting youth workers to identify and address psychological and practical blockages, enhancing their capacity to serve communities. Explore a range of musical activities, exercises, games, and energizers for diverse target groups.
* Utilising Creativity: Guiding participants to channel emotions and insights into artistic expression through songwriting and acoustic music production. Set up, organise, manage, and facilitate their own creative and community resilience workshops.
* Promoting Collaboration and Societal Change: Bringing together participants from five countries to co-create songs that articulate shared values and needs. Gain skills in writing, composing, recording and distributing songs that tackle pressing social and environmental issues.
* Spreading Awareness and Resilience: Explore ways to spread these messages through local engagement, culminating in a live performance. Using music to engage with people and bring about positive social change.

Details of the project:
* Participants: 30 participants from 5 countries, with 6 participants per country.
* Facilitators: Experienced trainers in music production, songwriting, and community building.
* Location: Off-grid Stagones permaculture farm in a natural setting, offering an environment for focused and creative work.

Outcomes
* Creation, production and distribution of 5-10 songs in different languages in cooperation.
* Strengthened intercultural collaboration and personal growth among participants. Using sound as a tool for that.
* Enriched skills in community building and songwriting as tools for driving social and ecological regeneration.
* EBook about our Community- & Artist-Cooperation-Experiences (including special insights into music-composition, song-writing, producing & publishing/marketing).
* Video-Documentation of the training (Peaceful, multicultural Union of European Artists including interviews & life stories & wishes for a better world)
* A multicultural festival to engage the local community with performances of all Erasmus-artists (including a worldwide live-stream on a digital platform).

Training Flow

* Arrival Day: (Day 1): Welcoming of participants
* Community Building (Days 2-5): Establishing a safe, inclusive space using Agile tools and practices to foster collaboration and artistic expression.
* Songwriting Workshop (Days 6-9): Group-based songwriting, led by skilled facilitators and trainers, with access to 3–4 studio rooms for final recordings.
* Exploration Phase (Days 10-13): Intergroup collaboration to dive deeper into production, produce additional songs or explore performance art etc.
* Dissemination (Days 14-16): Developing strategies for sharing outcomes, ending with a live concert or mini-festival in Vlachia.
* Departure Day (Day 17): Farewell, reflection and final evaluation.

Program Setting and Facilities:
The venue is located near the village of Vlachia, in a beautiful rural part of the region of North Evia Island, in central Greece. It is on the hillside of Mount Pixarias, facing North to the Aegean Sea and overlooking the islands of Sporades. It is a small piece of heaven, close to the mountain-top and close to the sea (30-40 min walk). It is where the community of Stagones and Hara Goe project lives but it is also our test site, where we are trying to establish a new paradigm in terms of building, farming and living together. Participants will be accommodated in tents providing a close connection with nature. Collective activities will take place inside a beautiful yurt and the music studio cob building while meals will be served in our outdoor dining space. Accessibility has been thoughtfully considered to ensure a comfortable stay for all participants. This immersive environment - working directly in nature- encourages creativity, team-building, and connection with the landscape around us.

Incorporating the Success of Community Toolset 1

The Community Toolset 1 workshop, held in 2021 on Evia Island, Greece, laid the foundation for building sustainable, resilient, and democratic communities. It brought together diverse youth workers to explore practical topics such as community building, permaculture, natural building, and renewable energy, creating a holistic approach to individual and collective growth.
Participants formed a temporary community, utilising Agile tools and creative sessions to foster collaboration and innovation. The success of CTS1 motivates us to expand this impactful initiative through Community Toolset 2.
For more details please visit https://cts.stagones.org (don’t miss the movie!)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
Every participant of this training will receive a Youthpass certificate at the end as well as a certificate issued by us for participating in this course.

DETAILS RESUMED:
Dates: specific dates to be determined. 17 days between end of August and mid of September 2025
Where: Stagones permaculture farm | Vlachia, Evia
All expenses are covered such as roundtrip travel, 3 fulfilling, healthy, vegetarian meals with vegan options per day plus snacks (ingredients mostly local and organic), accommodation, training and materials for the activities).
We are considering asking for a small participation fee, mostly to enhance commitment.

OUR PROPOSAL TO YOU:

Expectations from Partner Organizations

To ensure the success of CTS2, we seek committed partners with a social/ecological profile and ideally an artistic and educational background who can:

* Recruit Participants: Identify participants. Each group (5-6 highly motivated people) should include 2-3 performing musicians, and 1-2 persons with audio production skills. We already have participation requests in several countries, don’t worry too much about that.
* Pre-Training Preparation: Each organization has to identify a team-leader who will be our contact person. We want to start the creative process before the actual training, so each team can prepare text, soundscapes and musical ideas to contribute during the training.
* Active Engagement: Provide input/feedback during the planning and implementation of the project. Be available for communication when it is needed.
* Support Dissemination: Assist in promoting the songs and the final concert in Vlachia and generally project outcomes.

We are excited to explore this partnership opportunity with you. To confirm your organisation’s participation, please reply to this email asap (we need to finalize our partnerships early January but select our partners within this year). Upon confirmation, we will provide further details to the partner organisations for the Pre-Training Preparation Phase. Please check participation requirements at the end of the document.

For further details, feel free to reach out to us at: efstathia.sideris@gmail.com

We look forward to your collaboration in this enriching journey of self-discovery, creativity, and empowerment. Let’s create impactful and lasting connections together!

Warm regards,
Andreas Papachristou
Project Coordinator
Stagones and Hara Goe project
https://stagones.org/en/