On June 6th, 2025, SerVivo hosted “Seeds of Change”, a youth-led public event co-created by Mónica and Lucía, participants in the Erasmus+ mobility activity in Sunseed, Spain earlier this year. The event invited the local community to explore ecovillage life, sustainability, and collaborative ways of living. With mentorship from Anita of the SerVivo team, Mónica and Lucía took full ownership, designing the program, coordinating facilitators, managing communications, tracking the budget, and overseeing the day’s logistics.
The morning began with connection games and small group discussions, encouraging participants to reflect on community, their roles as change-makers, and their dreams for the world. This was followed by a guided tour of SerVivo, highlighting its story, daily life, and practical demonstrations of sustainable living—from compost toilets and solar panels to gardens and tiny houses. Over a shared vegan lunch and in afternoon workshops, participants engaged in hands-on learning, dialogue, and reflection, exploring ecological living, non-verbal communication, and sustainable skills like breadmaking.
The day concluded with a closing circle, where participants shared their takeaways, expressed gratitude, and left inspired to take action in their own communities. Seeds of Change showcased the power of youth leadership, strengthened SerVivo’s connection with the local community, and demonstrated how participatory events can spark reflection, learning, and sustainable inspiration for everyone involved.
Testimonials
Lucía
Together with my friend Mónica, and with the support and guidance of our amazing coordinators Allegra and Anita, we stepped into this journey not knowing exactly what to expect; just with the intention of sharing what we had learned and lived during the Community Café experience in Sunseed.
At first, there was a bit of fear and uncertainty as it was our first time organising something like this. But as the planning moved forward, everything began to flow naturally. We felt supported by the SerVivo community, who warmly welcomed us and shared their knowledge and space so generously. I’m really grateful to them, and also to the Community Café project, which inspired and encouraged us to bring something to life in our own way.
The event itself was beautiful; full of meaningful conversations, laughter, discovery, and connection. Even though we had just met all of the participants that day, a strong and genuine bond was created in such a short time. It made me realise how powerful it is when people come together around shared values, especially when it comes to activism, sustainability, and the desire to make the world a better place.
This experience showed me that when we work from the heart, even small actions can have a big impact. I felt proud, inspired, and so grateful.
Monica My name is Mónica, I’m 23 years old and I had the opportunity to co-create a very special event that took place on 6 June 2025 in Palmela.
This event was ‘Seeds of change’, an open day at SerVivo, a creative community dedicated to nature, dance, arts and meditation, in the beautiful natural park of Arrábida.
As the name conveys, this project was “seeded” from an Erasmus+ Community Café project that took place in February this year at Sunseed Desert Technology in Sorbas. During this project, a group of 20 young people experienced the Ecovillage lifestyle, got to know each other and exchanged views on what it means to be an environmental activist, how Storytelling can change perspectives and impact the world around us, and how we can be the source of change and action for a better world! They were incredible days and so empowering that all the participants were invited to do their own activity/event to disseminate what we had covered during these days.
And that’s how the ‘Seeds of Change’ event came about… Me, together with another participant, Lucia (18 years old), joined forces with Community Café and decided it was the ideal time to spread the word of sustainable living and eco-communities.
This day was very well spent, although with some fear of what might go wrong, when you first experience organising an event 😅 I think that’s normal! But we were very happy when we saw that 25 people had decided to join us on this day that was filled with connections, exploring of alternative lifestyles and discovery of intentional and inspiring communities, through practical workshops and exhibitions about the work carried out at SerVivo (to whom we owe a great deal of thanks and affection for the space and knowledge shared).Monica
