Navigating eco-anxiety: youth exchange for sustainable solutions

Nowadays, the climate crisis has taken such a mental toll on younger generations that the term “eco-anxiety” has emerged in order to address the feelings of uncertainty and concern that young people are dealing with in regard to their future. That is why the project “Navigating eco-anxiety: youth exchange for sustainable solutions” is committed to tackle the concept of eco-anxiety, with the overall objective of addressing, while following a cross-sectoral logic, both the themes of environmental sustainability and mental health and well-being. The importance and urgency of the themes project will be dealing with is widely recognized in our society. As a matter of fact, they are very much in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and the European Youth Goals, being “Mental Health and Wellbeing” and “Sustainable Green Europe'' two of them.
The project “Navigating eco-anxiety: youth exchange for sustainable solutions” has set itself the goal of addressing the anxieties that may have arisen about climate change and environmental sustainability, offering the young participants a safe space for discussion and dialogue. The project will, therefore, provide a chance to exchange different opinions and share different experiences among the young participants on the theme of eco-anxiety. In doing so, the project will strive to increase the awareness of the young participants towards eco-anxiety, while keeping in sight how various economic, geographic and social inequalities may be derived both by environmental and mental health related issues. In this context, the young participants will be led to channel their anxieties about environmental sustainability into a renewed social and civic engagement in their own local communities of origin, thus encouraging them to take on a much more meaningful and positive participation in democratic society.
Ultimately, the experience of the project will provide the young participants with the basic tools needed to better comprehend the phenomenon of eco-anxiety, while also encouraging them to support the promotion of environmental sustainability and mental health and wellbeing care in their everyday life as well.

| Participants |
For each partner organization:
- N° 5 youngsters (from 18 to 25 years old);
- N° 1 youth leader (+26 years old).