Let me share an open secret and dream with you.

I look forward to living in the beautiful country side in majestic, rich nature, with creek and spring water, edible forests, teeming with wildlife and birdsong, magnificent twinkling starry skies, crackling fires – with some lovely people on-site AND with rockstar changemaker youth, lovely YL Volunteers, epic coaches dropping in for workshops, summer camps, trainings, … the occasional celebrity flying in to enjoy trusted loving community to recover from the madness of the buzz world.

This model represents an XXXL YOUTH-LEADER Headquarter “outside school”. Compared to city-based Learnzones, LearnSpaces, HQs, it has different potentials and needs, with an entire region as a playground, with many potential allies and people to help.

Our mere presence will rain our gifts to the region’s schools, citizen groups, markets, conscious businesses, caring mayors … and enrich their lives at school, workplace and public with stories, speakers, projects, workshops, teams, coaching, excursions, international partners … true gold for rural regions.

I work on this for Western Europe, but it won’t be the only one.

So, if you like LIVING THIS DREAM, join the adventure of manifesting it – in all kinds of places – small and big and of different sorts!

… well aligned with

1. their values and wishes for youth, people and planet
2. their aspirations and needs for harmonious interaction with the local population

A LearnSpace that reaches out into schools and public space creates precious bonds and interactions with the local population, various stakeholders and partners – schools, farmers, artists, town councillors, families seeking uplifting creative activities and learning opportunities …

It thereby creates many benefits

– for the eco-villagers, who are often newcomers to the region, with new ideas and international horizons that often the “traditional rural inhabitants” do not (yet) share and which can sometimes create a gap, distance or even distrust between the two groups.

– for locals, who do not have the amount of progressive education, methods, media skills, relations that are common in avantgarde centres of cities today

Also, the newcomers fly on the energy of vision and of building something, and this momentum offers opportunity for youth to get involved, even by volunteering in building new structures – like permaculture gardens, eco-buildings, often drawing on traditional knowledge, or developing offers for eco-cultural holidays – which gives them a lot of learning opportunities that do not exist in slow-life settled villages and towns.

Further, YL activities motivate to reconnect with the regional heritage and protect it. For example:

• Abbie’s hiking and documenting natural and cultural heritage is motivation for rural youth to contribute to YL media, to the eco-village and tourism operation, even to the local heritage museum, to regional news media and regional schools … and of course into the hearts of the newcomers, making them more part of the local. This can even generate jobs as tour guides for local youth.
• Peter’s sevengardens – sourcing colors from plants – is another rich access to rediscovering the local landscape and its plant inhabitants, and one of YL Coaches’ favorite activities to fascinate people to rediscover the planet
• Mary’s ARKs for wildlife are a quick, genius approach to multiplying biodiversity and reducing communal expenditures by declaring messy roadsides an ARK
• Luwayo’s Permaculture Paradise Institute provides a “Our Little Farm In The Prairie” vision for young people to rediscover the DREAM LIFE for young couples on lush, beautiful farms producing abundance in vivid, playful interaction with the greater learning community
• like Robyn make towns a “Blue Community”, protecting water for the future
• produce positive news articles, gain media production skills
• as Changemaker student club connect with a global changemaker community for open doors, internships and volunteering opportunities around the globe

… all of which help locals achieve aspirations that are difficult to achieve to-date.

KEEP IN MIND : These activities will NOT eat up eco-villagers TIME!

Kick-off activities are brief and can be organized by youth who might feel under-challenged by down-to-earth eco-village activities

• a few Crash Courses at schools, market stalls, workshops at events lead to
• formation of self-organized Changemaker student clubs
• visits by youth, friends, families and caring citizens

Follow-up is casual and pleasant

• meet-ups at the eco-village for workshops and activities, incl volunteering
• meet-ups in towns for win-win benefit activities

So, once a YL Coach lives in an eco-village sort of thing, she/ll definitely aim to seed this in the region and build an exciting local tribe – for so much love, fun, friends and free hugs!