EcoReactEU

EcoReactEU

EcoReactEU (Reaction to Eco-anxiety for a Common Transition in Europe) is a multi-disciplinary project aimed at improving our collective understanding of eco-anxiety experienced by young people living in Greece, Italy, France and the Netherlands.

The central objective of this project is to develop evidence based resources to help young people in Europe cope better with negative emotional responses to ongoing environmental changes such as climate change, plastic pollution, biodiversity loss, etc. Through this project, we will also learn about the levels of eco-anxiety as well as some of the coping mechanisms employed by young people. We will share these insights on an online platform that will also integrate educational tools to support young people and transform their distress into action. At the end of the project, we hope to have prescribed an educational response to this problem working hand in hand with youth workers.

School children protest climate change outside the Scottish Parliament in 2019 as part of a worldwide demonstration. Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

A unique feature of the project is that youth workers will be stakeholders in the project by benefiting from the tools and resources offered to better support the eco-anxiety of young people. Following research conducted with young people aged 16-25 and youth workers living in Greece, Italy, France and the Netherlands, data on the levels of eco-anxiety as well as coping mechanisms and gaps in available support will be collected, analysed and summarised in the project outputs.

The project output will include:

  • An European platform of resources making it easier to understand young people’s eco-anxiety and providing educational tools for the educational community and the general public.
  • An  online  course  (MOOC)  for  youth  workers  to  integrate  eco-anxiety  into  their  professional  practices.
  • An evaluation report after pilot testing the MOOC contents.
  • A  guide  of  operational  recommendations  in  5  languages (English, French, Dutch, Greek and Italian)  for  the  integration  of  eco-anxiety  in  the  professional  practices  of  the  educational  community.

The project is implemented by La Ligue de l’enseignement, Eko Greece, Arci Aps and Utrecht University and is funded by the European Union (an Erasmus+ KA220- Cooperation partnerships in youth project).

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