By Forest Education

The project met a real needs indicated in Europe 2020 Strategy which described the problem of the EU as risk of poverty and social exclusion. The goal was set on the European level as the number of people who are poor or socially excluded should decrease by 20 million. By Eurostat, in 2016 there were 119.8 million people at risk of poverty and social exclusion which is 24.2% of the total population. The announcement of poverty and social exclusion is unemployment, the status of social and property is influenced by education, age, and addiction. The organisations which formed a partnership in the project independently identified the same problems in their regions. The Polish coordinator proposed the theme of the project on Internet and other three organisations from Europe agreed to participate in a project which proposed to minimize the level of social exclusion caused by unemployment, low education and impoverishment. So, four non-governmental organizations from four European countries - France, Poland, Romania and Italy - established the strategic partnership for adult education. The partners supported participants of the project in improving their basic skills and key competences to increase their employability and to support social, educational and personal development. 200 adults were available to participate in an extraordinary educational process. The uniqueness of this process resulted from the connection of the cultural heritage of Europe, in the form of the richness of forests, as a natural heritage with the educational process and also with participation in civic and social life. The main goal was to increase access of 200 people (120 women) from disadvantaged target groups to high quality non-formal and informal education based on the transnational cooperation and the resources of European natural heritage such as forests leading to reduce the level of their social exclusion. The staff also developed their skills and competences in the field of adult education, especially in electronic tools, motivation process, using natural heritage as a classroom. Why the forests? The forest once covered all of Europe, it is the beginning of the development of our economy and culture. Currently, forests are still an element connecting people with nature, they are a therapeutic environment for people who are excluded, inhibited, with low social competences. Natural resources of European forests have given rise to wide forestry, i.e. hunting, hunting, and herbalism, bee-keeping. For generations, at the same time is a friendly place, it is a good basis for learning. Forest was also the common value understood by all the project participants. The forest was an element connecting the participants of the partnership, it was a familiar starting point for the process of education of adults threatened with social exclusion. Individual competences developed by the participants of the project were combined into thematic blocks related to the forest: 1. Forest laboratory - for the development of mathematical, scientific, critical thinking, social competences. 2.Philharmonic - ICT skills, technical and social. 3. Forest information - using information, information processing, thinking, writing, reading. 4. Forest entertainment – physical exercises, orientation, Nordic walking, terrain marking, spatial play "The Forest Tramp", using a laptop, cell phone, camcorder. 5. Forest economy - possibilities of developing own economic activity based on forest resources - berries, mushrooms, herbs, wood. 6. Lest history and literature-forest and history of Europe, stories inspired by forest, writing, reading, ICT. 7. Protection of the natural heritage of Europe - shaping a sense of community, multiculturalism. One of the expected results was an increase in attractiveness of learning and quality of education among the disadvantaged groups due to the methodology we proposed, based on the developed methodology for increasing knowledge and skills based on natural history resources, using the potential of participants, Gardner's pro-civilian approach to develop 8 different intelligences in man, leaving training rooms, adding physical effort, elements of play and games, the opportunity to win prizes and competition. The goal was achieved based on cooperation of partners, as an educational tool, their experience and methods of work. Implementation of the objective was impossible to be accomplished at the national level as multiculturalism. The implementation of the project took place during the difficult period of the pandemic, which severely affected the partner countries at the beginning of 2020. The meeting of partners planned in the first half of the year could not take place, remote work with participants was ongoing. Therefore, it was necessary to rebuild the project, especially in terms of preparing the staff for remote work, adding motivating topics and improving the mental condition of the audience. The subject of the project, i.e. Forest Education, gained importance in the era of isolation and loneliness. The partners raised the competences of the staff in the field of remote work with listeners, we organized web conferences, virtual trainings for the staff. The project plan has been rebuilt, the end of the project has been changed twice in order to implement the planned mobility by August 2021. Mixed training sessions were held at international meetings, some people participated on-line.