A pandemic is not just a medical phenomenon; it affects individuals and society and causes disruption, anxiety, stress, stigma, and xenophobia. The behaviour of an individual as a unit of society or a community has changed as had its effect on the dynamics of every individual in Europe and beyond. As more and more people are forced to stay home in self-isolation to prevent further flow of the COVID-19 governments must take the necessary measures to provide mental health support as prescribed by experts. In light of these exceptional circumstances, the project takes up the challenge to support society by putting creative balcony gardening as its focal point, to support innovation in education and provide opportunities for the personal, socio-educational, and professional development of people in Europe. Partners of this project agreed that young adults, in general, play an essential role in Europe’s civil society, and they are the most affected by the harmful effects of this pandemic. Balcony gardening has the potential to increase the target groups’ health and wellbeing effectively. It is suitable for boosting self-esteem, good for the hearth, reduces stress, can make people happy precisely what human needs during the restrictions as our daily routines have changed. Gardening in the Age of Coronavirus - The Balcony Gardens With as much as one-quarter of the world’s population currently in coronavirus lockdown now is the time to use your time and make a balcony garden to keep safe and healthy too. Scientific evidence shows how gardening and being in a garden will help to keep you well. 1.Gardens provide a place for experiencing nature which is proven to benefit mental health, cognitive functioning, and emotional wellbeing. 2.Gardening reduces depression, anxiety, obesity and heart disease as well as increasing life satisfaction, quality of life, and sense of community. 3.Gardens are essential to supporting recovery from illness, and merely looking at gardens can reduce stress, blood pressure, and muscle tension. Using plants to brighten up the terraces are not their only function, plants can be used in an innovative and creative way and can have useful purposes (ex. to use amber as a curtain to darken the rooms or to use cactus fields against pigeons). The creative usage of greens is not well known or used in urban environments. As a prove, it is enough to walk the cities and look for balconies- max. 1 out of 10 terraces have flowers, but it is very rare to see plants as useful decorative items. The coronavirus lockdown provides the time and opportunity to create the garden that we always wanted, or we didn’t know we want, producing a sense of price and of course, pleasure for adults and their households. Our objective is to promote balcony gardening among adults in order to obtain the following benefits for them on a personal level and for the local communities: - to reduce elevated levels of adverse mental health conditions, substance use, and suicidal ideation reported by adults - to raise awareness of balcony gardening, environmental challenges and climate/change - to develop competencies needed for a sustainable approach to life - to develop methodologies for acquiring balcony gardening skills - to test innovative practices from the project's countries by implementing them in the base of the projects "green platform" Project’s elements: 1. Three management meetings: a kick-off meeting – on-line, a mid-term meeting in Hungary, an evaluation meeting in Slovakia. 2. Development of two intellectual outputs: 1) Balcony Gardening Creative Tutorial Videos 2) Balcony Gardening E-learning Platform 3. Eight multiplier events (in Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, Poland). CABBAGE the Balcony gardening project, which has gardening as its axis of activation for young adults who are living in an urban environment, where the lack of green areas is a well-known issue. Our project is a community-building movement based on mutual communication and commonly defined aims by European partnering organizations. The priority of our project is to catalyze development skills and help young adults to achieve new competencies and skills which will boost creativity and support development through urban balcony gardening.
Young adults have an essential role in Europe’s society and they were affected by the harmful effects of the pandemic the most, the partners' main objectives were set to promote balcony gardening in order to obtain the following benefits for them on a personal level and for the local communities across Europe: - Reducing elevated levels of adverse mental health conditions, substance use, suicidal thoughts reported by adults - Raising awareness of balcony gardening, environmental challenges and climate/change - Developing competencies needed for a sustainable approach to life - Develop methodologies for acquiring balcony gardening skills - Testing innovative practices from the project's countries by implementing them in the base of the project's "green e-learning platform" We were devoted to support skill development of young adults and inclusion through the unique creative balcony concept, to provide a top-notch and informal education considering environmental-friendly approaches. Combining all these elements into an innovative educational platform, we offered a one-stop-shop for young learners wishing to improve their personal, socio-educational, professional development and well-being through gardening and experiencing nature.
In times of Covid when more and more people were forced to stay home in self-isolation, which resulted in an increased number of people suffering from mental health problems. This was particularly true for young adults who experienced extreme stress, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, lack of purpose or often substance use to cope with all of these harmful effects. The partnership wanted to offer a therapeutic solution to this unhealthy lifestyle by promoting creative balcony gardening in order to reduce elevated levels of adverse mental health conditions and boost a healthy, environmentally friendly life by raising awareness of the topic. We were dedicated to providing a comprehensive e-learning platform and educational videos for the targeted young adults to relieve stress, mitigate the other harmful effects of the pandemic, and connect the youngsters via a network to share experiences, swap seeds, and empower them to create a beautiful balcony landscape. We believed that the non-formal and informal adult learning methods inspired and motivated them, to change their consumption habits to adopt green gardening on a domestic and local level and eventually lead to a profound change in lifestyles and eco-innovations.