Catalysts for Civic Engagement and Community Resilience

CONTEXT & MOTIVATION We are living historic times that define the new normality as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. From this complex and dynamic situation urgent needs emerge: the need for a more just, equitable and resilient society. When combined with (1) the availability of high quality learning, (2) an increasing civic engagement and participative democracy, (3) co-created policies for community resilience and social and solidarity economy, we postulate that rural territories can become a leverage point for change in the cities, providing a healthy and sustainable food supply, and prototyping social, economic and ecological innovation, while establishing diverse, sovereign and mutually supportive regions. TARGET GROUPS: 1. YOUTH & ADULT COMMUNITY MEMBERS - Innovative learning opportunities - Gain the competences to be more resilient - Helping their community as a whole 2. COMMUNITY EDUCATORS - High quality resources to facilitate learning environments 3. PUBLIC & PRIVATE TECHNICIANS and POLICY MAKERS - Innovative learning opportunities, embedded in a networked learning environment - Gain the skills and competences to carry out their specialist work

MAIN GOAL “Developing methodologies and tools to catalyse rural regions so that they could become leading innovators and policy contributors of the European transition towards overcoming the systemic crisis; training potential catalysts through the development of practical and educational resources, an educational platform and a community of rural resilience practitioners at the European level.” SPECIFIC CROSS-CUTTING OBJECTIVES 1. COMMUNITY RESILIENCE AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT To establish a transversal and intercultural dialogue that evolves the democratic processes in our rural territories. 2. SUSTAINABLE AND REGENERATIVE DEVELOPMENT To teach new ways of understanding and planning for rural bioregions 3. SOCIAL AND SOLIDARITY ECONOMY To promote collective entrepreneurship through social technology in rural areas 4. EUROPEAN RURALITY, AS NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE To create a broad and diverse learning community of rural practitioners and researchers who share experiences and solutions to common problems

ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED In addition to general project management tasks, which included ongoing monitoring evaluation & learning activities as well as communication & dissemination through the project’s social media accounts and website, the project Catalysts for Civic Engagement and Community Resilience proposes to implement the following activities: 1. PROJECT RESULT: Toolkit on Community Resilience We created a toolkit for youth & adult rural community members, local policy makers & leaders, public & private technicians, so that they could have the tools and strategies needed to generate civic engagement and catalyze community resilience in rural territories. 2. PROJECT RESULT: Teaching & Training Curriculum on Community Resilience We developed a teaching & training curriculum for educators and trainers to teach youth & adult rural community members, policy makers & leaders, public & private technicians and the university students, so that they could have the skills and competences needed to catalyze community resilience in their rural territories. 3. PROJECT RESULT: Pilot Training in Civic Engagement and Community Resilience To design a learning process that is flexible and adaptable, we needed to test it in a prototype form, to receive feedback, and coherently improve it. The focus of this comprehensive training was to test the teaching of practical community resilience tools, methodologies and strategies with local actors according to the four transversal objectives, as well as engaging university students in this pilot training process from the perspective of future practitioners, policy makers and/or researchers. The four transversal areas that were covered in the training were in line with the four transversal objectives of this project: · Civic engagement for community resilience · Sustainable and regenerative development · Social and solidarity economy · European rurality as natural & cultural heritage 4. PROJECT RESULT: E-Learning Platform for Community Catalysts We designed and established an online learning platform to disseminate tools and methodologies to catalyze community resilience in rural territories, through strategies and concrete tools for civic engagement, community resilience, social solidarity economy and regenerative development. This was done through webinars and self-guided educational modules, and the facilitation of an online community with local hubs nested in a transnational space of dialogue, learning, exchange and innovation. 5. Four regional Conferences on Catalysting Community Resilience We carried out regional conferences in four rural regions across peripheral Europe, with the following objectives: · Learn about and explore the Project Results through the participatory and co-creative method called “Hackathon” to harness and further innovate these results · Promote a broad participation in the E-learning platform on community resilience · Involve participants in the dissemination and multiplication of all Results at the regional and national level 6. One International Practitioner & Policy Conference The International Practitioner & Policy Conference hosted by EPE in Brussels aimed to create an exchange space between practitioners working towards socio ecological transitions in rural areas and European policy makers concerned with achieving the green and digital transitions, while strengthening Europe’s resilience and social contract. The objectives of the conference were threefold: · Present the educational outputs of the project which includes tools for the contextualisation of the Green New Deal to peripheral rural communities in Europe; · Create space for dialogue bridging the gap between rural practitioners and policy makers and charting new ways of collaboration in the context of the future of Europe and on matters related to civic engagement; · Question and deconstruct basic assumptions informing the urban-rural divide debates in Europe in the context of the necessary shifts and diverse roles towards net-zero societies.

The CCECR project aimed to achieve the following outcomes: 1. Local community members, technicians and policy makers are skilled and active proponents of community resilience processes and local & European civic engagement. 2. There are networked local communities in the rural case study regions, as localised community resilience learning and practice hubs. 3. As well as transnationally networked local communities learning and working together to advance community resilience in different rural areas across Europe. 4. Increased awareness around SDGs, European Green Deal and their potential implications for policy co-design and co-implementation at the local and European level 5. An accessible E-learning platform that engages learners, practitioners and educators in topics related to building community resilience, through civic engagement, social solidarity economy and regenerative development proposals and content. The following project results and outputs have contributed to achieving these outcomes: · A toolkit about the practical implementation of community resilience in rural regions for local agents, based on an innovative theoretical-methodological framework in community resilience and systematising local patterns and processes of community resilience in the rural case study bioregions. This toolkit was designed for community catalysts, including general youth and adult community members, community educators, technicians and policy makers. Toolkit aimed to stimulate citizen participation, the creation of spaces for intercultural dialogue and social inclusion, the design of public policies, etc. · Open-source downloadable pedagogical material (including teaching posters and videos) and a community resilience curriculum for community and university educators interested in and/or needing cutting-edge innovative teaching material and curricula on how to foster and embed community resilience in rural communities and other marginal or vulnerable communities. · Pilot trainings for local community members and university students, in the practical application of community resilience in rural regions. · An E- learning platform dedicated to the exchange and learning between participants of the different activities of the project, accessible to all participating countries in their mother tongue. On this open-access platform, users can access and download all materials produced by the project as well as get a personalised assessment and do online modules. The Toolkit cards can be filtered by SDGs, group sizes, goals, etc., therefore facilitators can edit and download their own, personalised toolkit. · Communication: We engaged hundreds of people in person and online through our community events and through social media stories. · Multiplier Events: We hosted successful local multiplier events in each project country and 1 high-profile international event in Brussels. Embedded into the E-learning platform we created webinars on the different transversal topics and concrete outputs of the CCECR (i.e. Toolkit & Curriculum). · Local participatory conferences on Civic Engagement and Community Resilience strategies and tools, providing a space in which local community members, technicians and policy makers can now exchange and participate in the collective learning around all four of the project results shared during these multiplier events. · A transnational participatory conference in Brussels on Civic Engagement and Community Resilience, which provided a space in which local community members, technicians and policy makers could exchange with European policy makers regarding tools & strategies for accelerating community resilience processes in rural communities, with special attention to disseminating the four project results.