Communities of practice are groups of people who share a passion for something that they know how to do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better.
In December 2020, we began a series of online sessions focusing on Communities of Practice. We are exploring how an ecosystem of Communities of Practice could help to mainstream regenerative and transformative community-led action on climate change and sustainability.
We will be updating this section soon. Stay tuned!
Watch replays of our public sessions
Let's Meet Among Communities of Practice
Communities of Practice: leveraging impact by learning together
Join our CoP of Community-led Local Development
The time is ripe for a new partnership between the public sector and communities – for European Green Deal-proof local and regional development!
This is why ECOLISE has initiated a Community of Practice (CoP) on community-led local development – a space for mutual learning and exchange on how to strengthen fruitful cooperation between local authorities, Local Action Groups (LAGs) and community-led initiatives.
This CoP is driven by ECOLISE (the European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability) and ELARD (The European LEADER Association for Rural Development, with a network of over 2,000 European LAGs), in partnership with others.
To make the European Green Deal (EGD) a reality locally, we need the broad involvement of citizens and communities. The EU Commission recognizes this with its EU Climate Pact, an initiative which aims to reach out to citizens and help make the EGD a reality on the ground.
Community-led initiatives such as ecovillages, transition and permaculture networks already offer transformative and constructive solutions for a good life within planetary boundaries. To have a wider impact, they need funding and support structures. They also need to engage in participatory democracy and cooperate with local authorities. This is where a proven EU method for bringing EU Policies to local levels, LEADER, together with its complementary method of community-led local development (CLLD), could be a game-changer. New EU concepts such as Smart Villages which pushes for social innovation as a driver at local and village levels could also be of relevance when it comes to developing new transformational local and regional development policies.
The 3,000+ European Local Action Groups (LAGs) who are part of the EU method LEADER are currently preparing their local strategic plans, and are looking for ways to put the goals of the EU Green Deal centre-stage – with the help of an estimated budget for local-level initiatives of €10 billion for the next seven years. Community-led initiatives can give the LAGs the inspiration needed.
Register here for the Community of Practice on CLLD
Interested in being a participant in the CoP on CLLD? Fill in your details and we’ll contact you with more information.
CoPs and engagement opportunities map
France CoP
Description for France.
UK CoP
Description for UK.
