Participation in this youth exchange will enable young participants to learn about the negative effect that the fast fashion trend has on our environment. It is important to know that with the advent of fast fashion, the textile industry has become one of the biggest polluters of our planet.
The youth exchange aims to raise young people’s awareness about the negative effects of fast fashion and discuss why it happened in the first place and how we can help improve the situation. At the youth exchange, participants will also create an e-brochure, in which the issue of fast fashion and textile waste will be presented in a simplified and comprehensible way for young people.
Participants will also develop and strengthen their key competences, intercultural awareness, personal development, and acquire new knowledge and skills.
The youth exchange is scheduled for 21 August – 1 September 2023 (travel days included)
Location: Salovci, Slovenia
Host of the activity: Association Connect, Slovenia
Participating Countries: Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria.
Number of participants: 5 young people (16-30 years) + 1 group leader (no age limit)
The application is open until 25 July 2023. Register here.
Costs for board, accommodation and training are fully covered by the organizers.
What is fast fashion? Fast fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed to meet consumer demand. The idea is to get the newest styles on the market as fast as possible, so shoppers can snap them up while they are still at the height of their popularity and then, sadly, discard them after a few wears. It plays into the idea that outfit repeating is a fashion faux pas and that if you want to stay relevant, you have to sport the latest looks as they happen. It forms a key part of the toxic system of overproduction and consumption that has made fashion one of the world’s largest polluters. Some of the retailers we know today as the fast fashion big players are Zara and H&M.
The project was funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ Programme.