Community Education in the field of environment and climate protection as potential for civil society engagement. PROJECT PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS: Kärntner Bildungswerk Betriebs GmbH (AUT), Asociatia Euro Adult Education (ROU), Kyttaro Enallaktikon Anazitiseon Neaon KEAN (GRC) Strategies for adaptation to climate change must aim, among other things, to encourage citizens to work together on sustainable solutions to future challenges in order to maintain their own quality of life. Rural and urban areas face different challenges when it comes to how civil society commitment can meet the challenges of climate change. The project partners' experience with community education processes in different areas will be used to learn from each other and to implement components for successful community education processes in the field of environmental and climate protection. The overall aim of the project is to activate civil society engagement in the field of climate protection. Furthermore, the project aims at developing options for action for citizens in rural and urban areas, raising awareness of climate change issues and promoting a change towards a more sustainable way of life. Through the exchange of experiences with different framework conditions in rural and urban areas, components for successful community education in the field of environmental and climate protection will be identified and published as output of the project in guidelines. These guidelines are a concrete result of the project which include community education methods that can be applied in the field of environmental and climate protection for citizens in urban and rural areas to activate and motivate them to design their own living space. These results will be presented at a final conference to the respective local network partners of the project partners and their main local, regional and national stakeholders (at least 10 organisations). The project offers institutions concrete support in form of these guidelines to activate citizens in urban and rural regions to participate in shaping their own living space. Stakeholders are made aware of community education methods through the project, which we expect to increase the appreciation of community oriented approaches. Since each partner institution works in the field of community education and the guidelines provide concrete methods after the end of the project, the project partners' efforts to put them into practice are very high. The topic of environmental and climate protection will accompany all partner organisations in their future work. The guidelines provide a basis for this work that can be called up at any time. In the best case, the community education methods carried out will promote structures of voluntary engagement, which can then be used for challenges other than those of environmental and climate change.
The project aimed to collect options for actions for citizens in rural and urban areas, to raise awareness of climate change issues and to promote a change towards a more sustainable way of life. The goal was to exchange experience between the project partner countries/organizations, collect methods for community education in the field of environmental and climate protection and develop a compact material that inspires and supports adult education organizations, initiatives, volunteers and stakeholders to face and integrate the issues of climate change in their daily work.
The project "Community Education in Environmental and Climate Protection as a Potential for Civil Society" is related to the impacts of climate change, which increasingly spill over into areas of daily life. Community education can make an important contribution here by reaching out to civil society and motivating them to take an active role in making their communities (more climate friendly). This is because community education brings citizens and organizations together, strengthens their self-efficacy potential, and empowers them to act together in a needs- and resource-oriented way - for more identification with solutions and a sustainable and livable future for all. Since climate change can only be adequately understood and addressed as an international issue, cross-border cooperation and exchange of experience is particularly valuable. Therefore, it was important for the project partners to exchange experiences and methods internationally and to develop compact material from this in order to be able to tackle the topic of climate change together with the citizens. Finally, an adult education institution with a professional self-image must take these challenges into account with its offerings.