YOLA (Youth Ocean Leadership and Advocacy) is a dynamic initiative empowering young people (18-30 yo) to act for ocean conservation and climate policy. Co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, the project responds to some of the most urgent threats facing our ocean today — climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, and ocean acidification.
Join us for the second YOLA Training workshops session in Poland.
Workshop I Embodied Stories of the Sea – storytelling through movement
Storytelling in movement workshop will center on weaving narratives through the body, following shared motifs and the reflections of young creators on seas and oceans.
This process will open a space for reconnecting with one’s own body and discovering a source of inspiration within it.
During the workshop, young creators will encounter inspiring, facilitative possibilities of movement in creative practice – shaping collective action and growing themselves into versatile creator-artists. The workshop aims to expand ways of thinking, deepen and strengthen inner resources as well as teach how to find not only creativity, but also support, within movement.
Workshop II From Science to Story – Mapping Our Entanglement with the Baltic Sea
How can marine science become a story that moves people without simplifying the complexity of the sea? The Baltic Sea is often communicated through problems: eutrophication, pollution, biodiversity loss, marine litter, ghost nets, wrecks and sunken munitions or climate pressure. These problems are real, but facts alone rarely change the systems that produce them. In this participatory workshop, you will be invited to explore how scientific knowledge about the Baltic Sea can be translated into meaningful activist communication through storytelling, visual thinking and art-based education.
Drawing on Theory U and 3D System Mapping, participants will build a physical model of the Baltic Sea as a living system of relationships: science, policy, media, human habits, non-human life, emotions, cultural narratives and possible futures. Instead of only asking “How do we explain the problem?”, the workshop asks: “What is our relationship with the sea, what stories are locking us into the current reality, and what new forms of communication could help another future emerge?”
Workshop Moderators:
Karolina Mielczarek, is a dance artist, educator, and choreographer, with a passion for poetry and a deep love of seas and oceans. She works across dance and performance, creating choreographies and teaching movement as a form of expression. She leads her own creative dance project rooted in storytelling in movement, exploring the relationship between word and body. A graduate of the Ballet School in Łódź and the University of Malta (psychology and theatre studies), she also completed postgraduate studies in dance in therapy and development at SWPS University. She collaborates on a range of artistic and educational projects and develops work for both children and adults, including movement workshops, theatre and dance projects, creative yoga classes and training courses for educators.
Olga Sarna, Chair of the Board of the MARE Foundation, activist and educator involved in Baltic Sea protection for over a decade. A graduate of Environmental Protection (Warsaw University of Technology), English Philology (University of Warsaw), School of Ecopoetics (Institute of Reportage) and the Leadership Academy for Poland. Olga has been actively involved in activism for the Baltic Sea for over a decade and as the Strategic Lead at MARE she coordinated implementation of numerous projects related to: marine litter (including ghost nets), wreck management, sustainable fisheries, eutrophication, pilot seagrass restoration and other issues related to protection of the Baltic ecosystem. Her goal is to foster ecological sensitivity among the society and implement practical solutions that reduce pressure on the sea and build responsibility in business, government, science, and the creative sector. In her work, she emphasizes interdisciplinarity and creating a space for collective creativity in which new ideas, solutions to the crises of Anthropocene, and new system identities can emerge.
Ula Zerek a freelance creative producer, based in Gdańsk (Poland) a co-founder of polka dot foundation which creates spaces for interdisciplinary dialogue where art of dance and choreography can play a meaningful role and initiate real changes. Polka dot is one of partnering organisations leading NATURE OF US project since 2022. Since 2023 Zerek has run the Art Spaces – Dance program for the Urban Culture Institute in Gdańsk (Poland), organizing workshops, education programs, performances, publications, and conferences. She loves the Baltic Sea, interdisciplinary projects between culture, science, social life and creative business. She has an experience of over five years in theater production and management for young audiences at Miejski Teatr Miniatura in Gdańsk. She is also a choreographer and dancer working both in theatre and interdisciplinary contexts. She is a graduate of the University of Gdańsk and the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. Mom of Bolek, Teo and Rita.
Tymon Zieliński, is the head of the Climate and Ocean Research and Education team at the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Sopot, where he holds the position of professor and a coordinator of the GeoPlanet Doctoral School. He is an active researcher, co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and has presented nearly 200 conference papers. Between 2016 and 2020, and since 2024, Tymon has been representing Central-Eastern Europe at the board for the United Nations Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, and since 2023 Tymon is a member of a panel of experts in the same group.
In 2019, Prof. Zieliński became a member of the Steering Committee of the European Marine Board Communication Panel, and since 2024, he has a position of a Chair. From 2020 to 2022, he was also Chair of the EU4Ocean Coalition’s Climate and Ocean Working Group. In 2022, Prof. Zieliński delivered an invited speech during the plenary session of the UN Ocean Conference held in Lisbon in July. Since 2022, he has been a member of the Climate Council of the UN Global Compact Network Poland.
Register now and uncover ocean literacy.
Date: June 8, 2026
Time: 9:30 – 18:00 AM CET
Location: Gdynia Aquarium, Poland
Registration Link: HERE
Learn more about YOLA project HERE.
This event is supported by the MARBEFES project of the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and the CSI-POM2 project, funded by the Ministry of Education and Science under the “Science for Society II” programme.
