Descrescere e Stili di Vita, Sostenibilità Ambientale, Partecipazione e Convivialità… in Europa!

The project starts: 01/09/2008 The project ends: 31/07/2009

The present proposal aims at offering to all the citizens (involving different generations and people with different walks of life) and civil society (associations, NGOs, citizens groups, etc.) an opportunity to reflect, discuss, debate - both at the local and at the European level - the most vivid topics related to ecology and environment, in order to promote new lifestyles that facilitate social cohesion and sustainable development.

• To promote citizens' participation at the local level, raising awareness on the importance of their active role in the policies related to environment;
• To inform citizens and civil society organisations on the main environmental policies of the European Union;
• To encourage new lifestyles and to promote sustainable development in Europe, creating a positive impact on the daily lives of all the citizens involved;
• To develop networking and cooperation on environmental issues at the European level (cross-border cooperation).

The project will be implemented in 3 different countries, two Member States (Italy and Austria) and 1 official candidate (Croatia), granting an added value related to the EU enlargement.

The present proposal is addressed to all the citizens of the local communities involved; particular attention is given to the involvement of different generations and a particular effort will be guaranteed to promote equal opportunities for all: at least 470 persons will be directly involved in the activities while we estimate to reach indirectly almost 6.000.

The project, which lasts 11 months, from September 2008 to July 2009, is structured in 5 different main phases:

• a coordination meeting of the partners, to plan and define in details the whole organization of the activities and to exchange ideas and opinions;
•  the 4 local workshops, to raise awareness on environmental issues at he local level;
• the International final workshop, to disseminate the results of the activities carried out at local level, gather and discuss experiences and best practices;
• the publication, structured as a hand-book that could serve as a tool for multiplying the effects of the proposal;
• the final evaluation meeting, including the exchange on he follow-up of the action.

The main expected outcomes of the proposals are:

• Citizens' awareness about environmental issues, promoting a methodology based on their active participation;
• Relations and partnerships at the European level;
• Exchange of experiences, best practices and policies at the European level in the field of environment.

a)  Objectives of the 'Europe for Citizens' programme

The project is relevant to:

•  bringing together people from across Europe to share and exchange experiences, opinions and values, to learn from history and to build for the future;
•  fostering action, debate and reflection related to European citizenship and democracy, shared values, common history and culture;
•  encouraging interaction between citizens and civil society organisations, in particular between citizens from Member States of the EU who joined the EU before and after 1st May 2004.

The aim of this project is consistent with the objectives of the programme “Europe for citizens”. More specifically, our proposal contributes to:

• Promoting the mutual exchange of ideas, opinions and experiences between different actors coming from different European countries. This will open a discussion on the importance of the environment as a key factor for the future development of Europe; as a resource that needs to be protected and nurtured in order to promote sustainable development in an integrated perspective within Europe, where ecology and environment represent nowadays a priority and, at the same time, a value.
  Thanks to the International workshop and to the participation in the project itself, citizens from the communities involved  will have the opportunity to meet other European citizens and to share with them ideas and opinions on Europe and on its future development with a focus on environment related issues and on the new life styles. 

• Giving both at local and European level, chances and opportunities for debate, analysis and action on the crucial importance of active participation of citizens in the policies and practices of environmental protection; on how citizens can provide a bottom-up approach to sustainable development so to make it a common priority among all European people.
  Local workshops and the international workshop offer citizens a “space” where they can discuss and share ideas on the most relevant current events Europe and, at the same time, they increase  citizens’ awareness on local policies and on the role they can play as citizens. 

• Improving the relationship between citizens and civil society organisations working in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development. This can be done by encouraging citizens to become more “active” within the community and more involved, especially at local level. The participation of Croatia, which is currently a pre-accession country, gives an added value to our project as far as intercultural relations, transborder and transnational cooperation are concerned; and finally it boosts the European integration process.
  Citizens will be involved in the activities of this project thanks to the efforts of civil society organisations working in the fields of environment and sustainable development. Thanks to the intermediation role played by these organisations, a wider and better participation of citizens in local politics and in environmental issues can be achieved.

b)  Themes covered by your project

All thematic areas that apply:

•   Active European Citizenship: participation and democracy in Europe
•   Intercultural Dialogue
•   People well being in Europe: employment, social cohesion and sustainable development
•   Impact of EU policies in societies

c)  Horizontal features of the Europe for Citizens Programme:

The project will:

