Scaling a Youth Climate Corps for a Resilient Greece
Summary
In 2024, Ecogenia committed to scale its youth climate corps model by engaging 70 young persons across five municipalities in Greece by 2027. Ecogenia will create and disseminate a handbook to serve as a tool for municipalities and public authorities responsible for local climate projects. The handbook will delineate the role of a youth climate corps and outline how Ecogenia’s model can translate into direct impacts for youth directly engaged and for the public at-large simultaneously. The project will subsequently establish institutional partnerships in the form of memorandums of understanding between Ecogenia and municipalities to create a robust pipeline of service projects focused on meeting national climate mandates such as trail work in relation to ecotourism and sustainable forest management, including creating buffer zones and access roads for wildfire prevention and response. Participants also receive stipends for their service.
Approach
Ecogenia commits to scaling its youth climate corps model in five Municipalities by 2027. It will do so by disseminating a Handbook and formalizing partnerships in at least three Municipalities beginning in 2025 and delivering service projects through 2027. Ecogenia will demonstrate how public authorities (local, regional, national) can effectively integrate civic service into climate action plans and projects.
This commitment will be implemented through three main components. First, through the creation of a Handbook, which is a tool for Municipalities and public authorities responsible for local climate projects. It articulates the role of a youth climate corps in this domain, and outlines how Ecogenia’s program offerings can be incorporated into project execution. Examples of projects include trail work in relation to ecotourism and sustainable forest management, including creating buffer zones and access roads for wildfire prevention and response. Ecogenia’s team and trained cohort members will disseminate the Handbook in 2025. This will yield the second component of the commitment, which is formalized partnerships between Ecogenia and public authorities for future service project delivery via signed MoUs and LoIs. This robust pipeline of service projects will inform the third component, which is program execution. From 2025-2027 Ecogenia will mobilize at least 70 young people in civic service in at least 5 Municipalities.
Ecogenia will leverage its expertise and demonstrated impact in project delivery, youth engagement, and climate action to tailor solutions to each Municipality. Partners’ involvement will include facilitating relationships with public authorities, providing strategic guidance, supporting program implementation, and reinforcing the social and environmental value-add of civic service, ultimately enhancing and expanding Ecogenia’s offering across Greece.
Potential challenges include lack of familiarity with civic service in Greece, public skepticism towards CSOs, and limited technical expertise and capacity in Municipalities. To mitigate these challenges, Ecogenia will leverage demonstrated programmatic impact, experience in stakeholder engagement, and will draw upon partnerships with national authorities, and mentorship from global civic service organizations to effectively scale in the Greek context.
Action Plan
Ecogenia’s commitment spans from September 2024 to December 2027.
In the first phase (September – December 2024) , the primary deliverable is the launch of the Municipality Handbook in Athens, Greece in October. This final, peer-reviewed version will be publicly announced and shared with stakeholders. The second deliverable will be program development and stakeholder engagement for the subsequent phases.
In the second phase (January – December 2025) the deliverables will be Handbook dissemination in Municipalities through consultations, meetings, and events for outreach and project scoping. This includes training the 2025 service project cohorts from Chania and Dion-Olympus to lead outreach activities in the surrounding regions. Another deliverable in this phase will be signing MoUs and LoIs with Municipalities for future service projects to be executed in 2026 and 2027.
The first year of the commitment, the phase that corresponds to the commitment funding, will culminate in a closing event, convening Mayors, municipality representatives, commitment partners, and relevant authorities who committed to the 2026-2027 scaling through LoIs or MoUs. The event’s location and format will be determined based on availability, potentially utilizing a hybrid format to ensure broad participation.
The third phase (January – December 2026) will focus on service project implementation in 1 new Municipality, and MoU signing with 2 new Municipalities.
The fourth phase (January-December 2027) will focus on service project implementation in 2 new Municipalities, and MoU signing with 3 new Municipalities. It will culminate in a closing event to share the impact of the CTA.
All service projects consist of two weeks of onboarding and training, then for the remainder of the term, cohort members serve four days and have one day dedicated to professional development. The focus and impact of the service projects vary based on the needs of the communities but span: disaster management, environmental education, and ecotourism.
Background
Greece faces significant challenges in both youth unemployment and climate resilience. According to Eurostat, as of November 2023, Greece had the highest youth unemployment rate in the European Union (EU) , standing at 43.7% among those aged 15-24. This persistent unemployment not only hampers individual economic prospects but also undermines broader societal stability and development. Finally, Greece’s ability to secure a sustainable and resilient future remains limited, with the country trailing behind the EU average in SDG rankings and progress (European Sustainable Development Report, 2023-2024) .
Additionally, Greece struggles with limited local and municipal capacity to implement climate action mandates mandated at both national and European levels. Despite European Union directives and national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase climate resilience, many municipalities lack the resources and expertise to effectively translate these mandates into actionable projects at the local level. This gap in capacity hampers Greece’s progress towards meeting its climate targets and leaves communities vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Moreover, Greece’s vulnerability to climate change is well-documented. The Global Climate Risk Index ranks Greece as the 8th most affected country by climate change between 2000 and 2019, with severe consequences for agriculture, infrastructure, and public health (Germanwatch, 2021) . These challenges underscore the urgent need for initiatives like Ecogenia, which aims to establish a national climate corps program in Greece. By mobilizing young people in service projects at the local level, Ecogenia seeks to address both youth unemployment and climate resilience, while also building local capacity to implement and comply with national and European climate mandates. Through partnerships with municipalities and tailored outreach efforts, Ecogenia aims to empower communities to take meaningful action towards a more sustainable and resilient future.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
The primary resource Ecogenia is seeking is financial. This would enable the organization to scale faster, and thus provide the opportunity of a civic service term to more young people in Greece. Flexible and long-term capital would guarantee organizational and operational support, thus increasing capacity to deliver impactful work on the ground. Ecogenia has prospective partners that can be mobilized for financial and programmatic support, and with the spotlight and media support facilitated by the CGI CTA, the organization would be better positioned to activate these resources. As Ecogenia continues to value and scale through partnerships, the organization is always seeking new partners, local, national, and global, to complement and elevate their respective and mutual mandates and priorities, and foster effective collaboration. Ecogenia considers financial resources, partnerships, and media support to be mutually reinforcing, where the organization’s message, work, and capacity reinforce one another, and ultimately enable increased impact., For the partners and municipalities involved in this commitment, Ecogenia offers the best practice of civic service. This means the organization provides the convening power and human capacity to accelerate action in local communities. This includes expertise in youth mobilization, civic engagement, and where these two meet for climate action and sustainability in Greece. As part of this commitment, the organization’s goal is to spotlight and highlight the potential avenues for public-private partnerships and the pathways that are available for accessing funding and the fee-for-service model for other stakeholders.