Communities for Future is committed to “System Change, not Climate Change”, but how are we making this change?

Join us for a 2-day in-person training to connect and build our skills in advocating for community-led local development, taking place in Belgium, on the 14th and 15th of March 2023.

In these times, the capacities, adaptation and resilience of regenerative communities are essential. Yet they need to become coherent and connected, so local actions can emerge as a powerful social system (an eco-system network) with positive influence at a wider societal and political scale. Communities for Future invites those hungry for change to come together, nourish our networks, learn, share experiences, build capacity and co-create an advocacy campaign. If you don’t know what kind of advocacy campaigning is being done in your country for community-led initiatives or you think the current efforts are not enough, do join forces with us!

This training will equip you with:

• Understanding and integrating advocacy basics
• Campaigning skills and resources
• Embed you in a network of peers

The event and travels are fully funded for 20 participants and food costs are covered for 10 additional participants (ideally people from nearby). To apply for your place in this training, please fill out this form before February 13th! More info here.

Join our next Communities for Future Sessions, Tuesday Feb 28th, 16h-18h CET.

• Showing successful stories of CLI's working with local councils
• Sharing tools & resources
• Linking to the policy thesis in the topic

Speakers:

Two mayors/municipal servants:

• Paco García, Almocita Mayor, Andalusia, Spain
• João Dinis, Climate Action, Cascais, Portugal

2 Community-Led Initiative representatives:

• Cristiano Bottone, Kunelab, Monteveglio, Italy
• Amy Scaife, HubRen, London, UK

Community-led initiatives and local authorities have shown fruitful collaboration but that’s far from being the dominant interaction between them. Local initiatives often struggle to have constructive partnerships with their municipalities or counties. And vice versa: a municipality can invite community-led initiatives to their projects and fail to gain their engagement.

There’s never a lack of crisis situations and the strong bond between local authorities and communities has proven to be essential for the constructive response to crises. Regions with such a tight bond have done better during the pandemic than those that failed to build bridges.

The ECOLISE team contributed to balancing the understanding of who initiates change. Communities are the drivers of change towards sustainability, but hundreds of local authorities are just as engaged

In order to successfully mobilise residents towards a more sustainable lifestyle, Climate Campaigners is creating a smartphone app that will assist communities in achieving their climate goals.

They are searching for Amplifier Cities to increase the scope of their study and grow their audience. These cities come in many sizes and represent a diverse range of regional, cultural, and demographic contexts. Any continent's local governments are welcome to participate in the project.

Amplifier Cities will:

• Benefit from state of the art research into sustainable behaviour change
• Exchange knowledge among peers implementing sustainable lifestyle challenges
• Contribute to the development of the largest app dedicated to effective sustainable lifestyle challenges.

If you’re a city representative, read more about the initiative or apply directly here.

You're welcome to get in touch with the Amplifier City initiative leaders Ricardo and Sophie at ricardo.silva@ecolise.eu and sophie.callahan@iclei.org, respectively, for additional information.

You can also follow their community on Instagram and Facebook.

In early January, ECOLISE had the pleasure of participating in the kickoff pilot of the #CommunityClimateCoaches (CCC) project in Olot, Catalonia, Spain. Around 40 people from many different places participated in the 3-day event, facilitated by the wonderful team of Erika and Oscar from Resilience.Earth in a great cooperative space called Núria Social. The 8 members of CCC include ECOLISE and 7 of our member groups from a diverse range of European networks, including Cultivate (Ireland), CELL asbl (Luxemburg), Permaculture Association (UK), Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa group FCID (Portugal), Suomen Kylät ry (Finnish village movement), Perforum.info (Croatian Permaculture association), and Resilience Earth (Catalonia, Spain).

The training was based on a community catalysts approach, very rich in content and models and well facilitated. It was a great opportunity to connect with many friends, ECOLISE network members, and meet new inspiring people. 5 ECOLISE team members were there.

Are you ready to begin designing thriving communities and societies that live within our planetary boundaries? Join GEN’s global online classroom and learn from renowned educators from around the world. Their online EDE will take place Saturdays from March 4th through July 23rd! Most classes will be held from 15h - 18:30h UTC with the exception of a few special sessions, accommodating instructors from Oceania.

The EDE is a program that is life-changing. This Online EDE is unique because it has been designed to be as touching as an in-person EDE. The online formula allows to have the world’s best team and is led by two extraordinary very experienced EDE facilitators, Taisa Mattos and Macaco Tamerice. It links people and projects closely from all over the world and allows through the personal sharings of the participants to get a deeper understanding of the world. It brings together theory and practice, collaborative methodologies and appropriate techniques while building heart connections and community worldwide.

The European Permaculture Community Forum is a movement of active permaculture groups across Europe. Each year they run a European-wide forum, bringing together experts in permaculture, regenerative and the environmental sector. Since 2021, the EUPC forum has become an online event, making it accessible to people who can’t be there in person as well as reducing the price of the tickets.

This years event is 1-5th March 2023, online and their focus is food!

• What’s it all about?
• 30+ expert speakers from across Europe
• A diverse range of perspectives on food systems
• Stories from regenerative farmers, growers and cooperatives
• Knowledge on growing food at different scales: from balcony to farm
• Networking with the local and international community
• Opportunities to participate in live discussions and Q&As
• Catch up on any missed sessions by watching the recordings after the event

More info on their Facebook page and a Facebook event, as well as their Instagram.

We invite you to visit the resources section of our website, where you will find very valuable information and learning materials. From publications and webinars to podcasts and courses, these resources will keep you up-to-date and will be useful for your ongoing development.