Adult Education for Sustainable Living

The core aim of the project was to raise awareness on sustainable living generally and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular. The main motivation to conduct the project activities...

The objectives this project has fulfilled to the full extent were defined as follows: 1. Raising professional competences of staff working with adults at risk of exclusion as for innovative methodologies for promoting knowledge and skills related to SDGs as a way of enhancing social activism and civic engagement 2. Empowering adults to become actively involved citizens able to advocate for changes towards more sustainable living in their local communities as well as on the national/European levels 3. Promoting new educational approaches to sustainability and activism through development of tangible project results developed as follows: • Activisms for Sustainable Living: training package for educators • Activism for Sustainable Living: online course for adult learners

In order to achieve the project objectives, we have implemented a variety of activities and actions addressed to our main target groups (adult learners and staff members working with them) as well as to general public. These activities were the following: • Learning Teaching Training for multipliers on how to teach sustainability and activism to adult learners at risk • Testing the educational materials developed during the LTT and gathering feedback from adult learners and staff members working with them • Developing the project results • National Dissemination Events • Consistent, diverse, and regular promotional online activities based on the dissemination strategy developed by the project consortium

The activities undertaken within the project framework brought the following results: During the project: 1. Raise of the professional capacities of the personnel from partner organizations working with adults at risk. Staff members from the partner organizations who specialize in working with adults at risk of exclusion raised their professional competences and capacities by gaining access to practical yet effective methodologies and tools aiming at promoting sustainable development goals as a way of achieving greater level of activism and social/cultural/political engagement of adult learners. This was mostly achieved thanks to the learning teaching training activity during which participating educators shared knowledge and methodologies with their peers and jointly developed innovative curricula for teaching SDGs to adults. Moreover, as all the tools presented and discussed during the LTT were focused on empowering people with fewer opportunities, thus the project has significantly contributed to supporting individuals and communities at risk to participate in decision making on the community/national/EU levels and implementing the changes leading them to having more sustainable lives. 2. Increased competences of adults at risk of exclusion due to different factors. During the project the beneficiaries with whom the partner organizations are working have had access to a series of activities based on an innovative methodology and developed during the Teaching Learning Activities. 3. Tested, finalized, and shared tangible results on the topic on the topic of sustainability and the SDGs. The two different outputs (1. Activisms for Sustainable Living: training package for educators and 2. Activism for Sustainable Living: online course for adult learners have contributed to increasing professional capacities of practitioners, both the organizations who directly participated in the project and other stakeholders, such as municipalities, social support centers, and other governmental institutions. This has been achieved through a series of national dissemination events organized locally by all the partner organizations involved in this project. Upon the project completion: 1. Closer cooperation and strengthened network of participating organization who have significantly raised their capacities related to international cooperation and in result are now developing concrete and realistic ideas for follow-up large scale projects aiming at promoting social activism through popularizing SDGs as a basis for taking action and advocacy 2. Crating a network of local leaders from partner organizations who took an active part in the project activities. They too have increased their competences and became more engaged in the local social and cultural life and are now able upscale all the methods presented to them during the project and based on it develop further local actions also on the national/European levels. 3. Increased awareness and access to innovative methodologies regarding empowering adults at risk and promoting more sustainable ways of living observed among public institutions, NGOs, community centers, and other stakeholders who received access to the tangible project results thanks to our activities undertaken in the dissemination and promotion stage of the project.