Group: 5 participants + 1 leader
Age: 16-20 (leaders should be between 18 and 30)
Dates: Arrival date is July 16, departure date is July 28 2023
WORK: This youth exchange is about helping to maintain a beautiful biosphere area while learning about “Waldpädagogik” (forest education)! During two weeks, you will support the forest school “Waldschulheim Indelhausen”, a place of non-formal environmental education for school classes.
This youth exhange has two objectives.
· The first one is to help the foresters with diverse environmental tasks every morning (2,5 to 3h), which will help to protect the surrounding biosphere area.
· The second one is to learn about forest education and if you are interested, contribute to the forest school’s educative programme yourself.
You want to increase your knowledge about forests and learn about how it is transmitted to young people in Germany? Then this is the perfect youth exhange for you! In the mornings you will 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 themes such as 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-organise workshops relating to forest education for your group. This is a special project for nature lovers and people interested in learning about nature protection work and how to pass on important knowledge about forests to future generations.
ACCOMMODATION: You will be staying at the forest school from July 17 until the end of the youth exchange. On the first night (July 16), you will stay at a group house located in Owen, a town between Stuttgart and Indelhausen. The Freizeitheim Owen offers shared rooms for 4 to 12 people, common rooms, sanitary facilities, a kitchen and a big outside area. On July 17 you will all leave after breakfast to travel together to Indelhausen.
At the forest school you will be accommodated in shared rooms (2 to 4 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 bio food. 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!
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 “Schwaebische 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 outdoors activities like hiking. It is very rural, and 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 close-by in the nature, enjoying the beautiful surroundings and getting to know the local culture.
PROJECT: This youth exhange is designed for volunteers from Estonia, France, Germany and Spain aged between 16 and 20 years old. It is organised 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/. By participating in this youth exchange, you are actively supporting biodiversity (UN SDG 15) and help us work against climate change (UN SDG 13).
COVID-regulations: On arrival you have to present an actual negative Antigen- (no older than 24h) oder PCR-Test (no older than 48h). Please make sure to do a test before you leave home, even if it means that you will have to do another one in Germany to respect to validity period.
MEETING POINT AND TIME: Owen train station in the afternoon. Please try to be there between 1pm and 8pm. Your camp leaders will come and pick you up at the train station. You can plan your trip to “Owen(Teck)” by using the German Railway website: https://www.bahn.com/en
NEXT INTERNATIONAL TRAIN STATION or AIRPORT: Stuttgart
PAPERWORK: Underaged volunteers need to return a parental agreement signed by one parent or legal guardian (see document in the attachments).
TRAVEL EXPENCES: are reimbursed according to ERASMUS+ rates. Volunteers will need to keep all the receipts for their travel costs, which will be reimbursed after the camp. Our approach is to have the volunteers send their travel documents to their SO. The SO then sends an invoice to IBG with the full lump sum. IBG transfers the full lump sum to the SO. SO transfers the money to the volunteers and can keep the difference if the full lump sum has not been used.
PREPARATORY MEETING: All participants will attend a kick-off meeting on July 6st at 5pm. During this meeting, the workcamp programme will be presented and participants will have the opportunity to ask questions. If you cannot join the meeting, please inform your sending organisation or your camp leaders as early as possible.
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