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ECO-SUFFICIENCY
Start date: May 4, 2015, End date: Feb 3, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Facing austerity measures and lack of opportunities, some European citizens experience self-absorption and join nationalist or reactionary movements. Yet, all around us, people are developing collective projects that prove that we have the capacity to ensure sustainable development in our territories and the well-being of people in our society. The training course Eco-Sufficiency aimed at promoting these projects based on humanistic values. We wanted to spread the knowledge on them, allowing people to face their needs better, to develop their projects and reach more autonomy. The training took place in South-West France (Midi-Pyrénées) from August, the 10th to August, the 27th. It gathered 28 youth workers and people involved in social projects from France, Spain, Italia and Portugal. Participants: - experienced community living and lowered their ecological footprint; - met people involved in social and/or eco-friendly projects and shared some of their daily activities; - worked together and faced cooperation challenges; - exchanged knowledges, know-hows and ideas with each other and built relationships that should lead to deeper partnerships and cooperation in the future. The training was designed as a research based on action, with learning courses (to think) and actions in the field (to do and to feel). Participants actively contributed to the building process of the workshops, interviews, debates and an extended experience of community living during the training. They prepared the training with the support of their sending organisation from May to July and took initiatives all along the training. Each step was an opportunity to meet people involved on the ground from various fields: culture, youth work, non-formal education, social economy, inclusion of people lacking opportunities or facing disabilities, etc. and to develop skills at their side. Participants shared their knowledge and experience with them, identified key factors of success and pitfalls to avoid while leading a social project. They experienced in the same time eco-friendly lifestyle and community living for 17 days. They questioned their way of living and shared practical tools to reduce their ecological impact and ensure positive group dynamics. They imagined ways to interact and cooperate with each other and developed their skills in the areas of group facilitation, mediation and communication. The training allowed participants to approach their work in a different way, to acquire knowledges and to improve themselves. It was an opportunity to gather, formalize, share and spread knowledges based on experiences all around Europe in a collaborative and trans-sectorial way. Participants acquired a common base of knowledges on local development and social innovation within Europe. They enhanced their practical intelligence and developed skills that they can use to increase the quality of their action. Participants took an active part in the evaluation of the training and in knowledge capitalization and dissemination. The diffusion of the results of the project and the good relationships that arose between the participants facilitate the development of social projects in the participants' communities and lead to the emergence of new co-operations at a European scale.
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