We wish you a peaceful journey with MOVE: Mobility of Volunteering? Eco-friendly!

6th to 13th March 2022, Mutters near Innsbruck, Austria

 

Download the call for participants    Apply here

 

The project

International peace and volunteer work is rooted in face-to-face exchange of people from different regions and backgrounds. Regular trainings, seminars and volunteer camps where youth workers and young people can exchange experiences and ideas, form the basis of this. The need for personal exchange comes along with a greater need for travel and transportation.

Currently, many of the travel distances are covered by airplane. This contributes massively to the climate crisis and to increasing social inequality. Besides, the restrictions imposed by COVID19 have forced us to take a more urgent look at alternative forms of mobility. Among all the challenges, this also offers an opportunity to reflect on lessons learned regarding mobility in international peace work during the pandemic.

The Project MOVE makes mobility a peace issue and considers the acute need to raise awareness and to promote critical reflection of current mobility choices in international volunteer projects and peace activities. Its main objectives are:

• to enhance the knowledge, skills and competences of youth workers on the main topics,
• to equip them with tools to make their activities ecologically and socially more sustainable, and
• to create ideas and follow-up plans for innovative climate-friendly projects.

The project consists of four parts. This call for applications comprises the last two parts (Activity 2 and follow up), the “Landing and Spreading” Seminar near Innsbruck 06-13 March 2022, and a Follow-up Period to finalise the project outputs and start implementing new project ideas.

During the training, participants from peace/volunteering organisations from 17 countries gathered in Nuremberg in September 2021 to learn about the intersections of mobility, climate justice and peace work. They created and shared tools and ideas for activism, education and structural change regarding the topic. Between the training and the seminar, the training participants are implementing workshop ideas ‘On the MOVE’. They gather content and feedback for a toolkit on sustainable mobility and localise the topics discussed at the training – including running local or online workshops on travel guidelines.

Now we are looking for applications and participants for the second activity of the project, the “Landing and Spreading” seminar near to Innsbruck. There, we will discuss more topics connected to global sustainable mobility, such as e.g. gender and mobility. Part of the seminar will be to discuss the outcomes of the ‘On the Move’ period and to gather more information for a toolkit on sustainable mobility for volunteering organisations. The toolkit will be developed at this seminar. The seminar also gives space to connect to other international organisations and get information about their ways of sustainable travel. These activities will be held in English language.

 

The Venue

The seminar will take place in the youth house “Jungscharhaus Mutters”: https://innsbruck.jungschar.at/jungscharhaus/. It is located near Innsbruck, Austria, well connected to public transport and close to the mountains.

 

The Team

The seminar will be facilitated by an experience team of trainers/facilitators of SCI Germany and SCI Austria. Simon* Jakob, Noah Marschner, Esther Wawerda and Sophia Schmid will be part of the facilitating team (for some days).

 

Aims

• Understand the link between (global) mobility, climate justice and international peace work
• Empower and train active volunteers, camp coordinators and seminar facilitators to advocate for sustainable means of transportation and implement local actions with their sending organisations
• Enhance networking capabilities, create & share tools and ideas for local activism and campaigning
• Initiate structural change regarding mobility within SCI and partners
• Create a toolkit about sustainable mobility and a draft for a sustainable international travel policy

 

Topics

• Local and global impacts of global mobility on resources, climate change and social justice Structures behind global mobility (acceleration, economic growth, global inequalities) Economic and political approaches to sustainable global mobility and their critique
• Peace work, mobility and its climate impacts
• Approaches to a more climate-friendly peace work, lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic Ideas/inspiration for local workshops and new projects including Project Management
• Travel Policies of different international organisations

 

Outcome

• Mobility Toolkit – contents: NFE methods about global mobility, climate justice and peace, background knowledge to develop guidelines for sustainable projects, examples for sustainable approaches in peace and youth work
• Draft for a sustainable international travel policy
• Ideas and networks for new international cooperation in the field of sustainable global Mobility

 

Methods

We’re going to use a broad variety of non-formal education methods, such as world cafe, snowball discussions, re- search, silent exhibition, simulation games, theatre, visual harvesting, arts, energisers, role games, team building activities and more. There will also be project visits to local initiatives.

