Hope

Hope, a positive and inspiring energy at the heart of the engagement program!

Why Hope?

Faced with the crisis ..

Today we are facing a systemic global crisis: energy, economic, environmental, health, social (rising inequalities), democratic (rise of extremism), geopolitical (war in Ukraine), ..

It causes anxiety which can lead to a feeling of powerlessness and a form of immobilism.

Hope is to refuse this reduction to powerlessness.

On the contrary, it is to nourish the conviction that the future can be better than the present and that we have the power to make it happen, to contribute to its construction, each at our own level, and collectively.

Hope triggers action!

The crisis is an opportunity to open our imagination, to dream the world we want and to mobilize to build it. We dream of a resilient society that prioritizes human health and well-being and environmental protection.

Today we need Hope because it gives us desire and triggers action. Action that brings about change shows that another future is possible and in turn, reinforces Hope!

Let's remember that the obvious today are the utopias of yesterday..

Hope is contagious

Our actions inspire others to move. Indeed, encouraged by inspiring examples, we want to get involved in our turn.

Small groups transform their communities, the positive impacts of their actions add up and Hope grows!

As a bonus, we feel useful..

Hope is a virtue

A virtue is a universal quality that pushes humans towards the best possible. Hope is the virtue that helps us overcome the temptation of despair. Like any virtue, it must be practiced.

Radical Hope is the Hope that survives in an uncertain world! It is the will to get better and to change the world for the better!

 

Giving Hope

By making everyone understand that we have a role to play

Every day, we can choose to act in favor of a new mode of sustainable development through different forms of commitment. Everyone can freely choose what makes them tick, focus on what they can do and on what gives them determination!

At the Green Office, we support members of our community who wish to become consumer actors, act in favor of solidarity projects or develop new sustainable practices on our campuses, but also in their daily lives.

By acting as a community, we connect to something bigger than ourselves, which generates enthusiasm.

Sharing inspirational stories

All over the world, projects are emerging, large and small, that are experimenting with the sustainable development we want.

These stories help us because they give us images of the world we want to believe in.

This is the case of the Global Agenda 2030 with its 17 sustainable development goals that define a project for the profound transformation of our human activities, signed by the 195 members of the United Nations. Connecting our actions to this global ambition reinforces the meaning of our commitment.

This is also the case of many heroes, messengers of Hope such as Jane Goodall who protects chimpanzees or the Bangladeshi social entrepreneur Runa Khan who created the Friendship association. The Green Office introduces you to them through the publication of articles, the organization of conferences and the screening of films. Thus, in Flore Vasseur's film Bigger Than Us screened at the Sauvenière cinema on October 10, 2022, we discovered 7 young people who are changing our world..

 

Our reasons to hope

Hope is a force of the spirit that changes our perspective to distinguish the light and make it more vivid!

The first step in activating this force of Hope is to identify our reasons for hope.

What do we believe in? The incredible strength and determination of the human spirit? The power of youth? The resilience of humans and nature?

And as a ULiège community, what are our reasons for hope? The multitude of personalities and the complementary skills of our community? The vitality of our 25,000 students? The central role of the university in helping society to accelerate the transition to a new mode of development that is more respectful of people and the planet?

Soon, the Green Office, together with Liège Créative and the S'Lab, will organize a collective workshop to identify our reasons for hope on an individual level and also as a ULiège community. Strengthened by Hope, by a renewal of meaning, we will invite our community to imagine our sustainable territory in 2030..

This section is inspired in particular by the thoughts of Jane Goodall ("The Book of Hope", 2021).