Ensuring Climate action Objective through community GARdens based EducatioNStrategies

"<< Background >>In Europe, nearly 73% of the population live in urban areas, a figure projected to rise to over 80% by 2050. Climate change affects nearly all aspects of urban environments — economical, environmental, and social. High urban temperatures negatively impact the health of vulnerable groups including the elderly, and lower socio-economic status individuals. To face climate change related challenges, many cities are developing mitigation and adaptation strategies. As part of these, community gardens can contribute to improved air quality, health, biodiversity, and life, yet they are often overlooked. In some partner countries, community gardening has been a tradition for over 20 years, serving for local food production but also as centers for intercultural environmental education. Moreover, they attract diverse demographics across all ages, cultures, and social backgrounds. Therefore, they have a great potential to be turned into educational centers, supporting grassroots movements towards sustainable urban living. This project sought to harness the underutilized potential of gardens in enhancing urban climate resilience, making them integral to broader climate adaptation frameworks.<< Objectives >>The primary goal was to enhance the role of community gardens in urban climate change adaptation strategies and to turn them into non-formal environmental education centres that actively involve the neighbourhood in such strategies. We wanted to:- Develop training materials to convert community gardens into centers for environmental education.- Equip community gardeners and managers with the necessary learning tools and methodologies to support community engagement. - Strengthen community involvement in local climate change mitigation and adaptation. - Increase awareness of how community gardening can contribute to climate change mitigation. Aligned with the Erasmus+ priorities, EcoGardens aimed to:-Providing inclusive environmental education and training that encourages behavior changes such as reduced energy use, waste reduction, lowered carbon emissions, and sustainable food choices.-Actively engaging neighbors in learning activities within the community gardens, integrating them into the community-based strategy to tackle climate change in their urban areas, and enhancing civic engagement through formal and non-formal learning activities.<< Implementation >>For the effective implementation of the project, activities were organised in two types of Work Packages (WP), implementation and transversal ones. Implementation WPs: These WPs include the activities directly related to the development of the Project Results. They followed one another and they lasted a portion of the project total duration. WP1 – Analysis of actual approaches and suggested future strategies for education and awareness raising about environmental and climate- change challenges involving community gardens and other relevant actors (PR1):A1. Workshop with partners to analyse the context at national and local levelA2. Design of the instrument to perform the actual situation researchA3. Deeper analysis of the actual situationA4. Development of potential future strategies A5. Development of NRsA6. Development of a SRA7. Design of awareness raising materialsA8. Selection of community garden groups and garden managersWP2 – Development of the training materials (includes PR2 and PR3):Activities related to PR2A1. Selecting activities carried out in community gardens, or other contexts, which are related to education and awareness raising strategies about environmental and climate change challengesA2. Designing a questionnaire to gather further information and of the Best Practices Sheets structure A3. Carrying out interviewsA4. Developing and editing the Best Practices SheetsActivities related to PR3A1. Defining and designing a set of practical training toolsA2. Designing self-assessment tools in order to assess the training resultA3. Developing short videos introducing each training toolWP3 – Development of the web-based training and awareness raising app ( PR4)A1. Adaptation of the project results to digital format and design of a web-based training and awareness raising appA2. Design of the evaluation instrument for the pilot testingA3. Testing of the training materialsA4. Evaluation of the pilot testing and transferring the web-based app to the usersTransversal WPs:These WPs cover aspects that are transversal to the project activities, such as project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, Dissemination and Exploitation. They last for the duration of the project. The transversal WPs, and their activities and methodology, are described respectively in the following sections of this report:WP4 – Management: ""Project Management"" sectionWP5 – Monitoring and Evaluation: ""Project Management"" sectionWP6 – Dissemination and Exploitation: ""Dissemination and Use of Project Results"" section<< Results >>The main results of the project are: PR1 - Education and awareness raising about environmental and climate-change challenges: a report about actual approaches and suggested future strategies involving municipalities and community gardens. The summary report is structured in three main parts: 1. Research on the following topics involving experts and stakeholders both within and outside the project consortium: - Existing education and awareness raising strategies about environmental and climate-change challenges.- Related activities in community gardens, or other contexts, that might be implemented for environmental education. - Public funding schemes and other supporting systems for community gardening & environmental and climate-change challenges related education and awareness raising campaigns. 