•  promote the European values (tolerance, mutual understanding, solidarity, etc.)
•  contribute to informal learning for active European citizenship
•  promote the volunteering
•  present trans-nationality aspects and have a local dimension (reaching citizens in their  every day life);
•  have a cross-fertilisation effect (synergies and wider multiplier effect) by involving different kinds of organisations
•  give to all equal access to the Programme (gender balance, intergenerational solidarity)

Promotion of European values

This project aims at promoting the fundamental values of the European Union, especially those concerned with environmental protection. Education to new life styles more compatible with sustainable development must, within a European and transnational dimension, be based on key values and principles as solidarity, respect for cultural diversity, mutual understanding and support, that is to say, on those values that are the very foundations of the “European Project”. Citizens involved in the different activities –local workshops and the international workshop - will be offered the opportunity to “experience” these values within a wider European perspective, focussing their attention on the fact that environment belongs to the whole community and that it is a valuable resource that has to be jointly managed and safeguarded.

Contribution to informal learning for active European Citizenship

The project aims at reinforcing the active role of citizens, especially at local level, promoting their involvement in environmental protection policies and strategies for sustainable development. Thanks to the participation of citizens in local workshops, their interpersonal, intercultural, social and civic competencies (as defined by the final Communication of the Commission COM (2005)548 of the 10.11.2005) will be inevitably reinforced. The direct involvement of citizens in the debate on sustainable development and environmental issues will result in a greater awareness of their role in the local decision making process, in an improvement of the competences that enable them to actively participate in social and political activities and finally, in a reinforcement of their sense of belonging to the community.
The participation in the International event will put them side by side – if not literally, virtually- with other European contexts and it will enable them to better understand European environmental policies; the whole initiative will contribute to improve the ability to establish relations among different European actors (citizens, civil society organisations and local institutions) so that all European citizens will be encouraged to participate in the decision making processes at all levels.  
Finally, working methods will follow the concept of “experience-based learning”; a practical approach focussing on the participants themselves: the use of this active methodology, where participants themselves are seen as resources, helps mutual exchange and gives citizens the opportunity to experience an informal learning process throughout the entire duration of the project.

Promoting volunteering

The project is strongly based on the promotion of volunteering as a resource to be used to tackle, and possibly overcome the main environmental challenges of our time. When managing and planning their “ordinary” activities, the partners involved in this project will pay special attention to  volunteering as a means for:
Promoting values like tolerance, mutual understanding, solidarity etc.
Increasing the sense of belonging to the local community;
Contributing to the development of the competences that an “active citizen” is supposed to have.
In all its phases, the current project allows the involvement of different kinds of organisations that consider volunteering as a valuable resource; it therefore has as its objective, the consolidation of volunteering as a practice that makes citizens feel more responsible and involved in the building process of a better and more “sustainable” Europe.
    

Transnational aspects and local dimension

In order to reach out to citizens in their everyday lives, this proposal has both trans-national features, and a local dimension.
The transnational aspects of project are provided for by:

1. The topic of the project itself “De-grow and Life Styles, Environmental Sustainability, participation and community life; this subject will be considered from a national perspective, through the implementation of local workshops; whereas the international perspective will emerge during the international workshop which, at the end of the project, will analyse all the different points of view;
2. The partnership involves different kinds of organisations based in 3 different trans-border European countries (Croatia, Italy, Austria): a partnership between 3 culturally different countries that also have different approaches to environmental issues can certainly be considered as an added value in terms of exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences. Finally, involving Croatia as a participating country allows us to establish a very meaningful cooperation with a pre-accession country, thus reinforcing its European integration process, with a bottom-up approach.
3. The project will be concluded with an International event, the final workshop. During the workshop all partners will be involved both in the organisational activities and in the implementation phase. Thanks to the context where it will take place, the workshop will offer a great opportunity to involve in the debate a high number of both Italian and foreign citizens.  
4. Thanks to the rich network of partners, the results of the project will be disseminated both at national and European level, thus increasing the impact of the project itself and boosting the “multiplier effects”. Thus the continuity of the project will be granted for a time period that will go beyond the project official conclusion. 
   Great attention is attached also to the development of activities at local level, in order to reach out to citizens in their everyday life. The local dimension of the present proposal is provided for by:
5. The organisation and the implementation of local workshops in the different communities; citizens and the civil society will be the protagonists as they will be involved both in the preparation and the evaluation of the initiative; their active participation in the promotion of local activities within their own working and living environments will facilitate the inner acquirement of responsible behaviours.
6. The topics selected for the local workshops are connected to the everyday life of each individual: protection of the environment, re-use and re-cycling, figuring out new life-styles which are more compatible with a sustainable future; these issues are extremely timely and they are not just relevant for politicians o administrators, at all levels, but they also require the strong and aware participation of all citizens, both at local and European level.

