Through our project we want to provide groups of pupils (Eco-patrols) from 7 elementary schools in coastal and island area of our County with a safe, challenging and fun environment in which they can question, explore, collaborate, try, succeed, make mistakes, learn and understand why - why to be in solidarity with people, other living beings and the planet Earth? Putting together the child's head, heart and hands, will make them understand the importance of civic engagement.

Island and coastal part of Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia

Šibenik-Knin County is one of the most beautiful parts of the Mediterranean because of its natural resources and its cultural and historical heritage. As such, it faces problems involving a large number of visitors, uncontrolled waste management, uncontrolled building developments, and other forms of anthropogenic disruption of the environment. What local communities do about it? Not much. They are not aware of their rights nor power that comes with active social/political participation and they don't have the tools needed to act. In local schools, education on sustainable development which would include active citizenship principles is rarely a topic. Traditional education doesn`t include a comprehensive understanding of civic issues and sustainable development.

The designed educational program Eco-patrol will be offered to a total of about 1000 primary school pupils from the local communities of the coastal and island part of Šibenik-Knin County. 20 students per school (7 schools) will be able to join the program, which is a total of 140 pupils (age 10 to 14 years old) who will participate in at least 5 educational modules during the project. From the above statistics, we can calculate that we will include about 14% of pupils from this geographical area. Another target group will be at least one full-time teacher from each school that we will educate (7) in the methods of non-formal civic education, therefore we will have more than 5% of educated teachers.

In the preparation phase, the expert team will be formed to define the proposal of the Eco-patrol edu-program using "brainstorming" meetings. The program will include at least 5 thematic units on the topic of sustainable development through active citizenship - each thematic unit will have an elaborated program that will translate a particular topic into a workshop/action-using non-formal learning methods. Thus, all modules of the edu-program will have educational part and activist/civic part-where concrete civic actions will be taken in the local community. In the implementation phase, which will last 6 months during the school year, the main activity is the pilot implementation of the educational program Eco-patrol. In the 1st month of implementation phase, groups of pupils will be formed, 20 pupils per school involved, which will be called Eco-patrols and which will be led by the local coordinators. It is planned to implement one Eco-patrol activity per month in 7 schools in the project area. Monthly activities will happen simultaneously for better media and public interest. In the 3rd phase, evaluation of the pilot implementation of the Eco-patrol edu-program will happen. According to the conclusions of the evaluation, the program will be improved and refined. The edu-program will then be designed into a e-manual, published disseminated through the region.

*140 pupils will improve their knowledge and strengthen their skills in sustainable development, civic action, media communication, environmental advocacy, and volunteerism
*7 local coordinators will strengthen their teaching skills with new non-formal methods and become multiplicators of civic action - initiated from pupils through teachers to the local community
*7 primary schools will have their Eco-patrol groups that will become leaders of environmental and other civic actions within the school and local community
*7 local voluntary actions initiated by children will take place to engage local communities in nature and environmental protection
*E-manual with 5 educational moduls will be produced as free open-source material to be used and multiplied after the project

Working directly with pupils and teachers, raising the awareness, strengthening their knowledge and skills in the terms of civic engagement for sustainable development we will indirectly influence also the families, schools and local governments - during the project they will be encouraged to take joint civic action in order to improve the quality of life in local communities. When children understand the privileges and responsibilities that come with democracy, they are more ready to become active participants in the process as adults. We want to help them understand how politics impact their day-to-day lives. Eco-patrol edu-program topics: What is a society?; Bring elections to life - election theater; How can your voice be heard – make a speech; Fake news – media literacy; Let do it...

We are a team of ladies (Ivana, Sanjax2, Suzana, Vanja and Ivona) working in the environmental NGO Argonauta, situated on the small Island of Murter. Argonauta has been an active civil society organization for many years (15). We know very well the issues and needs of our local community. We are experienced and skilled in producing non-formal educational programs on the topics of sustainable development for children and youth. We want to continue doing this! Our motivation is to take a step further and connect more environmental topics with civic engagement - teach to ACT! Being a good civic actor is about being able to think and look critically at the world. With our project we will be teaching the target group the ability to say, ‘This is not quite right—what can I do about it?’”

Office expenses: 1.000 eur
Travel expenses: 1.500 eur
Communication costs: 1.000 eur
Personnel expenses - honorary: 10.000 eur
Project management - salaries: 10.000 eur
Materials: 1.300 eur
Refreshments: 1.000 eur
Promotion and visibility: 1.500 eur
External expertise: 2.500 eur
Graphis design of e-manual: 700 eur

Every comment is welcomed and appreciated, and will help us improve our work!