Advocacy from the Ground Up: ECOLISE’s Advocacy Training for Climate and Environmental Action

In April 2025, changemakers from across Europe converged in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, for an energising three-day training on environment and climate advocacy. Organised by ECOLISE and led by policy expert & ECOLISE Policy Lead Laurence Modrego, the training invited activists, community leaders, and researchers into a vibrant learning space where strategy met solidarity, and where the seeds of grassroots policy influence began to take root!

The Advocacy Training wasn’t just about acquiring technical skills. It was a journey—one that wove together personal motivation, collective power, and the tools needed to influence EU policy from the bottom up.

Day 1: Laurence Mondrego in action

Why advocacy? Why now?

Advocacy can sound like a big, bureaucratic word — but at its core, it’s simple: it’s about speaking up and taking action to influence change. Against a backdrop of shrinking civic space, tight funding, and mounting pressure on civil society across the EU, this training aimed to equip participants not only with practical strategies, but with the political imagination needed to drive a just eco-social transition.

Learning to Advocate: Tools, Tactics, and Theory

Over the course of the week, participants were immersed in the foundations of advocacy work. They explored how advocacy can take many forms—rallies, petitions, direct dialogue, and storytelling—and how it enables communities to shape decisions that affect their lives. Whether new to advocacy or seasoned campaigners, all participants walked away with concrete action plans to tackle issues ranging from food systems and housing to biodiversity and water.

One of the core frameworks introduced was the Problem–Impact–Solution (PIS) model, which helped participants turn broad concerns into focused advocacy messages. Rather than getting stuck in the complexity of systemic issues, the PIS model encouraged them to focus on one specific problem, articulate its consequences, and offer a clear solution. This practical approach allowed for personal reflection and also set the stage for collaborative strategy-building later in the programme.

Mapping the Policy Terrain

Day two deepened the strategic lens: using the 4P Model—Policies, Processes, Politics, and People—participants analysed the ecosystems surrounding their issues. They mapped out relevant EU laws, regulatory frameworks like the Common Agricultural Policy, and broader strategies such as the European Green Deal.

Day 2: Analysing the 4P Model and working on it in groups

Understanding when and how to intervene became a critical theme. The group learned how to navigate policy timelines, identify moments of influence, and align their advocacy with decision-making cycles. Political dynamics and stakeholder relationships were also key—who holds power, what motivates them, and how alliances can shift outcomes.

Through interactive mapping and group exercises, participants gained a new sense of clarity and agency in navigating complex governance systems.

Shared Wisdom and Stories of Change

Afternoons were dedicated to participatory workshops and peer learning. Invited speakers shared real-world campaigns, offering insights into both the challenges and victories of grassroots advocacy. In World Café and Open Space sessions, participants brought their own questions and ideas into the circle, co-creating paths forward and exploring synergies across bioregions and themes.

Learning from each other: the workshops

One of the most inspiring parts of the training were the afternoon workshops, led by guest speakers and fellow participants. These weren’t lectures — they were hands-on, interactive, and grounded in real-life experience. A few highlights:

• Nina Klein from Conceil Nature, a citizen-led nature council in Belgium, helped us unpack the new EU Nature Restoration Law and showed how local communities can help shape its implementation.
  
• Alice Jelmini from the Institute for Urban Excellence reminded us that how we tell our stories matters just as much as what we say. Her session on storytelling gave us tools to turn policy asks into narratives that move hearts and minds.
  
• Mieke Elzenga from LiberTerra inspired us with her story of how she turned a Dutch farm into an eco-community for young refugees — by collaborating with local authorities instead of working around them. Her story sparked a deep conversation about trust, power, and partnership.
  
• Valeria Pelaez from Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF) brought in a powerful ecofeminist lens, inviting us to think about climate justice through intersectionality, decolonisation, and care. We used WECF’s tools to build advocacy messages rooted in lived experience and collective power.
  
• Nicoló Sancassiani from the Future Food Institute flipped the script on what we think of as “marginal” — showing how overlooked places can become models for the future through regeneration and bioregional thinking.
  
• Érika Zárate of Resilience Earth introduced ideas from bioregional governance, encouraging participants to rethink how place, culture, and purpose shape systems of belonging and decision-making. She shared principles for resilient, community-rooted governance that values diversity, decentralisation, and interdependence.

Out of the classroom, into the community

Theory is important — but it needs to connect with place. On the final day, we split into two groups for field visits around southern Luxembourg. One group explored Transition Minett, a community transition hub in Esch-sur-Alzette that includes a vegetarian restaurant, local organic shop, garden, and citizen-led energy cooperative. The other visited VeWa, a cultural regeneration site in Dudelange housed in a repurposed industrial building — now a creative hub run by DKollektiv. What we saw in both places was living proof that community-led transformation is not only possible — it’s already happening.

Field Visits: Transition Minett 

The fishbowl: real talk, real reflections

Before wrapping up, we circled up (literally) for a fishbowl dialogue — an open, rotating conversation that brought together participants, civil society voices, and Joëlle Welfring, a member of Luxembourg’s Parliament. From the impact of Greta Thunberg and Fridays for Future in catalyzing the European Green Deal to grassroots initiatives in Italy, we explored real-world examples of bottom-up advocacy and the tangible influence of civil society in shaping policy.

Fishbowl dialogue

And then… a surprise moment of advocacy

You know it’s good training when even lunch turns into advocacy. At Mesa, the community restaurant at Transition Minett, we were joined (unexpectedly) by a local TV reporter investigating a proposal to make free drinking water mandatory in restaurants. Without missing a beat, Laurence jumped in and offered a mini-interview on why access to water is a basic right, not a luxury. A perfect reminder that advocacy isn’t just planned — it happens in real time, when you speak up.

What we’re taking with us

Advocacy Training group

We left Luxembourg with a renewed sense of what’s possible when communities organise, act, and imagine together. policy isn’t something far away — it’s shaped by the people who show up. We learned that stories, strategies, and solidarity matter. And we reminded each other that the transition we’re fighting for must be just, inclusive, and rooted in place. And most of all, we felt what it means to belong to a growing movement of people who believe in a future worth fighting for — and who are ready to advocate for it, one step at a time.

The event was co-funded by the European Union through the CERV project COM4LGD – Communities for Local Green Deals.

Stay tuned for our Advocacy Toolkit! Sign up to our policy mailing list to stay updated on our policy work and the COM4LGD newsletter here.