“Nature Is the Key” – Relearning to Live Beyond the Endless Scroll

Project Overview:
In an age of digital overexposure and dopamine-driven content, “Nature Is the Key” offers a return to basics: using nature and experiential learning as antidotes to overstimulation. This project targets youth workers facing the challenge of supporting increasingly impulsive, distracted, and digitally dependent young people.

Objectives:

Equip 20 youth workers from 10 European countries to lead prevention activities against the negative effects of social media through outdoor approaches.

Train participants to use nature as an educational space that fosters healthy, lasting pleasures and rebuilds essential skills like concentration, frustration management, and patience.

Develop skills to design, facilitate, and evaluate outdoor educational programs adaptable to local needs.

Co-create sustainable resources: a best practices manual, educational video series, and new Erasmus+ initiatives focused on digital prevention through nature.

Methodology and Implementation:

The project unfolds in two phases:

APV (Advanced Planning Visit) – One month before the training: logistical planning, tailoring activities to group needs, risk assessment.

Main Training – October 1–8, 2022, with participants from 9 European countries (North Macedonia, Austria, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Greece).

The pedagogy relies solely on non-formal education, experiential learning, and outdoor education principles. Participants will experience a mix of:

Mindful physical activities: hiking, navigation, bivouacking, camp management.

Reflective exploration of digital habits, neurological effects (dopamine cascade), and neurocognitive benefits of reconnecting with nature.

Pedagogical design workshops to create transferable educational modules for local contexts.

Networking sessions and co-creation of European projects.

Expected Results and Impact:

Participants:

Gain practical skills to facilitate nature-centered activities aimed at preventing excessive digital use.

Strengthen professional development in designing innovative, responsible, and safe educational pathways.

Partner Organizations:

Enhance youth work quality by integrating outdoor education practices.

Foster new local dynamics for digital prevention workshops.

Access to a pedagogical manual and video tutorials to replicate activities.

Co-create at least 5 new European initiatives on green skills and conscious digital education.

Local and European Communities:

Promote alternative educational practices to hyperconnectivity.

Build young people’s digital resilience skills.

Increase Erasmus+ opportunities in marginalized rural and urban areas.