 "Cross-fertilisation" effect

The present proposal includes organisations with different nature and features, which certainly  confer an added value to the project itself. They range from volunteers’ associations to social cooperatives active in different fields, youth organisations, family networks, environmental organisations and other thematic organisations. This variety facilitates collaborations and synergies, and it will ensure a better impact of the different activities on the target populations.
The presence of these actors right from the start, when the proposal was being conceived, facilitates the development of multiplier effects; in other words, this approach will lay the necessary foundations to carry on, in the future, and maybe elsewhere, the action initiated by this proposal.

Equal access to the programme for all

One of the objectives of this proposal is to reach out to all citizens who live in the communities participating in the project, and involve all of them without any discrimination. Non-discrimination is in fact a key element of this project, which strictly observes the fundamental principles of the European Union, and promotes participation of all citizens in all scheduled events.
Environmental protection and the need to implement policies and strategies for a sustainable development do not concern just a limited sector of the population; on the contrary, they must be seen as a priority, as values concerning all citizens in the world, regardless of their conditions, of their geographical, social or economic background…
In particular, within this proposal, special attention will be paid to:

• The involvement of different generations - children, adults, the elderly – in order to promote cross-generational solidarity and to facilitate contacts, dialogue and mutual enrichment. Cross-generational dialogue, especially when it concerns environmental issues as re-usage and re-cycling, can play a very important role due to the great changes that society has undergone in recent years as increased consumption and the increased use of “short life” products.
• The involvement of citizens with different personal histories, different social or economic backgrounds, in order to favour the development of an environmental consciousness in all population sectors.
• The involvement of disadvantaged groups, (in particular those facing social problems) as former convicts, former drug-addicts or alcoholics etc.; with whom we work on a daily basis, in order to back up their integration to work and to society;
• Promotion of equal opportunities for all; with a special focus on the participation of men and women as a follow up of the work carried out in 2007, at local level, in the framework of the European Year for Equal Opportunities.

Detailed description of your project and its events

a) Objectives and Expected results in relation with the thematic area's under B.4:

General objective
The objective of this proposal is to give all citizens the opportunity to think, discuss share opinions and work in networks on the issue of environment and ecology in a European perspective yet at local level. The actors involved will be people belonging to different generations, with different backgrounds, the civil society, NGOs, associations, groups etc. A further aim is the promotion of new life styles that will facilitate social cohesion and sustainable development.
Specific objectives

• Promote the participation of citizens at local level, underlining the importance of their active role within environmental policies and practices both at local and European level.
• Inform citizens and the organised civil society on the main EU environmental policies, pointing out their positive impact on the daily life of each citizen.
• Develop a discussion at European level on issues as environment and ecology in order to encouragenew life-styles that will promote sustainable development in Europe from a local level and will result in a positive impact on the daily life of all citizens involved.
• Give a chance to different European actors to discuss about environmental issues and life-styles and to enquire about the capacity of local areas to re-create social capital.
• Organisation of environmental workshops with local participants, in order to outline life-styles which advocate environmental sustainability, social cohesion and community life.

b)   Methodology:

1. Planned activities1+ timetable of activities (preparation, implementation, follow-up):
This project has been structured a san integrated process that starts from a local dimension and further develops into a European dimension.  In the chart below we will describe the main steps of the project:

Preparation meeting

September 2008
This meeting represents the “second” phase of the preparation of the present proposal. In this phase there will be a detailed analysis of issues related to logistics and organisation, communication and visibility, both internally (among the partners) and externally.
The participants to this meeting will be the project coordinator and the partner representatives. Its aims will be:
outline in detail the action plan of the whole project;
discuss and share external and internal communication strategies (outline a media strategy)
Agree on methodologies and good practices in order to ensure a wide participation of citizens in local events.
Define local workshops

October 2008 - February 2009
When working on the organisation of local workshops, each partner will seek close cooperation with other civil society organisations and involve local institutions in order to meet the community needs and requirements and in order to facilitate involvement of people having a different age or social background.

