Change the Change. Climate Change as a Challenge for Adult Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Change the Change. Climate Change as a Challenge for Adult Education

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: Environment and climate change; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

Climate change happens here and now. It became evident by hot summers, extreme weather events, sea level rise, declining Arctic sea ice, etc. This will have a tremendous impact on natural cycles, water supply, food production, the conditions for human life in quite vast areas due to overheating and devastation and will thus push migration. These effects will challenge the cohesion of societies. They are likely to lead to conflicts that can also endanger democracy.
With its Europe 2020 Strategy, the European Union has explicitly formulated the goal of “Climate change and energy” with a targeted reduction in greenhouse gases, a switch to renewable energies and increased energy efficiency (each by 20%). To “change the (climate) change”, to avoid destruction is therefore a task that concerns ALL citizens including non-privileged adults. Conventional educational offers on these topics do not reach them or only inadequately.

This project brings four organisations from Bulgaria, Germany, Greece and Italy together which work with citizens ‘at the margin’ of society, mainly in suburban areas of big cities. The partners aim to empower adult educators who work with non-privileged learners through exchange of good practices. Each organisation contributes through its expertise so that the consortium combines participative civic education approaches with social work, community development, art (photography) and ICT skills. The exchange results in a MOOC for adult trainers and interested volunteers who mainly act in a context of precarity and social difficulties. The activities will be documented on the project’s website.

The partners take into account that ‘changing the change’ education should follow a multi-level approach. In this project, this includes a) activities to foster a general understanding of what climate change means and the profound transformation of our societies it will bring, thus coping with complexity, enhancing critical thinking in particular to right-wing answers and climate change denials, strengthening European cooperation and peaceful conflict solving. It also includes b) exploring fields of activities to counteract climate change regarding one’s own behaviour and projects which might be put in practice locally by its citizens. The project therefore intends also to contribute to the Europe 2020 goal of reducing social exclusion.

Project Website

http://cc.weltgewandt-ev.de/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 53590 Eur

Project Coordinator

weltgewandt. Institut für interkulturelle politische Bildung e.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

• HEALTH AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION
• ACTION SYNERGY SA
• CORVIALE DOMANI APS