Indelhausen Youth Exchange – (BW)

Germany Teenagers Environment Education Teenagers Environment +1 Fixed dates

About the project

📝 Detailed information

🏢 About the local organisation

This youth exchange is designed for volunteers from Belgium, Poland, Germany and Catalonia aged between 16 and 20 years old. It is organized in cooperation with the forest school Indelhausen (Waldschulheim Indelhausen). The forest school is a pedagogical institution founded in 1977. The building used to be the village school and now serves 1,000 students and teachers every year as a non-formal learning place on the topic of forest and nature. Groups of students of the grades 7 to 9 of all school types usually stay here for two weeks and participate in different tasks of simple forest work, they take part to the school's educational program about the forest, go on excursions or play games, have fun and do sports. You can take a look at the place here: https://waldschulheim-indelhausen.forstbw.de/.

💼 What the programme involves

Maintain a beautiful biosphere area while learning about “Waldpädagogik“ (forest education). During two weeks, you support the forest school “Waldschulheim Indelhausen“ ["Forest School Indelhausen"], a place of non-formal environmental education for school classes. This project has two objectives: 1) Help the foresters with diverse environmental tasks every morning (2,5 to 3h), which will help to protect the surrounding biosphere area 2) Learn about forest education and if you are interested, contribute to the forest school's educative program yourself Increase your knowledge about forests and learn about how it is transmitted to young people in Germany! In the mornings you work outside with the foresters gaining experience and know-how about how to preserve a forest, and in the afternoons you will participate to different workshops about climate change, the forest ecosystem, and forest economy or biodiversity conservation. Actively preserving the forest and learning why it is essential to do it go hand in hand; this is why the workshops about forest education in the afternoons are as important as the practical work outside in the mornings. If you're interested, you will have the possibility to co-organize workshops relating to forest education for your group.

🏠 Accommodation on site

On the first night (July 19-20), you stay at a youth hostel located in Ulm. After, from July 20 until the end of the work camp you stay at the forest school. The youth hostel "Ulm International "offers shared rooms, common rooms, sanitary facilities, and an outside area. On July 20 you will all leave after breakfast to travel together to Indelhausen. At the forest school you are accommodated in shared rooms (2 to 8 beds). The building is quite big: there is a dining room, a common room where you can relax or play games, bathroom facilities with shared showers as well as a gym hall, a volleyball court, table tennis tables, and two climbing walls. Meals will be provided by the school, so you don't have to cook by yourself. The forest school tries its best to serve local and organic food. Please note: There will be vegetarian and vegan options but we need to know about your needs in advance! Please inform us of any dietary restrictions or allergies you may have. Lastly, there is little phone reception in the forest school. WiFi is provided but it is quite slow – you will be able to exchange messages but streaming videos will most likely not function. Be ready for a digital detox!

📍 About the location

The “Waldschulheim Indelhausen“ is located in the small village of Hayingen in the middle of a geopark at the southern end of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve “Schwäbische Alb“ in southern Germany. This area features diverse mountainous and cultural landscapes, protected ecosystems with rare plants and animals, and notable forest, meadow and orchard habitats. The surroundings are perfect for outdoor activities. There are many great view-points and various old castle ruins that are worth visiting. Because Hayingen is quite far from bigger cities, the free time activities will be mainly done in the arear, enjoying the beautiful surroundings and getting to know the local culture.

⚠️ Requirements

PREPARATORY MEETING: All participants will attend a kick-off meeting on July 1 at 4PM (CEST). During this meeting, the program will be presented and participants will have the opportunity to ask questions.