Last month we closed our project contest in Geneva and found ourselves confronted with the difficult task of choosing between nine very good school projects. The jury, including different experts from NGOs, the foundation éducation21, the educational department and euforia, was very impressed by the quality, professionalism and creativity of the projects. After a long discussion and considering various aspects of the projects, we were finally able to distribute a total amount of 10’000 CHF between four winning projects. We supported, for example, a proposition for activities against homophobia, initiated by students following the STEP into action. Another example is a project supporting a school for children’s trade victims in the south of Benin through fundraising and awareness raising activities.

Another one of February’s achievements for our team was the finalization of our intermediary evaluation report on the STEP into action Geneva 2012.

If you are interested in our main findings in the evaluation report or in the description of the nine school projects, you can download both here.

The preparations for the STEP into action in Zurich and Basel this year are also moving forward and we can see more clearly now the differences between the two locations and their respective challenges and characteristics. The Zurich edition reveals itself a little bit trickier; our biggest challenge here at the moment is to find a suitable – and not too pricey – location in order to finally be able to fix the date. For both locations, we started the fundraising process and the organisation of the workshops, but we’re still looking for interested teachers and motivated people for the team – so if you know someone, tell them to contact us: step@euforia.ch!!

We’ve also hosted two fundraising trainings this month. In Geneva Selim from codap hosted a bunch of motivated former impact participants. We’d like to take the opportunity to thank him for investing three hours into answering all the questions! His fundraising training was highly inspirational, something you wouldn’t expect given the topic. But Selim’s deep knowledge of the issue gave everyone present an extra boost.

A day later a fundraising training was held by Stephan Brun and Diana Gigova in Zurich. We would like to thank them too for investing their time and energy for helping our former imp!act participants who really appreciated the training and got a lots of valuable inputs out of it.

Furthermore, the CHANGEmaker network team is currently working on a revised concept to over you even more trainings and regular meetings…the concept will be present at comeBACK! and actNOW! in march!

On the 16^th of February, the imp!acters ’12 (Zurich edition) reunited at the carnival of Bern in order to have a good time and to raise awareness concerning the mass death of bees. A fruitful collaboration of two imp!act ’12 projects, Culturemob and BeeTheChange, has been at the origin of this activity. Dressed up like bees, they pretended to die every time the music stopped, all over town. The organizers are really satisfied with the action: “We are happy to say that we did have a fantastic time and our actions did have the desired impact.”

To get a little impression watch the video and have a look at the photo selection!

From March 4-8 the University of Zurich hosts the week of sustainability. A diverse program with conferences, exhibitions, creative work, workshops, concrete actions, theatre and much more waits for you. Every day is dedicated to one subject: resources, feeding, university & sustainability, digital sustainability and mobility. For more information check out the website or find the detailed program here.

Join Green Map Swiss and Earth Focus to establish a green map of your neighborhood!

Help developing maps in order to inform and sensitize about sustainable development. This includes: information about sustainable development through dialogue, the research of activities, subjects, places, etc. in the specific region, e.g. centers of waste separation, parks, bike pavements, organic shops, etc. Then you pass to the step of the preparation of maps with the icons and explications. The map will be printed, published in the web and for I-phones.

More information: in the Brochure and on the website.

Jus Humanis International Human Rights Network from Sweden organizes a 2-3 days study trip to Geneva, in order to make this trip possible the participants are desperately looking for accommodation. The organizer Dilan Gozukara is a former participant of the euforia event EYS and remembering euforia as a community of solidarity, he now addresses each one of you: Could you possibly host one or more of the participants of this trip? It would be a great favor to do and also a great opportunity for you to get to know interesting people from a different culture. If you’re interested, please directly contact gokcegozukara@gmail.com for more information.

We are kick-starting the organization of our newest event actNOW TODAY with an apéro at EPFL in Lausanne (bâtiment CM 1416 @Unipoly) at 18h00, and on Wednesday, February 6th, with another occasion to have some drinks in euphoric company in Zürich at 18h00 (Zentralstrasse 156 @euforia) AND YOU ARE EUPHORICALLY INVITED!