2. Suggested future strategies related to education and awareness raising about environmental and climate-change challenges involving municipalities and community gardens. 3. Awareness raising materials: the main findings and results of the first two sections of the report have been summarized in awareness raising materials (leaflet, web texts and promotional video) thus reaching not only the target groups but also the general public. PR2 - Best practices of education and awareness raising activities related to environmental and climate-change challenges in community gardens. The training programme that we have developed includes 20 best practices (5 more than foreseen) deriving from the selection of the most relevant initiatives of education and awareness raising actions related to environmental and climate-change challenges carried out in community gardens of the project consortium countries. Best practices are a basic component of a training programme in which the final objective is to foster the development of a specific, practical initiative: learning through the analysis of real, successful experiences of environmental education activities carried out in a community garden will foster the development of similar initiatives in different contexts. The selected best practices cover the different types of activities:- Climate change mitigation- Community engagement- Composting- Education- Game- Garden management- Raising awareness- Sustainable consumption- TrainingAlso, we have included two additional experiences under the category ‘Garden Inspirational Stories’ that can be relevant for other gardeners.The selected Best Practices cover experiences from gardens in Spain, Austria, France, Hungary and Czech Republic.At the end of each Best Practice the user will find tips and suggestions directly from the gardeners that have promoted the initiative. PR3 - Climate action toolkit: environmental education in community gardens. (EcoGardens course)For reasons that are explained later in this report, the contents developed for this PR have finally been called modules, due to the consortium's decision to complete the toolkit format (as indicated in the application form) with a scientific-theoretical basis that provides a solid content base for the more practical training part. These theoretical and practical modules are implemented in the EcoGardens web-based training app under the heading 'EcoGardens Course'.The EcoGardens Course combines the characteristics of a toolkit with a theoretical basis. It offers 4 theoretical-practical training modules to acquire the necessary competences to implement climate-friendly gardening practices to make a garden climate fit as well as education and awareness-raising actions on environmental and climate change in community gardens.This module-based structure has been agreed by the consortium partners in order to provide structured learning experiences that combine both theoretical insights with practical applications, fostering deeper understanding and retention. In addition, the contents of these modules have been linked as much as possible to the experiences gathered in the Best Practices (PR2).The course addresses garden organisers and garden groups willing to promote community gardens as environmental education centres, providing the necessary competences to implement education and awareness raising actions about environmental and climate change challenges in a community garden context. It consists of 4 theoretical-practical modules:Our life in the time of Global Climate ChangeCommunity gardening in a changing climateCommunication: a key to sustainabilityHow teaching skills help in empowering community gardenersBeing this training system designed mainly for self-learning, self-assessment is a key point to stimulate and complete the learning process. To this end, after each module, users will find a quiz to evaluate the knowledge acquired. Also, 4 animated videos introduce each of these modules, thus ensuring a stimulating and interactive learning process.In addition to the training materials, printable resources ready to be used in the activities involving the end users (neighbourhood and local people) are provided.PR4 - ECOGARDENS web-based training app All the results are gathered in a comprehensive web-based training and awareness raising app built with OER approach. LearnDash plug-in for Wordpress has been used to implement different parts of the training materials. Using a fixed menu that remains accessible as users scroll through the content, users can easily navigate between the different sections of the site.The platform is highly responsive, adapting perfectly to different screen sizes and devices, including mobile devices. It includes multiple interactive elements including videos, images, quizzes and customized search options. Forms, buttons and other interactive components are all well integrated, ensuring a smooth and intuitive user experience.The web-based training app is available in Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian and Spanish. Other minor deliverables produced during the project are:Deliverables related to the activities of the Work Package 4:- Managing guidelines.- 5 transnational meetings and 5 virtual meetings + meeting minutes.Deliverables related to the activities of the Work Package 5:- Evaluation tools: meetings evaluation questionnaires, project progress questionnaires, PRs evaluation tools and multiplier events evaluation questionnaires.- Evaluation Reports: mid-term and final evaluation report, PRs reports all gathered in a single document.- Project Risks Analysis (PRA).Deliverables related to the activities of the Work Package 6:- Project graphic design.- Project website.- 4 project newsletters.- Promotional video.- Leaflet.- Project mailing list."