ESC: Volunteering for Green Steps

Green Steps (GS) is an international Start Up at the intersection of ecology, education and IT. We believe that a deep and playful connection with nature reduces consumption and strengthens respect for Mother Earth. We are experts in outdoor education based on academic and pedagogical knowlege and skills which were acquired during past training experience and work experience in nature education. With this we were able to generate our own outdoor learning tools and improve them during the past years. Further we use information technology as a tool for social and environmental good. Our main target group are children aged 3-12 for which the majority of our activities are designed and facilitated. In addition, we offer some programs for families and the wider community. We operate as a benevolent non-profit organization and provide playful and purposeful access to nature in particular to children from economically disadvantaged and/or migration backgrounds. Our regular activities focus on different Learning Paths like Botany, Craftsmanship or Nature & Art which directly and indirectly teach about environmental impact and awareness. To give an example - one of our signature activities is called Plastic Pirates - tons of trash to be looted. Clean-up events are nothing new and they exist in many different formats. Green Steps merges best practices from alternative pedagogy and latest learning psychology to improve the learning outcome and the participant’s experience. Children team up in small pirate crews and are asked to fill bags of trash each, which are weighed with electronic scales. Children learn in an opening circle about the different kinds of trash in general and plastics in particular. We use storytelling and object manipulation as a method to strengthen long-term memory and establish healthy habits. The content of all bags is jointly sorted and each child picks an object and and, in a closing circle, tells a story of how it ended up in nature. Greens Steps will be coordinated by “Jugend:info NÖ”, a Lower Austrian youth information centre, specialised in the preparation and mediation of non-commercial information suitable for young people. Youth information services support young people in their development and provide free, up-to-date, relevant, and understandable information. Through these actions, our services and activities promote the empowerment of young people. Information provided is available on an anonymous basis, free of charge, accessible in an easy-to-understand format for our target groups. In addition, Jugend:info NÖ represents the regional office for the EU Youth Programmes Erasmus+ Youth in Action and European Solidarity Corps. In this function, they promote the EU Youth Programs via different channels, offer consultancy, build and maintain networks, support young Lower Austrians to go abroad, and much more. Their target groups include young people (age 13-30) as well as people who work with adolescents and in the field of youth work (such as parents, teachers, youth workers, politicians, multipliers, etc.).