Satellite event: Spring volunteer weekend in Čierny Balog

This volunteer experience weekend will be designed for anyone who wants to learn more about volunteering in environmental organizations, sustainable lifestyle, permaculture and how to bring it into your life.

Participants - external volunteers and local residents - will be guided through theoretical and practical workshops, thanks to which they will be able to implement permaculture principles into their daily lives, understand their meaning and importance on the way to a sustainable future. The workshops will take place in the community garden of a local organization, which will be open to everyone and where participants will practically try out the acquired knowledge in its revitalization.

They will see concrete examples from practice, learn about volunteer opportunities in environmental organizations and how they can contribute to their own initiative for local change and thus help the entire community. The event is particularly relevant for the rural environment and the locality in which it is being held, as it provides people with guidance and tools on how to build the resilience of the surrounding environment in times of climate crisis and widespread deforestation in the local area.

The program will also include an excursion to a local valley, an ecotope affected by the bark beetle and timber harvesting. Participants will be guided through the valley where they will receive a professional explanation from foresters. Afterwards, we will help the foresters in the forestry open-air museum with planting new trees or similar volunteer work.

Event objectives:

• to provide participants with knowledge and skills in permaculture
• the importance of volunteering and participation in public and community events + examples of local changes
• to connect external volunteers, locals and stakeholders by jointly helping to revitalize the local community garden and open-air museum, and to create a space for cooperation in a location affected by an ecological disaster

This event fully supports the goals of the EU Climate Pact, as it includes citizen participation at the local level, connects the local community, external volunteers and stakeholders, and thus encourages participants to initiate local change. At the same time, it helps to raise awareness, motivates people to implement particular climate actions and find common solutions.

The added value of the event is that it connects people with the same interests and local residents who are suffering from the same problems and find it difficult to face the current challenges alone. This event does not have to serve only as a one-time event, but as one of the examples of practice, what a community of passionate people can do together. And give them hope that sustainable change and restoration of lost biodiversity is possible.