EU Networks for sustainable future Erasmus Project

Project Title

EU Networks for sustainable future

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Regional dimension and cooperation; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

European networks for sustainable future is a project for exchange of good practice and peer to peer learning between national networks that connect sustainable communities and community led initiatives from seven European countries. The objective of this partnership is to connect on the regional level and explore possibilities for future regional cooperation. This connection will happen in two separate and fairly diverse European regions.

One regional network will be created between GEN Netherlands, Oasis France and Samenhuizen from Belgium. Two organisations from Luxembourg will join this project as associate partners interested to join this new regional network once it will be formed. Another regional network will be formed between three partners who represent countries that are geographically placed on the junction between south and north and east and west Europe: Permaculture Croatia, Felkelo Nap Hungary and Sunny Hill Slovenia. One Serbian organisation will join as an associate partner in the formation of this regional network.

The applicant organisation GEN Europe has 25 years tradition and connects ecovillages all around Europe, that are supported locally by their national networks who act as the link between small projects and the umbrella network GEN Europe. Three partners in this project are members of this umbrella organisation while other three are complementary networks with similar values and vision for the future.
The aim of the project is to connect these networks regionally to better serve their member organisations by providing high quality trainings and mentoring programs on socio-economic, environmental and cultural topics of sustainability. Each member organisation has valuable experience and expertise in some area that can inspire others. Exchange of experience, knowledge and examples of good practices that will happen during this project will mutually inspire partners to be able to offer even better and more holistic support to their members.

All partners are promoting alternative lifestyles and support creation of sustainable communities, ecovillages and co-housing projects that are ever more interesting models for groups of people who believe that stepping together can bring them better opportunities to conduct satisfactory life in cooperation with like minded people. Although their scope of work is similar the historical and socio-economic context of the partner organisations are fairly different. As a consequence the challenges they face call for different approaches. The levels of democracy and citizens participation in the two regions are not comparable. This diversity between partners will enrich the learning experience for all partners with some cultural insights and recognition of different realities inside the united Europe.

The main activities of this 2 year long project are:
2 transnational meetings
– a kick off meeting where all partners will meet together, exchange experience and explore possibilities for transnational cooperation and transfer of knowledge during the project
– an evaluation meeting where assessment of the cooperation and achievement of objectives will be evaluated. The next steps for the time after the project will be set.

2 regional meetings, one in each region, where only regional partners and the representative of GEN Europe will be present in the mentoring role. These two meetings will be dedicated to the formation of the regional networks.

2 trainings for 20 participants each:
– Art of networking and regional cooperation that will equip selected participants sent by partner organisations to set solid foundations for their regional networks.

– CLIPS (Community Lead Incubator Program for Sustainability) intended for the members of the newly formed regional networks, that offers tools and guidance to the community led projects in their initial stages.

Besides these activities the tangible results will be:
– two web pages: one for each new regional network
– a database of existing initiatives in both regions will be created and linked to the new webpages, to the webpage of GEN Europe and Oasis networks.

The project will have a long term impact on all participating partners and is intended to last long beyond the duration of this project, as an inspiration and example for others.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 117178 Eur

Project Coordinator

GLOBAL ECOVILLAGE NETWORK OF EUROPEEV & Country: DE

Project Partners

• HRVATSKA PERMAKULTURA
• Stichting GEN-NL
• Coopérative Oasis
• Samenhuizen
• Sončni Grič, društvo za trajnostno kulturo bivanja, Hrvoji
• Felkelo Nap Kozhasznu Egyesulet