Breakthrough for Resilience: People, Places, and Communities Erasmus Project

Project Title

Breakthrough for Resilience: People, Places, and Communities

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Social entrepreneurship / social innovation; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

‘People’ and ‘Place’ combine to form ‘Community’. People have connections with Places for many reasons. Communities are shaped by the Places in which they exist. Places are shaped by People, not always taking into account the protection of the Place. Communities are created by and of people and shape the people in them. This project will look at how the connections between people, place and community can create resilience. This project seeks to find resilience approaches or tools in each of these three areas, catalogue them and discuss and explore how each model, method, resource, technique or organisation can be used to promote resilience in the other two aspects and create a common methodology for resilience. For example, the principles of nature conservancy can be applied to fostering resilience in people and in communities too. Partners will review tools and research new resources where appropriate and each will focus on one of these three aspects. Examples of resilience tools are the ‘Wheel of Life Technique’ for personal resilience and the ‘Community Resilience Tool’ for communities. As an example, The Wheel of Life Technique for personal resilience will be examined for use in resilience work for place and community. Similarly, the processes used in nature conservancy for establishing resilience for ecosystems will be examined for applicability to people and community. The body of work and the tasks and activities, as well as the content created by the partners, will use specific experience from the UK, Greece, Sweden, and Italy.

For ‘personal resilience’ the project will target people and organisations working in mental health issues, adult educators, coaches, youth workers, or community groups who address 2019 Erasmus+ Programme priorities of equity and inclusion by working with people with face mental health issues such as psychiatric conditions, and also with people facing social obstacles such as discrimination because of gender, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, etc., people living a precarious situation, young and/or single parents, orphans and other people with fewer opportunities. For the resilience of ‘places’, the project will work alongside environmental organisations who prioritise the conservation of natural spaces that follow principles of environmental sustainability for the common good as well as the European Union’s commitment to a ‘A Healthy and Sustainable Environment for Present and Future Generations’ (European Commission paper, 2014) and the Union’s international commitment to reducing carbon emissions from the production of greenhouse gases as reflected in the 2015 Paris Agreement. People working in these fields often face ongoing stress from the challenges of protecting natural spaces and resources. People working in these conditions will benefit from carrying out work in personal resilience too. For the resilience of communities, the project will work with community groups that put community building at the centre of the activities they do and that can often become a field for people and places to build resilience together.

The project will have an impact on how participants utilise resilience methods and approaches in any obstacles that they might face. At the end of the project, participants will show an understanding of ‘resilience’ and its connection to ‘people’, ‘places’, and ‘communities’ with specific examples from Sweden, Greece, the UK, and Italy. Participants will be able to understand how resilience methods and approaches might be useful to overcome difficulties in their personal life, the places where they live, and the communities and put a plan forward to do so in the area of focus they will have chosen during the programme, one for each of the 3 groups that will run in each partner country. At the end of the project, facilitators from the four partner organisations will also be able to use transferable skills in current or new programmes and projects. To complete the BfR Adult Education project, the team will produce the ‘Breakthrough for Resilience Handbook’ that will include videos as case studies from participants in Italy, Sweden, Greece, and the UK.

This project follows a transnational approach because different resilient tools, models, methods and approaches have been carried and tested in different places by different people and different communities and having a wider pool of tools will increase the likelihood that participants will find one that suits their needs to address ongoing stress, difficulties and challenges. In turn, the partnership will deliver a comprehensive methodology for resilience that will consider examples from the four participating organisations and increase the availability of resilience tools. 

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 238849 Eur

Project Coordinator

The Surefoot Effect, CIC & Country: UK

Project Partners

• SOCIETY OF SOCIAL PSYCHIATRY P. SAKELLAROPOULOS
• Volontariato Torino
• MOBILIZING EXPERTISE AB