 

Follow up (non-residential)

Participants implement their own projects and workshop about the projects topic. They will also finish their work on the Toolkit and the Travel Policy draft.

 

Participants Profile

Everyone who comes to this seminar should…

• be vaccinated against Covid 19 or recovered (obligation);
• ideally be an active member and be involved in the process and decision structures of their sending organisation;
• have experience in international peace work;
• allow time and ideas for both the seminar and the finalisation phase;
• ideally be motivated to participate actively in the production of the outputs;
• be committed to abstain from flying and travel to the events via overland route instead;
• bring ideas for own workshops;
• have sufficient English language skills (spoken and written);
• be committed to spreading their new skills and competences to their sending branches/organisation, e.g. via a workshop or a camp coordinator training.

Participants who already participated in the MOVE training (09/2021 in Nürnberg) will be given priority, but we are also very much looking forward to meeting new people.

Please note that there will be opportunities to visit Innsbruck, but that this is not a “getting to know the region” project. On some days the seminar also foresees evening sessions.

 

Logistics, financial conditions and sustainability

Simple life: The seminar will take place in a seminar house with simple living conditions. You will sleep in a room shared with few other people.

Money, money, money: We can cover all essential costs of the program (including vegan food, travel costs up to a maximum amount per distance (maximum travel reimbursement amounts: 10-99 km = 20 Euro, 100-499 km = 180 Euro, 500- 1999 km = 275 Euro, 2000-2999 km = 360 Euro), visa costs, accommodation and seminar) through a European project grant by Erasmus+. Your sending organisation might ask for a small participation fee. The costs will be reimbursed to you after submission of a complete expenditure summary and original receipts after project completion.

Sustainable food: The food we provide will be vegan. This is not just a practical decision, but also an ideological one: SCI believes in the values of sustainability and climate justice – and if we want to contribute to a more peaceful planet, we need to give up on industrialised animal agriculture and its destructive effects on our planet. We will also take care of the food ourselves so that’s a good opportunity to share food from your region

Sustainable travels?: This is also why we ask you to come to this seminar through more sustainable means of transport rather than flying (e.g. by train or bus), if somehow possible. Innsbruck is easy to reach with (night) trains and busses from many places. We will give you more guidance on how you can reach the venue once you are accepted to the seminar.

 

How to apply

Please send your application for the Landing and Spreading Seminar via the application form below until 16 January 2022. After we accept your application, you will receive a detailed infosheet.

application form

 

Covid19 Regulations

Please be advised that due to the pandemic and related measures, there may be changes. We ask you not to book your trip before we have informed you that the training will take place at the planned location. We will let you know about this about four weeks before the seminar starts.

For the protection of all participants on site, we will only accept participants who are fully vaccinated with one vac- cine accepted by the Austrian government and the last dose (second or third) is not older than 270 days:

• BioNtech/Pfizer Comirnaty/BNT162b2/Tozinameran
• AstraZeneca
• Moderna
• Sinopharm / BIBP (Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products Co-Ltd.) Sinovac-CoronaVac Vaccine
• Johnson/Janssen + a second dose with another vaccine from one of the above

If you’re recovered you need a Covid-19 recovery certificate. This is valid until 6month (180days) after your positive PCR test. After 6 month you need one vaccination shot with one of the vaccines, mentioned above. This is valid 270 days after the vaccination, then you need a second dose.

We will also ask you to bring your own supply of FFP2 masks and a certificate of a negative Covid19 rapid test result no older than 48 hours (no exceptions). If the current situation in March forces us to do so, we will either do it online on the same days or postpone this seminar to another date and will inform you immediately. Upon confirmation, you are responsible to ensure that your trip complies with the latest recommendations of the health authorities regarding the spread of Covid19. For Austria, the regulations of the government agency apply.

 

The coordinating team – Britta, Esther, Sophia, Noah, Mirna & Simon* – is looking forward to your application 🙂

For any questions contact: simon.jakob@sci-d.de