Local workshops

February – May 2009

Introduction
Each partner will organise a workshop at local level, following a common standard previously shared among all partners (see agenda below); each workshop will be tailored on the needs, the requirements and the specific features of the  community where it will take place. The content of the local workshops will be outlined during the preparation phase.
Objectives
The main objective of the local workshop is the participation of citizens in a day-event dedicated to discussion, exchange of ideas, and action on relevant issues regarding the environment and the future development of the place where they live or work, that is, their own community, in order to favour a real impact on the daily life of citizens.
Thanks to the local workshops, the project plans to achieve the following objectives: 
encouraging discussion on major environmental issues that affect citizens as re-usage, re-cycling, critical consumption, alternative energies
increasing their awareness as “active citizens” within environmental policies and practices; boosting participation of citizens in the different processes that take place at local level.
Providing information on the role of Europe and helping citizens to understand European environmental policies.
Organisation
The workshops will be organised by each partner within its local community. During the organisation phase, each partner will work closely with other local civil society organisations and will make all necessary efforts to directly involve also “common citizens” e.g. in volunteer activities. The expected result will be a reinforcement of “active citizenship”. Finally, local partners will make sure that there is collaboration also with local institutions and bodies.
Target group and participants
The target of the local workshops is the whole community, i.e. its citizens. Special attention will be paid on the successful  involvement of all population sectors, thus contributing to the creation of cross-generational solidarity. According to estimates based on previous experiences and on similar events, each laboratory may count on the participation of approximately 80 people. 
Content
The focus of each single workshop may vary according to the requirements of the local community. Yet, The different subjects to be tackled will try and answer the same question: “How can each single citizen, in his or her daily life, contribute to the development of a sustainable future, in Europe and in the world?”
This will be the starting point from which the main topics of the workshops will be drawn; there will be macro-subjects as re-usage and recycling, alternative energies, critical and aware consumption…
Format and Methodology
The standard agenda (see point 6) will be tailored by each partner according to the features of the local community. On the other hand, all partners will share a common methodology, that will follow a participative, experience-based approach; in some cases games will be used. According to this approach each citizens is seen as a resource.

The mostly used methods will be practical workshops, working groups, education games etc. A team of facilitators/ animators will be in charge of the labs. 

c)   Impact and expected results of the project

1. Target group(s), please detail:

The present proposal is targeted to all citizens, and it aims to involving different population ages (inter-generational solidarity) and different population sectors, in order to guarantee equal participation opportunities to all.
Estimated number of individuals and organizations involved in the project
Number of individuals participating in the events: 470 (80 participants in each local workshop + 150 people attending the final international workshop)
Number of organizations involved in the project: 8 partners + about 30 organizations involved indirectly in the local workshops and in the framework of "Festambiente" when the final workshop takes place
Number of additional people reached by the project (by publications, newsletters, etc.): 6.000
Further comments: the number of “additional” people the project will be able to reach out to, is estimated to be around 6000, such estimate is based on previous experiences of similar projects: the strong network, the context hosting the final workshop (Festambiente), the parallel initiatives organised by the partners and finally the several services offered by all participating partners will allow to reach a high number of citizens in all communities involved and in Europe.

2. Qualitative impact of the project

The present proposal aims at delivering a meaningful impact at different levels, both locally and at european level.
As far as the target group is concerned, the project contributes to increasing citizens awareness on the role thay can play within environmental policies and strategies, especially at local; a further contribution will be a better understanding of the role of Europe in the fields of ecology and environment. It must be underlined that tank to the local workshops, citizens will be involved within their own daily context; the impact will therefore be greater, and more meaningful. As far as the partnership and the participation of the civil society are concerned, the project aims at promoting a stable and long-lasting collaboration on the issue of citizens participation in environmental matters. The “transborder” dimension of the project will allow the creation of a meaningful network of actors who might develop further project having both a local and a trans-border impact.

3. How will be the potential multipliers within civil society involved in the work programme?

Ensuring “multiplier effects” in order to have an impact and promoting sustainable development are some of the main objectives of the present proposal. A special attention is therefore paid to direct involvement, when implementing the activities, of “multipliers” or potential “multipliers”. On the one hand, during the local workshops, both citizens and the representatives of civil society will be asked to play an active role by promoting and developing their own furthe r initiatives. On the other hand, during the international workshop, the civil society organisations involved in the project as partners will play a fundamental role both in the “construction” and in the promotion of the workshop itself, and above all, they will work with other actors on the promotion of the follow-up of the present proposal.

4. How will the project's final products be used?

Great attention will be given to the dissemination of the results of the project, and it will be carried out through the following tools:
The final handbook, which will be distributed at European level and will be downloadable for free from the project website and from the websites of the partners.
The website, which will be constantly updated
The involvement of the media, who will be asked to collaborate not only at the promotion of the project’s activities but also at the publication of supplements devoted to topics covered by the project.
A special contribution to the dissemination of results will be offered by the “Festambiente” network, because it not only includes about 30 organisation at provincial and regional level, but it can also count on a thick network of relationship both at national and European level, which will help conveying the main results of the project.
Finally, all the partners of the project will use final results and materials to achieve as many multiplier effects as possible, collaborating with several actors of the civil society in order to promote further actions, both at local and European level. 