In general, plenty of exciting new projects are starting off at euforia, so there is no better moment to join our efforts and volunteer teams than now: be there from the start and write Anna for more infos on actNOW in Lausanne and Zürich or Corina for the new STEP into action in Basel and Zürich, or fancy to play the superhero part in our new promotional campaign for actNOW? Then write Stéphane!

January’s euphoric highlights:

• A long-term collaboration with the Universities of Geneva and Bern has been signed to create a new curriculum for responsible leaders (!)
• We are thrilled to have found an amazing new partner in Unipoly to organize actNOW in Lausanne and are looking forward to hopefully partner with ETH Sustainability in Zürich
• An intense 4-day Radical Collaboration® Training with Magdalena Musiala & Marcus Degerman set the basis for a euphoric start into 2013
• We euphorically welcome 2 new team members: Anna & Kriti
• Dance for diversity with the amazing video of imp!act spin-off CultureMOB

Also in this newsletter: New opportunities, news from imp!act projects and more, enjoy!

Euphorically,
your euforia team

We proudly present to you the first edition of the brand new euforia event actNOW!, an action platform which offers youth a large range of engagement opportunities. Increasing our impact to the max, this year’s program will be held in not only one, but two cities with a 1-day French edition on March 16 in Lausanne and 1,5-day German edition on March 22-23 in Zurich.

Highlights of actNOW! are a speed dating with young changemakers, workshops to get to know cool engagement opportunities and to get in contact with organizations and the action market which will provide youth with plenty of options on how you can engage yourself during your summer holidays (e.g. do an internship at a young social start-up presented by The HUB Zurich).

Join the actNOW! adventure, become a part of our team and contribute to the organization of actNOW! in Lausanne AND Zurich: anna.heijkoop@euforiaction.org. Preparations are ongoing, with numerous options to engage before and during the events. We are still looking for motivated changemakers for our fun experience in the communication campaign in different universities in 6 large cities. Come to the apéro and meet euforia friends, get to know euforia and actNOW! while enjoying a beer, watch the new euforia volunteering-Team Video and experience the euforia spirit. Be a changemaker!

Join us: Lausanne (Association UniPoly EPFL – CM 1416 or check here) on Friday February 1st at 18:00 or on Wednesday February 6th at 18:00 in Zurich (Zentralstrasse 156).

The team of STEP into action started the new year with a lot of power and enthusiasm, looking forward to this year’s editions of our project.

The evaluation process of STEP into action Geneva (2012) is still in progress. In January we’ve had a very interesting debriefing with teachers and representatives of the educational department of Geneva and of the foundation éducation21, that provided us with helpful insights about improvement possibilities for the future. All in all, they were very satisfied with the event and its organization and we’re hoping to be able to implement the changes proposed by the experts. Also, the project contest is still open for candidatures until February 1, 2013, and we’re really excited to read about all the different projects and to help them in their realization.

Looking towards the future, we’re facing a special challenge: the STEP into action is going to be a double edition this year. It will take place in Zurich and Basel in autumn. We’re looking forward to this new experience, hoping that we’ll make the organization even more efficient and swift. At the moment, we’re still at the very beginning of the preparations. Right now we’re looking for contacts in the educational department, in partner organizations and for friendly teachers who will hopefully all support us with their advice and networks along the way. Additionally, our team is still in need for some more members who are willing to offer ideas, time, energy and power to our ambitious project. So if you know someone who is creative, motivated, dynamic: tell them about STEP into action!

After a first training in project management in Zurich in December 2012, the CHANGEmaker network team is glad to be able to announce the next round of trainings, this time in both Geneva and Zurich! On the program: Fundraising  – because nearly every project regardless of how great and innovative it is, needs initial funds to get off the ground and start flying on its own…!!!

The Fundraising Training in Geneva will be held on Thursday, 21 February – for more information check out the Facebook-Event. The training in Zurich is actually still in the implementation process, it will also take place end of February – we keep you updated!