Sharing the YGBN project with students from Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"

On October 22, 2025, we had the pleasure of meeting with students from the Faculty of Pedagogy of Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’ to share our project “Youth Going Back to Nature – Engage, Connect, Empower”.

We were welcomed by Senior Assistant Professor Dr. Simeon Sapundzhiev, and our presentation became part of the course “Health Promotion”, led by him. Dr. Sapundzhiev introduced us to many interesting features of the training in this course – the growing interest in it; its application in social activities; the different profile of the students who attend the classes.

The topic of our project ‘BACK TO NATURE’ aroused great interest and our audience that included 2nd and 3rd year students. We started with a discussion about young people and what ‘young people with fewer opportunities’ means for the students. The discussion of the various challenges facing them also clarified why the target group of our project is precisely these young people. It was interesting for the students to learn who are our partner organizations in the project from Italy, Belgium, Estonia, Lithuania, Croatia, what they do and how they can reach them directly or through the newly established ‘European Youth Outdoor Network’.

Moving on to the essence of the project, we introduced the students to the project results. First of all, these are the three toolkits developed during the project. We gave a number of examples of environmentally sustainable outdoor activities that the students themselves could do on their own, among themselves or with groups of like-minded people, in order to feel their impact. Together we also watched the three documentaries that show how the toolkits were developed. The students shared that they had no practical experience in organizing or implementing therapeutic activities and the project was new to them.

The presentation of the project continued with a description of all events – learning exchanges, online conference, the first European youth festival ‘BACK TO NATURE’, events for the dissemination of the results in the partner countries. It was important to share how diverse and accessible each of them can be, as well as the feedback from the participants.

Similar to the participants in some of our events, only 15% of the students had visited a mountain or park in the last 3 months.

The project was presented through the online portal created within the project – www.outdoorportal.eu . The portal is open to visitors and offers free resources - a variety of activities in the mountains, in the city, at the sea, in the garden, and with animals.

As coordinators of the project “Youth Going Back to Nature – Engage, Connect, Empower” the students wanted to learn what are the steps for creating and implementing such an initiative. We also shared our experience with the Erasmus+ program, thanks to which the project is implemented.

Each of the students received their digital badge ‘BACK TO NATURE’, and later they are also expecting their certificates. We gave them gift sets with a reusable bottle, a backpack for an outing and sports and a T-shirt with a call to return to nature, to protect it and to feel the benefits of the experience. We hope that these souvenirs will become an occasion for discussion with their peers and will inspire even more young people to be active outdoors.

After the event, we had the opportunity to meet with Prof. Dr. Vanya Bozhilova – Dean of the Faculty of Pedagogy at Sofia University, who assisted in organizing the event. We shared with her our impressions of the students and discussed options for future cooperation. At her invitation, our organization will become part of the faculty’s volunteer program. We will be happy to continue to cooperate with the faculty team and students in the future to exchange experiences, improve the quality of our work, contribute to the qualification of students, and more successfully fulfill our mission. We will expand our partnership to the international level by sharing the experience of our colleagues from other countries.

We look forward to our next meeting with the faculty and young people from Sofia University.

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them. Project: YGBN - Youth Going Back to Nature - Engage, Connect, Empower. Nr. 2022-2-BG01-KA220-YOU-000098776.