ECO-UNESCO - Conserving the Environment, Empowering Young People

ECO-UNESCO is Ireland's Environmental Education and Youth Organisation affiliated to the World Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations (WFUCA). We offer a wide range of programmes and services including ECO-UNESCO Clubs, the ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards, Environmental Workshops, ECO-Explorer Kids Camps, Training and even ECO-Kids Parties! ECO-UNESCO engages volunteers and interns throughout the year who offer great support and creativity to the organisation.

Volunteer Testimonials 2011

"My name is Julia, I'm 22 years old and I'm from Germany. Before continuing with my masters I decided to do an internship with ECO-UNSECO. In particular, I was interested in the mixture of youth work and environmental education. I was curious how these two things can be combined. I really enjoyed my work in Dublin - I'm very glad that I decided to take this important step in my life"

"I decided to do an internship abroad as part of my Social Work studies in Germany. I worked on the Youth for Sustainable Development programme at ECO-UNESCO and other youth programmes. I learnt that environmental youth work is very varied involving working directly with young people as well as office work. It required a lot of creative thinking as well as organisational skills. The internship was a really positive challenge."(Ines, age 21)

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2011

One of the highlights of 2011 was the annual ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards (YEA). This event is an all-Ireland environmental awards programme that recognises and rewards young people who raise environmental awareness and improve the environment. Since 1999, this exciting event has involved 25,000 young people aged 10-18 from all 32 counties. The YEA attracted over 200 entries last year. Young environmentalist came up with great ways to improve their environment and raise awareness in creative and innovative ways including clean-ups, recycled fashion, a carbon-calculator app and much more. The Award's Gala Showcase was a great success and involved exciting green-themed activities including creative recycling workshops, the Biozone, live entertainment, an "ECO-Factor" song contest and much more.

[Pictured: Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland at the ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2011]

National Youth ECO-Forum 2011

The 2011 National Youth ECO-Forum was a great success with a theme of "learning to inspire, innovate, create!" Over 50 young people met in ECO-UNESCO's Dublin headquarters, the Greenhouse and Dublin City Council's Wood Quay Venue, to learn about young green entrepreneurship. Young people inspired their peers by sharing their stories of green entrepreneurship. Loreto on the Green secondary school presented their successful Carbon Footprint Calculator App (Loreto on the Green) and Donegal Pens. The young people developed action project ideas to a panel of guest experts and are now developing these projects for submission to the Young Environmentalist Awards 2012.

[Pictured: Young entrepreneurs with Elaine Nevin, National Director, ECO-UNESCO at the National Youth ECO-Forum 2011]

ECO-UNESCO Clubs in Action 2011:

ECO-UNESCO, is working in partnership with Toyota Ireland to encourage young people to improve their local community and environment by supporting their action projects with ‘Seed Grants'. Seed Grants were awarded to 18 clubs from nine different counties who went on to complete environmental action projects in their local communities ranging from tree planting, community gardening clean-ups to energy auditing, seaweed composting and even the creation of a sustainable music festival. The ECO-UNESCO Clubs Programme has gone from strength to strength, with an increase of 39 additional clubs over the last 12 months, bringing the total number of active clubs across Ireland to 163, and directly involving 3,225 young people.

"ECO-UNESCO was delighted with the success of our first ‘Clubs in Action Programme' in 2011. In addition to completing outstanding environmental action projects throughout the country, the ECO-UNESCO Clubs delivered creative awareness-raising activities and successfully involved their local community groups, authorities and schools which ensured the highest level of positive sustainable impact. We are delighted with our continued partnership with Toyota and its dealer network into 2012. We believe this mutually rewarding relationship helps us achieve our goal of raising environmental awareness and empowering young people." Elaine Nevin, National Director of ECO-UNESCO

[Pictured: Bowes Boys, Glasheen BNS, Co. Cork received an ECO-UNESCO Clubs in Action Seed Grant, sponsored by Toyota in 2011. The group were concerned about the future of ‘The Lough', a local amenity of considerable environmental and social value. Funding from the Clubs in Action programme allowed the Bowes Boys to print their information leaflet and to buy hi-visibility jackets to wear when out raising awareness about ‘The Lough'.]

ECO-UNESCO Publications Available

ECO-UNESCO publishes a wide range of education resources focused on environmental education for young people including fun-filled publications, posters, activity sheets and CD ROMs. These resources aim to support teachers, youth leaders and other educators to apply environmental education to their educational activities. You can find a full list and order forms online at www.ecounesco.ie

[Pictured: A selection of ECO-UNESCO environmental education resources]

If you would like anymore information about any of our events or publications, please contact:

Rachel Gilliland
Communciations & Fundraising Officer
The Greenhouse
17 St. Andrew Street
Dublin 2
T: 00 353 (0) 1 6625491
F: 00 353 (0) 1 6625493
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www.ecounesco.ie