YOLA Youth Ocean Leadership Programme Arrives in Poland for Baltic Sea Climate and Advocacy Forum
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The Youth Ocean Leadership and Advocacy programme will hold its second pilot edition in Sopot and Gdynia from 8 to 11 June 2026, bringing together young people, researchers, artists, and ocean professionals for interdisciplinary workshops and collaborative sessions focused on ocean conservation, climate communication, and civic engagement. Co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, the event marks the programme's expansion from its inaugural edition in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, to the Baltic Sea region, where it will connect with the International Youth Conference Sopot 2026 under the theme Where the World is Heading.
Programme Design and Thematic Focus
The three-day YOLA programme is structured around the premise that ocean literacy and climate communication require more than scientific knowledge, drawing on artistic practice, embodied storytelling, and systems thinking to create new ways of understanding and conveying ocean and climate challenges. Sessions will be moderated by practitioners working across ocean science, environmental communication, education, art, and activism, creating an interdisciplinary environment designed for genuine dialogue rather than conventional conference presentation. The Baltic Sea is used as a contextual frame for the programme, explored as a living network of ecological, cultural, and social relationships that brings together the scientific reality of a stressed and rapidly changing sea with the human communities and historical connections that shape how Baltic countries relate to marine environments.
Baltic Sea Context and Regional Relevance
The choice of Sopot and Gdynia as the host location is significant given the Baltic Sea's position as one of the most ecologically stressed enclosed sea basins in the world, facing pressures including eutrophication from agricultural runoff, hypoxic dead zones, warming water temperatures, microplastic accumulation, and the escalating environmental demands of offshore wind construction. The Baltic is also one of the most politically active maritime regions in Europe, with significant ongoing debates about offshore wind development, fisheries management, maritime security, and the governance of shared marine resources across multiple jurisdictions. Placing a youth ocean leadership programme in this setting provides participants with a direct connection between global ocean science and a locally relevant and practically observable set of challenges.
Youth Engagement and Ocean Literacy
YOLA's model for youth engagement combines ocean literacy with leadership development, creative exchange, and participatory environmental action, following a methodology that positions young people as active contributors to ocean governance conversations rather than passive recipients of scientific information. The Erasmus+ co-funding reflects the EU's institutional commitment to developing the next generation of ocean advocates and communicators, and to building the civic capacity needed to sustain long-term public engagement with marine science and policy. As the EU continues to advance its Ocean Pact and Blue Deal commitments, the development of a network of trained and motivated young ocean advocates across member states provides a valuable social infrastructure for the implementation of those policy frameworks.
International Youth Conference and Knowledge Exchange
The programme concludes with the International Youth Conference Sopot 2026, an open interdisciplinary platform for young scientists, students, and early-career researchers to present research, ideas, and perspectives spanning humanities and social sciences alongside natural and physical sciences. The conference includes a dedicated session on inclusiveness in science, addressing the importance of diverse voices and accessible research environments in the production and communication of ocean knowledge. Selected contributions will be published in registered conference proceedings with ISBN recognition and awards for outstanding work, providing participants with a formal academic output that supports early career development alongside the advocacy and communication skills cultivated through the YOLA workshops.
Implications for Ocean Education and Civic Engagement
The YOLA programme reflects a broader recognition within the ocean conservation and climate communication community that technical knowledge alone is insufficient to drive the societal change required to protect marine ecosystems. Effective ocean advocacy requires the ability to translate complex scientific realities into culturally resonant narratives, to engage diverse audiences across different social and political contexts, and to build coalitions that sustain action beyond individual awareness campaigns. By combining scientific grounding with artistic and civic practice, YOLA is developing a model for ocean education that addresses this broader set of competencies, and that can be replicated across different geographic and cultural settings as the programme continues to grow.
Outlook for the YOLA Initiative
The progression from the inaugural edition in France to the second pilot in Poland, with EU co-funding and growing institutional support, suggests that YOLA is establishing itself as a credible and scalable format for international youth ocean engagement. As the programme builds an expanding network of trained advocates across Europe and potentially beyond, its cumulative influence on how the next generation of citizens, scientists, policymakers, and communicators engage with ocean and climate challenges is likely to grow. For the broader ocean economy and conservation community, investment in youth leadership and ocean literacy infrastructure provides a long-term return in the form of more informed public discourse, more diverse scientific and policy talent, and more widespread civic engagement with the marine issues that will define the coming decades.
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This article was contributed by an external writer affiliated with our publication.
