The Tree of Light

<< Background >>After watching the discussion of the EPALE Thematic Conference 2020, with the main topic being ‘The role of adult education in fostering environmental awareness’, we were really inspired and we wanted to contribute on that cause. Ideally, we wanted to go beyond the awareness raising side and focus more in the adult education field and spread new innovative green methodologies among the education grounds for a better future. That’s how we created the project “The Tree of Light”. The project addressed the current environmental and climate change. It had the intention to grow as a “tree” which “enlightens” adults to strengthen the Environmental Education for Adults and offer them the necessary competences to be the agents of a green transformation.The needs we addressed through this project were:NEEDS OF ADULTS• Empowerment• Environmentally friendly behaviors• Life skills (resilience, attitude, confidence, leadership)• Social skills (communication, sense of belonging, team work, ability to take action)NEEDS OF ADULT EDUCATORS• new innovative & impactful methods to use in their work• competences around Environmental Education• methods that can be used in online activities<< Objectives >>By implementing this project, we wanted to achieve growth for our organization (Inspiration Path), as well as for the people who participated in our programmes. The objectives of this project were:•For Inspiration Path to build its capacities and increase its practices in the area of Environmental Education •For Inspiration Path to increase its green sustainability practices when organizing activities by 75%•To increase their environmental competences (awareness, behaviours, skills and attitudes) for 68 adults by 75%•To increase the life skills & social skills to a number of 40 adults with fewer opportunities by 75%•For a number of 300 adult educators, to acquire at least 30 innovative teaching methodologies inspired by Environmental EducationWe are thrilled to say that we have met all of our objectives and succeeded them. << Implementation >>The activities we implemented in this project were: •A1 - Job shadowing in Romania for 20 days: An in-depth training for an adult educator from Inspiration Path (Marinos Christoforou), job shadowing our partner organization in Romania•A2 - Mentoring process for 7 months: A mentoring process for 4 members from the Inspiration Path team, where an experienced adult educator from our partner Dreams for Life (Bogdan Romanica) mentors the team to organize and host environmental education programs.•A3 - Learning program for adults for 7 days: A residential program for 20 adults from Cyprus and Romania, where the participants immersed into an Environmental Education learning process and gained a lot of sustainability competences•A4 - 4 Local events for adults (mainly with fewer opportunities) in Cyprus: Those events took place in different places in Cyprus and in all the events 52 people participated. Through the events we applied the methodology of environmental education in an outdoor setting.•A5 – 3 Webinars for adult educators: A series of 3 interactive webinars (online seminars) of a 90’ duration. Each webinar was focused on a different topic, yet all of them were based on how to use Environmental Education with adults.<< Results >>Tangible results: •The “Tree of Light - Programme in Cyprus” video both in Greek and English: Two videos with moments from the A4 program, that sensitizes adults towards environment. (Originally the video was supposed to film during the A3 programme, but due to not having enough filming consents from the participants, we changed it to A4. The NA was informed for this change)https://youtu.be/hcCQvdpZFWE?si=2aWDjUESLE3MGgGyhttps://youtu.be/5XIsdeUMqb4?si=qOw1CdsF6Fz3kL3E•The “Webinar Series - Tribute to Earth: Eco-Awakening in the Midst of Crisis”: An open access online seminar series for adult educators, based on how to use Environmental Education with adults. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEN_vzTjAvFmTMZMfKYL3YoxDv4jfasTe&si=NK1yzKb-bPzOdPZl•Numerous social media posts, videos, photos etc about the project and from the participants•Spread 30 innovative methodologies inspired by Environmental EducationIntangible results: •Increased sustainability competences of 68 adults (20 from A3, 48 from A4)•Increased competences for more than 300 adult educators (from A4)•Improved capacities of the partners