European networks for sustainable future is a project for exchange of good practice and peer to peer learning between national networks that connect sustainable communities and community led initiatives from seven European countries. The objective of this partnership is to connect on the regional level and explore possibilities for future regional cooperation. This connection will happen in two separate and fairly diverse European regions. One regional network will be created between GEN Netherlands, Oasis France and Samenhuizen from Belgium. Two organisations from Luxembourg will join this project as associate partners interested to join this new regional network once it will be formed. Another regional network will be formed between three partners who represent countries that are geographically placed on the junction between south and north and east and west Europe: Permaculture Croatia, Felkelo Nap Hungary and Sunny Hill Slovenia. One Serbian organisation will join as an associate partner in the formation of this regional network.The applicant organisation GEN Europe has 25 years tradition and connects ecovillages all around Europe, that are supported locally by their national networks who act as the link between small projects and the umbrella network GEN Europe. Three partners in this project are members of this umbrella organisation while other three are complementary networks with similar values and vision for the future. The aim of the project is to connect these networks regionally to better serve their member organisations by providing high quality trainings and mentoring programs on socio-economic, environmental and cultural topics of sustainability. Each member organisation has valuable experience and expertise in some area that can inspire others. Exchange of experience, knowledge and examples of good practices that will happen during this project will mutually inspire partners to be able to offer even better and more holistic support to their members. All partners are promoting alternative lifestyles and support creation of sustainable communities, ecovillages and co-housing projects that are ever more interesting models for groups of people who believe that stepping together can bring them better opportunities to conduct satisfactory life in cooperation with like minded people. Although their scope of work is similar the historical and socio-economic context of the partner organisations are fairly different. As a consequence the challenges they face call for different approaches. The levels of democracy and citizens participation in the two regions are not comparable. This diversity between partners will enrich the learning experience for all partners with some cultural insights and recognition of different realities inside the united Europe.The main activities of this 2 year long project are: 2 transnational meetings - a kick off meeting where all partners will meet together, exchange experience and explore possibilities for transnational cooperation and transfer of knowledge during the project- an evaluation meeting where assessment of the cooperation and achievement of objectives will be evaluated. The next steps for the time after the project will be set. 2 regional meetings, one in each region, where only regional partners and the representative of GEN Europe will be present in the mentoring role. These two meetings will be dedicated to the formation of the regional networks. 2 trainings for 20 participants each:- Art of networking and regional cooperation that will equip selected participants sent by partner organisations to set solid foundations for their regional networks. - CLIPS (Community Lead Incubator Program for Sustainability) intended for the members of the newly formed regional networks, that offers tools and guidance to the community led projects in their initial stages. Besides these activities the tangible results will be: - two web pages: one for each new regional network- a database of existing initiatives in both regions will be created and linked to the new webpages, to the webpage of GEN Europe and Oasis networks. The project will have a long term impact on all participating partners and is intended to last long beyond the duration of this project, as an inspiration and example for others.

CONTEXT & BACKGROUNDThe project has been designed within a context that includes:• The widely agreed general need for massive levels of transformative change to achieve a sustainable low carbon future, and the more specific wide interest in and need for community-based climate action.• The development and sharing of innovation and good practice in learning about and demonstrating sustainable, low carbon living• The importance of transformative learning to create climate-positive behaviour change, for individuals and communities• The emergence of blended learning methods and systems, which can enable massive affordable accessibility and linking this to experiential learning for deep engagement, and inner and outer transformationOBJECTIVESSpecific project objectives are:1. To develop a system to train, support and enable Community Climate Coaches (CCC) across Europe, and to work toward ensuring this role is deeply embedded in the climate response and sustainability movements2. To capture, formalise and disseminate the experience and innovation of the partners and wider stakeholders through intellectual outputs and a structured dissemination programme3. To support the development and mapping of new and existing community climate initiatives and education systems in Europe4. To expand and strengthen learning and collaboration with partners in and beyond our movement5. To develop a CCC support system that enables a better understanding of the positive impacts and benefits arising from climate action education, for learning participants, local communities and the climateAchieving these objectives aims to bring about massive personal and community-led change over time, in response to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and related goals.PARTICIPANTS16 people will engage in core CCC project meetings, with 200 in-person attendees of multiplier events, and a target of 200+ on-line participants. 