"Rural European Association Development Innovation Team. READ IT - Active citizens in rural areas" is a highly ambitious and innovative education project that focuses on the development of rural areas in Europe. Knowing of all the political facts around demography, rural exodus, brain drain, overageing, underdeveloped social infrastructure etc. we see the challenges of rural areas in the 21st century but we do not have a successful approach to overcome those challenges. Do we not? This strategic partnership focuses exactly on this question: How to improve living conditions in rural areas and how to activate citizens in local communities to develop their own village for the better? The project is special because it brings together experiences and needs from all directions of the European Union (North /Sweden, South/Greece, West/France and Netherland, Center/ Germany and East/ Poland) thus having the great chance to have a balanced approach of experience exchange, best practice sharing and development of new approaches for active citizenship in rural areas. Next to an ongoing learning process with four transnational meeting to highlight the process the partnership will develop an (online) manual that brings together all the different aspects of the project. This manual will be open-source for all people and institutions involved in rural community development. It will be a sustainable tool as it stays available long after the partnership officially ends and may even lead to further cooperation in this specific area. Besides providing this great pool of knowledge the strategic partnership will also implement different ideas in the rural areas and communities connected to the partner organization to transfer the theory into practice. By doing this we will be actively engaged in local development in rural areas and experience what work and where are the obstacles. The project will be a vivid tool for real life activities and will not stay in the theoretic bubble. Local people will be trained and qualified as multiplier and local authorities and politicians will be involved in the learning process of this partnership so that both groups of people are able to transfer new strategies into their communities. As the manual will be publicly available it will be a great tool for everybody involved in rural development of active citizenship reaching out into every part of the European Union. Knowing that this partnership will not be the end of rural development, this project offers also new incentives for future projects that focus on specific issues or even updating the whole learning and experience process in a new strategic partnership that goes deeper on the matter. All in all this project offers a broad platform of exchange, learning and development on active citizenship in rural areas with a strong part on being practical by simultaneously providing theoretical background. This golden thread will guide all partner organizations through the whole learning process to achieve the set goal of the education partnership.
Since the 70s of the last century, the situation in many rural areas in Europe has changed dramatically . A process of accelerated decline took place: a severe decrease of inhabitants and facilities, weak infrastructure, changes in the agricultural sector, closing of shops and schools, young people leaving the areas, less employment, unoccupied houses and buildings, increased poverty, etc. Therefore it is urgent to increase the social viability and livability of small villages in the rural area. Together, young and old need to discuss the changing lifestyles and its consequences for new organizational structures. For this reason, project partners identified active citizenship and volunteering as a useful lever we have to strengthen and to rely on. It is important to know which learning wishes and needs active inhabitants have. This European project has worked in various to promote active citizenship in rural areas to compete the above mentioned deficiencies. Different European approaches have been revised and checked to enrich a strategy for rural areas all over Europe. Thus “social inclusion”, “Educators” and “Sustainable investment” are three crucial priorities that accompanied this strategic partnership over two years from September 2017 to September 2019. Six partners from Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Greece, Poland and Germany, representing all four points of the compass and new and older member states of the European Union got together to share, learn, work and create around the big and hot political topic of rural development. Local citizens and local communities have been empowered for a better future. The people involved in the project learned much from the exchange opportunities. Four transnational meetings and many local activities in the rural areas of the six participating countries have been realised. New voluntary structures to keep up the work for rural development have been established to grow a sustainable involvement that has resources to proceed the lifetime of this project. Many local institutions, organizations and local citizens could be involved in the project. We reached out to many players in our local communities and inspired people to get active in rural development. On the meta level the project had an online manual as concrete, visible and shareable output that will continue to grow with the work in the future. The manual gives concrete support for any activity in rural areas in seven steps plus is enriched with goοd-practice example from rural areas that function and can support others. The strategic partnership initiated a learning process in our rural areas and created a good pool of incentives to start more rural development work in others rural communities.The project was disseminated and promoted in various ways using a broad variety of online and offline tools. It was also possible next to concrete local citizens and rural organizations to include political decision-makers, political institutions and local authorities from our rural communities as well as politicians from the European level into the project and bring them in touch with rural areas in the context of the European dimension. A six-digit number of people got the chance to follow the project and get familiar with learning experiences and concrete results thanks to the multiple online and offline channels that were used within the partnership to go as broad to the public as possible. A core team of the partnership (steering committee) and satelliting local citizens made sure that transnational learning meetings as well as work in the local communities have been vivid and have been connected to the European dimension of the project. The project reached out and included many different local citizens and organization, from all age groups, including also many people who has fewer learning opportunities (e.g. language barriers, disabilities, social and financial obstacles). But all were united to the commitment of making their rural homes more vivid, sustainable, attractive and adorable. The transnational meetings brought concrete experiences and real rural projects into the partnership. That was really important to make the project true-to-life and not theoretical considerations. Thus, also the local citizens could be more included and had the terrific chance to Go European.