Jardins collectifs : pratiques croisées d'agriculture urbaine

The objective of the project was to enable the public concerned to acquire a better understanding of the environmental aspects linked to climate change. The project answered a genuine need for concrete information and for the acquisition of practices that help people cope -on a daily basis and without stress- with climate change. We therefore had to upgrade the abilities of the employees of Brind’grelinette and to reinforce the know-how of the volunteers of the two associations in order for them to share their knowledge efficiently.

We wished to give a wider scope to the actions developed by the two partners and to explore how community gardening can promote and boost social inclusion and become the engine of a practice of solidarity economy. The funding helped us to do things on a greater scale by confronting our North-South practices through transnational meetings. We were aware we had to work together on the European level : sharing our know-how and our abilities in order to inspire one another enabled us to enrich our experiences towards efficient transmission and the practice of social and inclusive urban gardening.

Within the framework of our project, we have set up workshops in order to share our know-how but also to raise debates over issues of food self-sufficiency, sober consumption patterns and the place of humans in their environment. With this in view, we programmed : - Several hands-on training sessions centered on every day life aspects (working the soil, sowing, tending the garden, collecting fruits and vegetables, cooking, eating better). These courses were also followed by disabled citizens and by people in precarious situations throughout the project. - Initiatives in order to limit the wasting of resources and to develop produce accessible to all (fruit growing on public property, natural materials for the confection of recyclable everyday objects) - meetings with qualified resource people in order to study applied « green » techniques (permaculture, humans and their environment, group management and leadership) - support for organizations in charge of autistic children during gardening activities. - eco-renovation workshops of young people. - discovering community gardens, collective or shared, as a source of inspiration and development for new methods.

Training sessions were offered to the inhabitants of the neighborhoods and volunteers of our Organizations, to disabled citizens and others in precarious positions (asylum seekers). Less theoretically, the arrangement of gardens, the creation or the renovation of ponds, the management of resources, the opening of garden space to cultural and artistic activities in connection with nature and the living world, the festival of permaculture at the Ecocentre Oasis in Mons, open-garden days, discussions about climate change issues and solutions for an intelligent transition. In addition, the conception and creation of knowledge transmission tools and the publication of extensive documentation about our practices and activities based on the courses given, traveling photo exhibitions, informative videos, a film about the project and some podcasts. Our activities have generated increased interest in our values and in our organizations and developed relations with the elected representatives of our two cities. This helped highlight the community work we achieved. Moreover, the many presentations we gave of the project have raised interest in the Erasmus+ program and prompted several people to apply and build simple partnerships