Adult Educators on Orchard Social Enterprises Erasmus Project

Project Title

Adult Educators on Orchard Social Enterprises

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: Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Social entrepreneurship / social innovation; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries

Project Summary

The skills and knowledge associated with traditional orchards and local heritage varieties of fruit trees, including their rich biodiversity and cultural heritage, are declining over Europe. However orchard social enterprises are increasing over many parts of Europe as an approach to educating and involving low skilled local people in the development and management of orchards, as well as the processing and marketing of tree fruit products. This project will address this need and opportunity to improve orchard skills and knowledge.

The CORE project aims to develop, based on the exchange of good practices, innovative pedagogical material that will motivate and encourage rural, low-skilled adults to work together to set up, manage and use traditional orchards and their heritage fruit trees both as commercial and social enterprises. Our target audience will be adult educators of rural, low-skilled, part-time farmers, smallholders, and members and volunteers of land-managing community organisations and social enterprises.

The five partner organisations are either social enterprises or foundations, promote traditional orchards and local heritage fruit trees, provide education courses. They are coordinated by SustEd – Sustainability Education, UK, and include Fundacja AgriNatura, Poland; The Ecological Institute for Sustainable Development, Hungary; Streuobstwiesen Netzwerk Nordeifel eG, Germany; and Archeologia Arborea Foundation, Italy.

The project focuses on exchanging good practices in terms of educating adults using at least two one-day courses run by each of the partners, with over 200 participants. The courses will help us to test and develop some teaching guides. Our links with wider networks and our associate organisations will enable us to showcase a range of commercial and social enterprises.

The partners will have regular monthly Skype calls and partner meeting in each of the four partner countries, producing newsletters to review progress, and regularly updating our social media. All the teaching resources will be freely available through the website.

The project will develop a website with a database of contacts and good practices, as well as case studies on a range of enterprises and courses, and short videos. It will also produce some teaching guides on Growing heritage varieties of fruit trees; Marketing heritage orchard products; Managing orchards with nature; and Working with others as an orchard enterprise. Lastly it will establish a Network of European Traditional Orchard Educators.

The project will have a wide range of impacts on the partner staff and organisations – improving their educational services, more educated and motivated staff, more recruitment of members and volunteers, and introducing three of the partners to Erasmus +. It will improve the skills, employability and satisfaction of learners, and enable them to extend their interests and experience and skills in the management of orchards, as well as the use, processing and marketing of a wide range of heritage tree fruit. Lastly it will enable orchard educators to links with others through a new European network.

Project Website

https://coreorchard.wixsite.com/core/home

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 59000 Eur

Project Coordinator

Susted & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Ecological Institute for Sustainable Development Ökológiai Intézet Alapítvány
• Streuobstwiesen Netzwerk Nordeifel eG
• Fundacja Rolniczej Roznorodnosci Biologicznej AgriNatura
• Fondazione Archeologia Arborea onlus