The CO-GREEN consortium is composed of 8 partners, representing different cultures, approaches and visions. We believe that the interdisciplinary collaboration among different stakeholders has the potential to bring about real changes in the lives of people and communities. Founding social practices on data, designing policies upon evidence, opening up research to real-life needs and instances are considered to be effective strategies to implement the idea of sustainable local development, which results in a better quality of life and equal opportunities for development for every citizen.
Specifically, universities will play an important role in planning and carrying out the research activities, supported by the NGOs as community mobilisers. The training paths, specially designed to train the “green activators” on the ground will be developed and delivered by the universities and some of the NGOs with training competency and previous experiences in developing tools and adapting them to the different target requirements. The engagement of resident citizens and young generations will be supported by the expertise of NGOs and the Greek Municipality. The action-research and piloting will see the cooperation between universities and NGOs. Within the evaluation activities, managed by UNITOV, data collection will be carried out on the ground by local NGOs. The activities related to community development and new media will be based on previous positive experiences of both universities and civil society organisations, thanks to the cooperation on other projects. The partner organisations can be segmented to allow a more coherent description:
The NGOs: The project is proposed by the CAL Association. „Discover the power of community” – this slogan briefly captures the philosophy and modus operandi of the CAL Association, that follows the approach that social change and development must begin with a particular community: local, neighbourhood, virtual or business. The potential and strength of the community, however, must be discovered, supported and developed. This can be learned. Believing in the causative power of education, CAL refers to the Polish tradition of pedagogy and social work. In the course of more than 15 years of activity, CAL has developed an effective and universal method of stimulating social energy, which we call social animation.
The Forum del Terzo Settore is the main unitary representative body of the Italian Third Sector. As an umbrella organisation, it combines a number of competences and functions: it represents and connects 94 national second and third level organisations – for a total of over 158,000 territorial offices – operating in the fields of Volunteering, Associations, Social Cooperation, International Solidarity, Ethical Finance, Fair Trade. It is also a recognised social partner, with consulting and advisory roles in institutional policy making. Thanks to this twofold identity, it will be able to bring to the project the proposals and instances from the involved territories, while ensuring the visibility and institutional consideration that is needed to have a say in the local and national political agenda. Furthermore, as a renowned training provider, it will be able to contribute to the development and provision of the planned training (for the trainers and for the green activators).
The Žmergo Association is committed to make a difference in environmental issues, supporting the land and water management priorities. Its experience as an advocacy organisation will be functional to achieve the planned objectives locally, as well as to share with the other Consortium members strategic and operational approaches. Its activists’ experience in community development and mobilisation will be a key factor for the implementation of the planned activities.
Euroacademy will mainly contribute to the training activities (involving trainers and the green activators), consistently with its mission and programmes aimed at promoting capacity building in rural areas and mobilise animators and managers of rural development by offering them the opportunity to improve their skills, widen their experience, expand their professional qualifications, starting a personal itinerary of lifelong learning and providing ample space for networking and cooperation. The Association will be also engaged in the planned communication and dissemination activities. Its networked structure will make it possible to reach out to broad audiences of interested subjects, both at national level (in Greece) and transnational scale.
The UNIVERSITIES: The Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń has supported the Applicant in promoting the constitution of the CO-GREEN partnership to give an international opening to relevant research works which are being currently carried out, on the topics of community development and the green transition. The involved staff has been collaborating on other co-funded initiatives, both at national and international level. The team of researchers in sociology and environmental studies will contribute to the project’s interdisciplinary approach, sharing their past experience and creating new “building blocks” for inclusive communities.
The University of Rome “Tor Vergata” will contribute to the project’s research and action-research phases, providing its knowledge and expertise on the topics of community development in peripheral and deprived environments, inclusive bottom-up education paths, media-based participatory processes, social communication, The involved staff has been collaborating on other co-funded initiatives, both at national and international level. media-based participatory processes, social communication.
The University of Rijeka has a remarkable experience in action-research and community-based activities. The involved staff is mainly composed of anthropologists and sociologists, ensuring interdisciplinarity and rigorous data collection in fieldwork.
The PUBLIC AUTHORITY: The Municipality of Karditsa represents a national good practice when it comes to a well-developed, interconnected “ecosystem of collaboration” that allows for the social economy to flourish. This integrates