5. How you will evaluate the project's results (including objectives and methodology of the evaluation)?

The evaluation of the project will focus on the analysis of the projects in terms of its relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and its impact. The evaluation will be based on a structured model, which will be defined in detail, and shared, during the preparation phase. If necessary we will draw on the contribution of experts.  A set of qualitative and quantitative indicators will be outlined in order to monitor the whole process; the outcome of the monitoring process will represent the basis for the overall evaluation.
Both the ex-ante and ex-post evaluation system will rely on several tools: questionnaires, interviews,  data collection etc.), according to the different scheduled actions.
An overall evaluation session will be scheduled at the end of the project; its main objective will be to assess whether the objective of the project has been met and, according to the outcome, start a debate on possible follow-up of the action. This session will be extremely useful in order to evaluate the results of the project and to make an evaluation of the impact on the different target groups.

d)   Visibility of the Project, Valorisation and Dissemination of Results

1. Which communication tools will be used to reach the target group?

The present proposal involves the use of diverse and ad hoc communication channels: due to the fact that the target groups belong to different social backgrounds and to different age groups, communication tools and strategies will necessarily be varied, so that they will be able to reach the core of the project, its participants.
The main communication channels and tools will be:

1. The media: press, radio e television channels; they will be involved especially at local level during the implementation phase of the project, according to their capability to effectively reach a wide population sector.
2.  newsletter and mailing list: all partner will have the duty to provide the target population with the necessary information; this will be done through dedicated and/or thematic mailing lists (that are supposed to reach the younger target generations)
3. Internet website: the website of all partners, included the project website which will be hosted in the Cooperativa Insieme website, will be the main communication tools used in order to reach the target groups.
4. events, conferences, workshops, meetings: all partners will pay great attention to the promotion of the project within the activities they organise or the take part in (conferences, workshops, meetings etc.)
5. partners, networks, platforms: consolidated partnerships and “second level” organisations (networks, platforms) will be serve as "amplifiers" in order to achieve a higher number of citizens.

2. How you will disseminate the project's results to the European citizens, decision making bodies and local representatives?

The dissemination of the project results will be carried out through different action/tools, both at local and transnational level:
Media: Newspapers, radio and television channels will be actively involved in the dissemination process both at local, regional and European level;
International Workshop: The International workshop will represent a key opportunity to promote the final results of the project.
Final handbook: The final handbook will make the project results available, and will also focus on the “outcomes” that the different activities will prove to have both at local and European level; the handbook will be distributed Europe wide by all the partners involved in the project.
Web-site: The final results will be disseminated through the project official website and through the websites of the partners.

3. What will be the media coverage in the implementation of the project?

The media will play an important role during the implementation phase of the project; the media will also be in charge of the promotion of the different activities and of the dissemination of results; The means of communication will be directly involved in all the activities scheduled by the programme, both at local and European level. All partners will rely on their own press offices and on consolidated contacts with the media and will make an effort to grant the greatest possible media coverage on the project as a whole and on each single activity carried out at national level.

4. How will the European citizens benefit from the outcome of the project?

The main target of this project are the citizens of the 3 transborder countries involved, both as individuals and as groups of people within the organised civil society; but it must be acknowledged that, thanks to the results dissemination activity, an even higher number of European citizens will be involved in the project, though “indirectly”.
Citizens will benefit from the project mainly in terms of:
the improvement of the relationship between the citizens and the civil society organisations that, as a matter of fact, will reinforce cooperation at local level and promote an increased participation and a better quality of life.
Increased opportunities and possibilities for citizens to get acquainted with, and better understand European environmental policies; this will enable them to be more “active citizens” and to interact with the institutions both at local and at European level.
Improved social cohesion within the communities involved, achieved through a deeper awareness of citizens of the role within the local communities, and of the importance of “participation”.

e)   Key words1 of the project (max. 10 words)

De-growth, environmental awareness, sustainable development, life styles, Participation, conviviality, social capital, trans-border cooperation.

For each event, a detailed draft agenda

The present proposal includes 2 kinds of event:

1) the local workshop, which will take place in 4 different communities

2) the international workshop

The agenda of the local workshops will have the following structure, which will be adjusted according to the specific features and to the requirements of the local community where it will be implemented:

During the local workshop there will be an “info point” that, by using participative methods, will have the task to sensitise the public on environmental issues and on the role of Europe

The International workshop agenda will have the following structure: