CONTEXT & BACKGROUND The project has been designed with the following perspectives in mind: • The widely agreed need for massive levels of transformative change to achieve a sustainable low carbon future • The development and sharing of innovation and good practice in learning about and demonstrating sustainable, low carbon living • The importance of place-based transformative learning to create behaviour change, for individuals and communities • The emergence of blended learning methods and systems, which can enable massive affordable accessibility and while linking this to experiential learning for deep engagement, and inner and outer transformation OBJECTIVES Our specific objectives are to: 1. Create a hybrid virtual and physical networked adult learning system for environmental and climate solutions with its foundations in place-based ‘learning-for-action’ 2. Create a system of blended learning and quality assurance 'badges' that reflects a commitment to high quality adult education on positive, deliverable solutions to the environmental and climate crises. 3. Facilitate, inspire and accelerate adult learning that brings about change that actively addresses the significant sustainability and climate problems of our time. Achieving these objectives aims to bring about massive personal and community-led change over time by supporting people to engage actively in the socio-ecological transition in response to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and related goals. PARTICIPANTS & TARGET GROUPS 14 people will engage in core iACT project meetings, with 200 in-person attendees of multiplier events, and a target of 200+ on-line participants. 43 people will be engaged in in-person iACT training, with at least as many participating in online training. Dissemination activities across the partnership’s extensive networks will benefit many thousands of people, by giving them access to and use of the iACT project outputs. The iACT project participants are composed of a mix of people representing bigger networks of community-led initiatives and smaller adult education providers. They have complementary domains of expertise (including community resilience, social innovation, collaborative and asynchronous working, online learning) and most have long-term collaborative engagement with each other. The project will cater for diverse target groups by creating a network and learning system which is highly accessible by: i) being both virtual and multi-sited; ii) having many points of entry for learners; iii) catering for a diverse range of learners; iv) creating or strengthening a sense of belonging by being place-based and through social learning programmes; v) stimulating new livelihoods in the emerging circular, ‘net zero’ and ethical enterprise economy; vi) fostering social inclusion and local solidarity in the face of the climate and environmental challenges. ACTIVITIES & METHODOLOGY: DEMONSTRATION AND BLENDED LEARNING The project activities will produce 4 inter-related Intellectual Outputs, linked to a set of Training and Multiplier events that are designed to generate deep and long lasting benefits for the partners and particularly for the wider partnerships, network and collaborations that iACT partners are engaged with. The project activities also include online and Transnational Project meetings through which partners will progress the tasks to deliver the project outputs, project evaluation, and extensive dissemination to ensure wide and ongoing take-up of the project’s outputs, from local to international levels. The methodology will be gather, analyse and collate best practice across a set of relevant themes, define a competence framework and learning pathway for those involved in creating and managing such learning and demonstration centres, and collate a set of valuable tools, all drawn together through a consultative process across partners and though building a wider community of practice. RESULTS, IMPACT & LONG-TERM BENEFITS The project will produce a set of results which enable a growing network of iACT Centres and trainers to deliver highly accessible and affordable transformative learning and action for individuals and communities at scale. It will deliver the iACT centre badge as a quality assurance system, that develop locally-rooted methodologies for maximising the effectiveness of place-based learning and community engagement using tools and good practice that deliver significant shifts to low carbon sustainable living. The impact will be that Europe's communities will be more resilient, with access to high quality transformative learning and community facilitation that bring significant shifts to sustainable low carbon lifestyles and communities. The potential longer-term benefits include massive shifts to low carbon living, health creating and resource efficient lifestyles, resilient low carbon communities, regional economies and ecosystems in Europe, and beyond.
The project had a simple aim: ‘More and better education at environmental demonstration centres across Europe’. Our original objectives were to: 1. Create an adult learning system for environmental and climate solutions with its foundations in place-based ‘learning-for-action’ 2. Create a system of blended learning that reflects a commitment to high quality adult education 3. Facilitate, inspire and accelerate adult learning that brings about real change. Our objectives were later revised to: Help grow an international network of learning and demonstration centres Share good practice in the fields of sustainability, regeneration and resilience between those centres Help those centres to activate community transformation by offering a range of related demonstration and learning programmes and resources that help spread that good practice. This would be done by analysing and collating good practice, by defining a competence framework for those managing centres, mapping and showcasing existing centres, and collating a set of valuable tools online. Our goal was to engage 200+ attendees in MEs. Dissemination activities across our extensive networks would benefit thousands more, by giving them access to the iACT project outputs.
iACT was designed to address: *The need for massive behaviour change to achieve a sustainable future *The need to develop and share innovation and good practice in demonstrating sustainable living *The need for transformative local projects in every part of Europe *The importance of place-based learning in creating behaviour change. In 2009 PAB created a network of environmental learning and demonstration centres in the UK, since emulated in the Nordic countries and Bulgaria. A learning and demonstration centre is a place where the public can see and experience sustainable lifestyles and practical solutions to the environmental crisis. 250+ centres are in these networks. These networks have shown the huge role of local demonstration sites in behaviour change; as the old adage says, ‘you have to see it to be it’. But setting up and running such centres can be a challenging, exhausting and isolating experience. Moreover, the quality of demonstration and learning can vary greatly. The iACT partners believe that by sharing good practice and innovation between centres their quality and number will inevitably improve. We came together to build a network of thriving learning and demonstraton centres across Europe.