42 people will be engaged in in-person CCC 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 CCC project outputs. The CCC project participants are composed of a mix of people from larger 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 through ECOLISE.ACTIVITIESThe project activities will produce 5 inter-related Intellectual Outputs, linked Training and Multiplier events that are designed to generate deep, long-lasting benefits for the partners and particularly for the wider partnerships, network and collaborations these partners are engaged with. The project activities 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.METHODOLOGY: COMMUNITY FACILITATION AND BLENDED LEARNINGThe project will train, build, map and gather data on climate action through a Community of Practice for continuous peer support that will sustain and extend collective learning, and nurture sharing of innovations amongst Community Climate Coaches. Blended learning methods will optimise the advantages of in-person and online learning to achieve Transformative Learning for the Coaches and their communities, with specialised knowledge, good practice and innovations shared online. The participants will engage with an online peer group as they progress their local-to-regional initiatives as the pioneers and facilitators of change, with peers providing confirmation and support, which maintains behaviour change. Participating in face-to-face training enhances the online learning by increasing the identification with the group and embodying individual and social learning experiences more deeply.RESULTS, IMPACT & LONG-TERM BENEFITSThe project results will enable a growing network of Community Climate Coaches to deliver highly accessible and affordable transformative learning and action for individuals and communities at scale. It will deliver the new role of Community Climate Coach, that pilots and develops methodologies for maximising effective community engagement with a set of tools and good practice that deliver significant carbon reductions. The impact will be that Europe's communities will be set up to have access to high quality transformative learning and community facilitation that will help bringing about significant shifts to sustainable low carbon lifestyles and communities.

CONTEXT & BACKGROUNDThe 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 of good practice in transformative learning•The relevance of transformative learning to behaviour change in this context, for individuals and communities•The emergence of blended learning methods and systems, which can combine the best aspects of digital learning (e.g. massive affordable accessibility) and experiential learning (deep engagement, inward and outward transformation) OBJECTIVESOur specific objectives are to:1) Provide a context for adult educators to improve their competences in delivering blended transformative learning for civic engagement in community-led initiatives.2) Increase reach and improve access, quality, attractiveness and coordination of educational delivery of transformative adult education initiatives across Europe that are supporting the social-ecological transition.3) Identify, pool, encourage and spread related social and educational innovations. 4) exploit results of other related EU projects.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. PARTICIPANTS15 people will engage in core BLAST project meetings, with 250 in-person attendees of multiplier events, and at least as many predicted on-line participants, the target being many more. Through dissemination activities across the partnership’s extensive networks, the objective is that the beneficiaries of the BLAST project outputs beyond the life of the project will be many thousands. The participants in the BLAST project is composed of a mix of people representing bigger networks of community-led initiatives and smaller adult education providers.They have complementary domains of expertise (such as regenerative design, community resilience, cosmopolitan communication, or social innovation) and have prior long-term collaborative engagement with each other (e.g. through ECOLISE), and more recent new linkages.ACTIVITIES The projects activities are to produce a set of 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 Community of Practice and the wider partnerships, network and collaborations that ReLeaP 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.METHODOLOGY: BLENDED LEARNING AND COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICEBlended learning can overcome the disadvantages of face-to-face and online learning for achieving Transformative Learning. This is coupled with the Community of Practice approach (Etienne Wenger) for sustaining and extending collective learning and providing a nurturing space for innovations.• Specialised knowledge and related conversations can be accessed online, leaving precious face-to-face time for whole person experiential and social learning.• The participants are engaged with online peer group when they work on their projects at home. As the pioneers of change who may face resistance in their social environment, this is very helpful, providing confirmation and support, which maintains behaviour change.• Participating occasionally in a face-to-face module enhances an online course by increasing the identification with the group and enabling embodied experiences.RESULTS, IMPACT & LONG-TERM BENEFITSThe project will produce a set of results which enable adult educators to deliver transformative learning affordably at scale, in highly accessible ways. It will deliver training to educators that pilots and develops a methodology for maximising the effectiveness of educators and learners to engage with, use and benefit from the platform and system that the project delivers. The impact will be that Europe's communities will be set up to have access to high quality transformative learning that will help bringing about significant shifts to sustainable low carbon lifestyles and communities.POTENTIAL LONGER TERM BENEFITSThe potential longer term benefits include massive shifts to low carbon living, health creating and circular resource efficient lifestyles, resilient low carbon communities, with healthy local and regional economies and ecosystems that deliver healthy food and clean energy to the communities they serve in Europe, and beyond.