BLAST – Kick-Off at the Ecovillage in Cloughjordan
It was great to finally meet face-to-face for the first time, after talking on zoom for such a long time prior to the Kick-Off. The possibility to meet at one place and work together for couple of days in October, created a strong sense of commitment to all, who will work together on the project for the next 2 years (or longer).
BLAST stands for BLended Adult Learning for the Social-ecological Transition and it is a strategic partnership of 10 partners located in 7 different countries:
- Associatia Romania in Tranzitie
- Col·lectiu Eco-Actiu / Ulex Project
- Croatian Permaculture
- ECOLISE (lead)
- Gaia Education
- GEN – Global Ecovillage Network
- IfGIC – Institute for Global Integral Competence
- Permaculture Association Britain / IPEN – International Permaculture Education Network
- Visionautik Akademie / IPTL – International Partnership for Transformative Learning
- Sustainable Ireland / Cultivate
“The purpose of the BLAST partnership is to enable educators, trainers, facilitators, mentors, researchers etc. in delivering transformative learning opportunities to citizens, communities and professionals that engage as change-makers and game-changers in the social-ecological transition. Blended learning for the social-ecological transition combines experiential place-based learning through immersion in community-led initiatives with online opportunities for exchange and peer learning in geographically distributed Communities of Practice.”
Anna Storck and Agata Nienajadlo met other project partners at the beautiful and inspiring Ecovillage in Cloughjordan, about 150km from Dublin, Ireland. We could enjoy the tour through the Ecovillage, learning about its history, about its Eco Houses, the permaculture design and the community behind it. All was very inspiring. Have a look at some pictures from the Ecovillage.
During the Kick-Off, we had worked very intense, we met with the Cloughjordan community and had also time to enjoy the Irish Pub in the evening. Our team laid solid ground and guiding principles for the BLAST-project and the collaboration in accordance with sociocratic mindset for the future.
The BLAST partnership is engaged in following activities as learning opportunities for educators, researchers, policy-makers and other interested professionals:
- BLAST Community of Practice (monthly conference calls and self-organised spin-off activities)
- BLAST Working Groups (synchronous and asynchronous co-creation of the outputs)
- BLAST Regional Workshops (May 2020 simultaneously in 6 countries & online)
- BLAST Training of Trainers (October 2020 in Catalunya & online)
- BLAST International Conference (September 2021 in Brussels & online)
Preliminary and final versions of those outputs will be made accessible through the BLAST wiki pages. We are going to keep you updated on the project so stay tuned for more.
Agata Nienajadlo & Anna Storck
