The Ligue de l’enseignement de la Loire (France), Solidarci (Italie), and la Ligue de l’enseignement de Belgique are three non-profit organisations. They are active in the fields of formal and non-formal education and lifelong solidarity for all. They are involved in various missions, share common competences and also have their own qualities which are complementary. They work in favour of the education of citizens. They are cooperating on this project as they share the idea that it is necessary to enable each citizen to get a clear vision of the organization of his local territory which is embedded in a much larger whole, shaping our planet. They have identified Europe and each continent as being made of pieces of puzzle shaping the picture of the planet. Each of these pieces of territory, of different sizes, corresponds to river basins. This why the partner organizations believe that enabling citizens to know their river better will enable them to understand their local environment better and also the global society they live in and participate to. All civilizations and human activities have been built around water, and rivers are linking arteries between human beings, regions and countries. Through water, the cooperation between human beings becomes essential. Thanks to their educational activities, the partners have observed that their audiences (children and adults) did not know much about their territory and even less about its integration on a larger river basin where all inhabitants are in direct relations. The notion of river basin itself is often not well known. The organizations have also noticed that there is no pedagogical illustration enabling citizens and educators (teachers, trainers, group leaders…) to grasp this notion in a simple way which would be linked to all territories. The project Fleuves Grandeur Nature (FGN, Life Sized Rivers) consists in the development of tools enabling to initiate awareness-raising, education and training actions towards young and adult audiences and thus to give them a global vision of the territory where they live. From powerful illustrations (of river basins and the life of the territories) declined in a pedagogical toolbox and a digital space, they want to create a set of tools usable by all the territories and locally transferrable to all European countries. Those two versions (pedagogical toolkit and digital space) will enable the partners to target a large audience, children and adults, in formal and non formal settings. The tools will be developed and distributed on a large scale, on 5 river basins in France (about 80% of the country) to 250 educational organizations. This large distribution will enable the partners to acquire methods and expertise in order to expand FGN in Italy and Belgium later on. Five pedagogical toolkits will also be created for 2 river basins in Belgium and in Italy. These toolkits will allow la Ligue de l’enseignement de Belgique and Solidarci to use and broadcast the tool locally and start setting up the necessary partnerships to expand the FGN on their national territory and on other river basins (after this project). On those two river basins, the pedagogical activities will be used and tested, and will enable the conceptualization of tools transferable to all countries. These activities included in the tools (pedagogical toolkit and web tools) are transversal to all the local declinations of FGN. Thanks to the pedagogical activities, educators will be able to tackle all the aspects of the organization of the setting around the river (local geography, biodiversity and river life, land settlement, local agriculture, water leisure, energy production etc…) All the stages of designing the FNG tools will be set up in partnership with the different local actors concerned on the targeted river basins. FGN will build for and with the local stakeholders, thus ensuring a good match between the project, their expectations and the local issues. At the end of the project, dissemination events will be organized for other organizations to get familiar with the tools and exchange practices.
The Ligue de l’enseignement de la Loire (France), Solidarci (Italie), and la Ligue de l’enseignement de Belgique are three non-profit organisations. They are active in the fields of formal and non-formal education and lifelong solidarity for all. We are committed to diversified mission statements, we share common competencies, we have peculiar and complementary qualities, but we all stand for the citizens’ education. We involve you in our project, as we share the idea that it is necessary to empower as many citizens as possible in their knowledge and clear representation of the organisation of their local territories which, like the pieces of a puzzle, all together compose the larger landscape of the Planet Earth. Every single piece of a territory, small or large that it be, correspond to a River basin. We also believe that if citizens learn to know their rivers, they will understand much better both their close environments and also the global society they belong to. Human Civilisations and activities took place around the Water, alongside the rivers which are arteries of connection amongst human communities, Regions and countries of Europe in our specific case. Water makes the co-operation between humans necessary. Through 163 educational tests with 5.613 European citizens we confirm that our audiences (children, adolescents, youngsters and adults) had a very tiny knowledge of their rivers and local territories and of the interconnection of their lives with the citizens of other River basins’ zones. Even the notion of “River basin” is quite unknown. We also confirm that there was no, before "FGN", pedagogical tools and illustrations sustained the educators (teachers, trainers, animators…) in their easy learning about their localities. The “Fleuves Grandeur Nature” project (FGN, Life Sized Rivers) achieved to develop a varied set of educational tools (the FGN toolkit) enabling awareness-raising initiatives, education and training actions towards young and adult audiences and thus to give them a global vision of the territory where they live. Starting from powerful illustrations of the River basins and of the life in these territories declined in a pedagogical toolkit and a digital space, we have created a wide set of tools usable by all and locally transferrable to other European countries. Those two versions (printed pedagogical toolkit and digital space’s resources) will enable the partners to target a large audience, children and adults, in formal and non-formal settings, inside and outside school. The width of our dissemination activities has been valuable and relevant everywhere with key National/International/Regional institutions such as Ministries and International River Basins, even if with different quantitative expected outputs as compared to the French Territory (as foreseen since the very beginning). European networks such as EAEA, EUCIS-LLL and platforms (EPALE, the Education School Gateway) have been equally mobilised at the end of the dissemination phase. 180 educational toolkits have been edited and distributed over all the participating River basins so that tens of thousands of people are sensitized in the coming years. Eight posters representing 8 different River basins combined with several annexed educational activities (demography, biodiversity, landscapes, orientation…) to better understand our connection to the rivers have been released. Every toolkit is usable by multiple publics, settings and timing. A wide and in-depth evaluation plan showed both quality and pertinence of the project’s results. Close to 90 bodies regrouped together to lead to such a good result, whereas in 180 received the final toolkit. FGN is a true human adventure achieved beyond a spirit of co-operation amongst stakeholders of multiple horizons and scopes. Thanks to all! Nine dissemination events have generated a large, long-lasting impact. Nowadays, « Fleuves Grandeur Nature » lives through several partners in our three countries and abroad, thanks to their connections and to the European networks and platforms. Our European website www.fleuves-grandeur-nature.org makes it possible everybody’s access on a freeway and the web page: "Discover a river" enhances virtual journeys in the 8 landscapes represented. You will also find the full evaluation of our work, both internal and external. Do please contact us at the addresses indicated in the FGN website in case you are interested in applying FGN in your localities or if you aim to transfer it to another corner of the European Union, and/or of the World.