Cross-Linking

The responsibility for a healthy future on this earth does not stop at the border of our eco-village. Therefore, it is important to us to make our contribution to an ecological and socially sustainable development within and outside our village. The respect for human rights, global justice and peace work in us and the world is our basis. We see ourselves as part of a colorful global movement for a comprehensive social and ecological transformation. This can be quite different, depending on the culture, the region, the political situation and the needs of the people who shape it. In order to build a great whole from the various initiatives and to inspire each other, the exchange with other alternative projects worldwide is very important to Sieben Linden. Through active cooperation in different initiatives and networks, many of us are engaged in society. In our immediate environment, we strive for an ideal and material networking with like-minded projects for a social and economic exchange.  

Opening Ecovillages to Youth

For the project “Youth Discovering Sustainable Lifestyles”, a group of 29 activists from 11 countries came together in November 2017 at Sieben Linden Ecovillage to create opportunities for youth to experience ecovillages and learn about sustainable lifestyles. Namely, the purpose of the meeting was to create youth exchanges in ecovillages for the summer of 2018. The participants were a diverse group from 11 countries (Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and the UK), the vast majority under 30 and some with prior personal experience of youth exchanges. Currently, the participants are working on 6 applications for different youth exchanges that are to take place during the course of the year 2018 at the ecovillages Findhorn (UK), Los Portales (Spain), Sieben Linden (Germany) and ZEGG (Germany) plus more in Serbia and Finland. The Youth Exchange projects developed are centered around different aspects of sustainability: ecovillages and sustainable lifestyles, eco-builiding, green entrepreneurship and personal growth & empowerment. The project’s purpose of making the ecovillage experience more accessible to youth will definitely be achieved through the youth exchanges conceived and developed. The project was funded by the ERASMUS+ program of the European Union.