Gardeniser Academy

<< Background >>We applied for this project to meet a clear need: to support the new generation of community garden managers, who are often highly motivated but lack experience and appropriate tools. While our past projects have laid the foundations for the role of facilitator, it is now essential to complement this approach with technical resources that can be transferred to the specific context of each garden (school, refugee centre, neighbourhood, etc.). The rise of community gardens in Europe has generated a wealth of experience that must now be capitalised on, structured and passed on. Gardeniser Academy aims to consolidate skills through a digital training platform, European mobility programmes and the collection of best practices. The aim is to ensure the sustainability of existing projects and support their adaptation to a constantly changing political and social context. This project therefore responds to a growing demand for concrete, adapted and shareable tools for a rapidly changing European community of gardeners.<< Objectives >>The aim of Gardeniser Academy was to set up an online platform that provides an innovative solution, through e-learning training courses, to support the development of shared gardens in Europe by offering learning pathways for three specific profiles: staff and volunteers wishing to set up educational gardens, intercultural gardens and community gardens in the heart of neighbourhoods. This involved organising local workshops and mobility opportunities for learners involved from the outset of the project, who selected useful best practices identified from the perspective of volunteers and community garden stakeholders.<< Implementation >>To achieve this, we organised local workshops and training sessions with around ten participants per country, followed by mobility activities: a total of 24 people took part in activities in a country other than their own, with each country sending and receiving six learners in pairs from each country. These people then identified good practices, whether specific techniques or exemplary gardens, and wrote a mobility journal, which was digitised on the Gardeniser Academy platform. At the same time, the partners developed the three e-learning modules that were planned on community/neighbourhood, intercultural and school gardens. These were then tested during the summer of 2025 by 20 people per country and presented at dissemination events held during the final month of the project.<< Results >>Gardeniser Academy is structured around four working packages:WP1: Project managementThis WP was coordinated by CLAB, which is responsible for management, coordination and monitoring of activities. Pistes-Solidaires organised the internal (consortium) and external (participants) evaluation of the project results.WP2: Identification and collection of good practicesThis WP enabled around ten people per country to participate in workshops and mobility activities during which they identified good practices to be shared and wrote mobility logs. The kick-off meeting in Assat was organised as part of this work package.WP3: E-learning platformThe partners created three learning pathways for people who want to create community/neighbourhood, intercultural or school gardens. These three pathways were translated into all the languages of the consortium.WP4: Dissemination and exploitationOn Projects coordinated the dissemination strategy, which included the project platform, the testing phase and the organisation of four dissemination events that brought together more than 20 people. A management meeting was held in Vienna in December 2025.