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URBAN

URBAN – Engaging Youth with Urban Gardening Activities

The project aims at encouraging the active participation and education of local community members through setting up and maintaining urban gardens.

Grant Agreement Number: 2020-1-EL02-KA205-005750

Funded by: Erasmus+        Duration: 01/06/2020 – 01/06/2022   


Challenge

Community urban gardens are gardens operated jointly and through volunteer commitment, offering a space where social inclusion, community spirit, learning and solidarity could be strengthened.

Urban gardening is a way to stimulate positive and local dynamics and create a sense of community amongst people who believe that the environment plays a fundamental role in the ecosystem and the climate change adaptation. By participating in the setting up and maintenance of urban gardens, vulnerable young people engage, connect and feel empowered thanks to the knowledge they acquire.

Innovation

URBAN aims at encouraging active participation and education of the local community members – including disfavoured and threatened with exclusion youth people and local youth eg. migrants, long-term unemployed people – through setting up and maintaining the urban gardens. Additionally, the project will elaborate an innovative educational method to teach soft skills by garden working to future youth farmers, e.g. interpersonal communication, teamwork, management and planning.

Action

The handbook for youth will be a useful resource of practical information for the direct implementation of innovative methods and approaches in urban gardening methodologies. It intends to provide a tangible roadmap, with technical assistance directions, to guide youth and local communities towards their goal of a sustainable community garden. The handbook will contain a set of practical tools and methods adapted to the specific needs of trained youth in the field – and other beneficiaries of the project – to be applied in organizations, services and professional activities related.

The manual will guide trainers to better approach and guide youth participants who want to be educated in the field of urban agriculture activities. The trainer’s manual will examine the overall process, roles and skills involved in urban agriculture activities and aims to provide the trainers with a good understanding of the training journey. 

The training course curriculum will be dedicated to urban gardening as a means to support social inclusion and community development. The aim is to design and develop a youth training programme for young people who want to know more, be trained and get involved in urban agriculture activities.

An e-learning platform and an app will be developed. The platform, which will be compatible with desktop and mobile devices, will include case studies and training modules providing the knowledge needed to create an urban garden and turn it into a meeting point for social integration, as well as important tips and info for future youth urban gardeners.

The URBAN app will be specifically designed for urban gardeners and will be available for both iOS and Android. The app will be more focused on the urban gardening trend. It will show a list of urban gardening related events in each partner country, and it will also provide an easy way to get in contact with other urban gardeners, exchange tips and tricks and find local initiatives to meet up at.

The purpose of piloting the curriculum as a training course is to make sure the curriculum is effective, and to make the changes and adjustments before it is distributed widely. Thus, the information gathered from the pilot will be used to strengthen and improve the course content, materials, etc. Training sessions will take place in each partner country and will be based on the blended learning approach, including webinars.

European Commission’s support for the production of this content does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Project Partners

KMOP – Social Action and Innovation Centre
AINOVA, Portugal

BUPNET, Germany
EINURÐ, Iceland
XWHY / Agency of Understanding, Lithuania
KMOP – Skopje, North Macedonia

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