Youth Worker Exchanges in Brussels and Berlin: Building Climate Skills Across Borders
As part of the ECHOES – Youth Voices for Climate Action in European Elections project, international youth worker exchanges took place in early 2025, bringing together organisations from Belgium, Portugal, Türkiye, and Germany to share methods, build skills, and strengthen European collaboration on climate action.
Welcome to Brussels: CERA Europe as Host
From 27 May to 7 June 2025, CERA Europe welcomed two youth workers to its Brussels offices: Tomás Da Silva Ferreira from Associação Inspira! in Portugal, and Ecem Nur Uslu from EFTA in Türkiye. The two-week programme was designed and supervised by Oğuz Tutal and combined non-formal learning, research activities, policy engagement, and hands-on communication work.
Participants attended workshops on climate change and youth participation, project cycle management, and NGO management through a YOUCA session on youth-led climate advocacy. They contributed directly to ECHOES dissemination by taking part in a dedicated Social Media Day, co-creating digital content and infographics. The exchange also offered wider exposure to the Brussels policy landscape: participants attended EU Green Week 2025 and visited Le Fagotin Youth Ecological Centre, a local example of ecological education in practice.
For Ecem, the visit was a chance to connect her academic interest in EU affairs with real-world climate advocacy. She contributed to research on youth participation in climate policymaking, created infographics on the topic, and reflected on how circular economy models might apply in Türkiye. A visit to the European Parliament was a particular highlight, bringing her studies into direct contact with the institutions she had long studied.
For Tomás, the visit was particularly impactful in bridging his experience at Inspira — focused on hands-on environmental action — with CERA’s approach to connecting youth work with policy and social justice. He returned with new tools for project structuring, greater confidence in international team settings, and inspiration for how Inspira could link its environmental work to broader political engagement.
From CERA’s side, hosting the exchange deepened the organisation’s capacity to mentor international youth workers and sparked fresh ideas around digital storytelling and youth-friendly climate communication — with strong potential for future joint workshops, mobility projects, and open educational resources.
Learning from Berlin: Auban at Green Muse
During a parallel exchange from 18 to 28 February 2025, CERA Europe’s youth worker Auban Pringle travelled to Berlin to join the team at Green Muse. The visit coincided with Green Muse’s international training programme Climate Change Affects Agriculture (CCAA), running from 20 to 26 February, and brought together youth workers from Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Türkiye.
Auban took an active role throughout — co-facilitating teambuilding sessions, leading a Youthpass reflection activity on key competences, and moderating ethics debates on climate topics such as the links between nuclear energy, racial justice, and climate change. A field visit to a zero-waste store provided direct exposure to urban circular economy practices, while an eco-art workshop in a forest setting illustrated how sensory and creative engagement can deepen young people’s connection to sustainability. Auban also contributed to social media content and blog drafts as part of the project’s dissemination work.
The experience highlighted the complementarity between CERA’s research-informed, policy-focused approach and Green Muse’s emphasis on art-based engagement, community-rooted initiatives, and youth-led storytelling. Both organisations came away with a clear interest in future collaboration — including joint Erasmus+ projects and co-developed training modules combining climate action, creativity, and digital communication.