Environmental Education in Impact

Aldo Leopold - A Sand County Almanach

Impact is focused on the local communities and the development of competencies in the "3 E's": Ecology, Ethics, and Economy. To develop these competencies, every two months the participants organize a progressively more complex project that often pertains to environmental ethics. Examples of past projects include two river clean-ups in Lupeni, building an outhouse in Retezat National Park, public education and lobbying the local Town Hall for improvements in infrastructure (garbage collection and so on). The fundamental purpose of the program is to raise environmental awareness and civic responsibility and participation in an area characterized by civic apathy and environmental destruction, and to advocate for better practices through youth empowerment. (The Jiu Valley is a coal mining area and the Jiu River is one of the most polluted in the country). Through the growth of Impact nationally, New Horizons is transferring these best environmental practices to the larger Romanian context.