School Garden Project

EU4Youth: School Garden for Agricultural Entrepreneurship Development

Brief justification of the project:

Rural development is the focus of attention in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. The rapid aging of the rural population leads to rural instability and new risks to national food security.

The rural population is continuously decreasing for the following reasons:

• ·Outflow of youth through the process of urbanization
• ·Lack of promising jobs;
• ·Low wages compared to the city;
• ·Lack of opportunities for additional training;
• ·Difficult working conditions;
• ·Poor social, cultural and medical support compared to the city.
• ·Rural areas need promising professional education, economic opportunities and social inclusion for youth.

The main objectives of the project:

1. To build capacity of rural schools with gardens to become business-incubators for teaching and practicing modern techniques of high-value added agricultural production to young people in poor rural areas  
2. To enhance management capacities, skills and knowledge of all the phases of organic farming and business of disadvantaged youngsters in rural areas towards the creation of new sustainable rural employment opportunities
3. To foster cooperation between business-incubators, local communities, regional / national educational /vocational institutions, labour and food market actors; to integrate them into a common educational and economic environment

Project Activities:

1. Enhancing local capacity

To prepare and equip 3 rural schools in order to open incubators on their basis for training rural youth

To develop training programs on organic farming and entrepreneurship, testing and counseling programs

To teach local trainers who will introduce youth to organic farming technologies on the basis of incubators

2. Education for students

To organize classes on the basis of "school gardens": electives for students, career guidance for young people, weekend courses

To conduct study tours for students in neighboring schools;

To launch a distance course on organic agriculture for 6 countries of the Eastern Partnership

3. Collaboration, communication and promotion

To create an affiliate network of schools, scientific and educational institutions;

To facilitate the launch of cooperatives, involvement of production companies for cooperation with schools;

To support startups with social components

To conduct an advertising and marketing company on organic farming, healthy and safe nutrition

To familiarize representatives of schools, employment centers, retail chains, the media with the results of the project

To create and develop the “School Garden” social brand for products that are grown in “school gardens” for marketing and social distribution.