Two days dedicated to the environment, education, and active citizenship brought renewed energy to the Municipality of Grosseto thanks to Clean Up the World, the historic Legambiente campaign that mobilizes thousands of volunteers each year across Italy to clean public spaces, beaches, parks, and urban areas.
On Thursday and Friday, around two hundred students from Istituto Comprensivo 4 engaged in hands-on environmental and civic education experiences, supported by Legambiente educators and guided by their teachers.
Elementary school children from Via Giotto were the first to take part, reclaiming the velodrome area and the adjacent playground—spaces that are part of their everyday life. The following day, second-year middle school students from Marina di Grosseto collected litter from a section of beach and the nearby amusement park grounds, both places that symbolise the deep relationship between the community and the sea.
But this year’s edition had a wider horizon. The event also served as a launchpad to promote the PARCCE Erasmus+ project, a European initiative addressing one of the most urgent challenges of our time: climate change.
Understanding climate change to act effectively
PARCCE (Pedagocical ) is an international project that aims to strengthen climate education in Mediterranean countries through high-quality, accessible tools for both teachers and students. Based on the belief that real change starts with understanding, the project develops and tests both traditional and innovative methodologies that help schools turn climate challenges into learning opportunities.
One of the project’s key resources is a free multilingual educational toolkit available in English, French, Greek, and Italian, accessible via the official website www.parcce.eu. The toolkit provides engaging, ready-to-use materials designed to encourage student participation and stimulate critical thinking about climate-related issues, both locally and globally.
In addition, PARCCE offers training courses for teachers, equipping educators with the knowledge and methods needed to bring climate education into the classroom in a meaningful and practical way.
Bringing international vision into local action
“The participation of our students in Clean Up the World,” said Anna Maria Carbone, Principal of the Dante Alighieri Primary and Lower Secondary School of IC4, “is not only a valuable act of environmental responsibility, but also an opportunity to bring the values of European cooperation into our local educational practices. Through projects like PARCCE, we can offer our students a broader understanding of climate change and empower them with the tools to be part of the solution.”
During the press event in front of the school in Via Giotto, Angelo Gentili, member of Legambiente’s national secretariat, and Erika Vanelli, Councillor for the Environment of the Municipality of Grosseto, underlined the importance of combining environmental education with international collaboration.
“Clean Up the World is much more than a symbolic gesture,” said Gentili. “It’s a collective learning experience that reminds us that environmental protection starts with awareness, care, and education. Thanks to European projects like PARCCE, we can support teachers and inspire students to look at climate change not as a distant threat, but as a challenge they can understand and address—starting from their own community.”
“Supporting projects that link local action with European perspectives,” added Councillor Vanelli, “means investing in a more conscious and resilient Grosseto. Helping our young citizens see themselves as part of a broader, international effort to protect the environment is a powerful tool for change.”
These two days once again demonstrated that real, long-lasting change begins by combining knowledge, engagement, and collaboration—locally and internationally.
