The Growing Communities project’s output:
Educational Model, Best Practices Guide, Kit for Training Facilitators, Micro trainings…
You will find here the results of our work, to be published throughout the project.
1. A European Educational model to empower adult educators to use Social Permaculture
Based on international researches and shared experiences, this Educational Model is aimed at organizations, teachers, facilitators and change makers. It is a condensed of expertise and findings from the three project partners.
Starting point: the joint observation of the effects of gardening – and mostly permaculture gardening. They can have a positive impact not only on the environment, but also on people and the way they live together, they participate in social life and interact with their surroundings. We explore in this Model the learnings and potentials around it.
Our objective through this work: to provide new approaches to facilitators to teach learners, including adults from disadvantaged backgrounds, to become true actors of change in their local communities.
2. Bite-size learning tools – a set of training and self-paced learning materials
The BSL are available as open educational resources (OER) that support disadvantaged groups and adult educators in implementing transformative community processes.
A set of Bite-sized learning tools (that we call teasers) that support learners, including disadvantaged groups, and adult educators in implementing transformative community processes in relation to a permaculture / community garden.
The 10 teasers cover topics such as soil health, ecosystem, water use and much more. They can be used either independent self-paced learning units (Open Educational Resources) or as teasers before/after micro-trainings as part of microlearning methodology, in order to motivate participants to attend each of the workshops and to encourage a joint reflection beforehand.
To share them, you can create an online community (a Whatsapp group, a Facebook group or any other social network). Teasers can be sent out in a way that encourages feedback from participants and encourages them to share other similar information or reflections.
3. An Engagement Program to increase motivation for active social participation
This Program has the objective to reach 60 adults, with focus on those with fewer possibilities, who will exchange experience during micro trainings and social activities with peers. The point is to foster their participation in the society, and to grow community relations.
The engagement program aims at engaging adults for participating actively in modern society in a lifelong perspective, such as critical thinking, civic and environmental awareness, food autonomy, learning for healthy lifestyles and adaptation techniques to climate change. The engagement program is composed of a set of micro-trainings, that integrate informal and non-formal learning activities with social networking, in close proximity to the gardening setting. This Guide for facilitators was created to support all facilitators, adult educators, trainers and general citizens who want to organize micro-trainings in relation to a community garden. In includes 10 examples of activities and lesson plans on the subject of social gardening, permaculture and sustainable lifestyles. It also includes tools on how to evaluate the outcoems and impact as well as a Guide of Best practices. You can read more and download the Guide for facilitators of micro-training here.