The GROW Observatory (GROW) will create a sustainable citizen platform and community to generate, share and utilise information on land, soil and water resource at a resolution hitherto not previously considered. The vision is to underpin smart and sustainable custodianship of land and soil, whilst meeting the demands of food production, and to answer a long-standing challenge for space science, namely the validation of soil moisture detection from satellites. GROW is highly innovative project leveraging and combining low cost consumer sensing technology, a simple soil test and a large user base of growers and plant enthusiasts to contribute individual soil and land data. It is designed to engage primarily individual growers and small-scale farmers across Europe, and to enable them to develop new wisdom and innovative practices through the collective power of shared and open data and knowledge. Citizens contributing data will gain access to the first single-source comprehensive crop and watering advice service for individual and small-scale growers incorporating scientific and crowdsourced information. Moreover, they will develop ‘campaigns’ (coordinated sampling operations) around local needs and issues, to underpin smarter decision-making and implementation of policy objectives. GROW will actively identify and enable new and credible social and business innovation processes, creating potential new services, applications and markets. The outcome will be a central hub of open knowledge and data created and maintained by growers that will be of value to the citizens themselves as well as specialist communities in science, policy and industry. The GROW partnership will connect and scale to globally dispersed communities linked through digital and social platforms, and a wide range of additional citizen associations and NGOs in sustainable agriculture, gardening, food democracy and land management.

"<< Background >>We are meeting the needs of mothers and professionals working with mothers for additional content, support and connection. Mothers are increasingly aware of the looming climate crisis and are fearful of the world for their children. This project will create and share learning tools, including digital tools and resources to support mothers in becoming agents of change in their families and communities: in being proactive with strategies to initiate thinking, behavioural and cultural changes in tackling climate change.We are applying for this project because we were very successful as a team previously, and produced some innovative, beautiful and relevant tools for mothers and professionals working with mothers. These tools are being used across the world since our first strategic partnership finished in 2020. The end of the project coincided with the global pandemic and an increasingly urgent ecological crisis. In this specific historical moment the partnership intends to integrate new practices and methods into their activities to tackle the current social and ecological crisis. The project will allow the partnership to gain international experience in the field of strategic development, leadership, digital skills and competences in the field of adult learning, using all these tools to raise awareness about environmental and climate-change challenges. This project will meet the needs of greater international collaboration and dissemination of these materials and methodologies. TARGET GROUPS:1. mothers, as adult learners, wanting to connect to nature and are developing an awareness of environmental issues like climate change, discovering their interest in sustainable lifestyles2. professionals working with mothers, interested in building up communities of mothers and inspire them towards environmental sustainability. Based on our experience these two groups are often blended, mothers wanting to become helpers and/or providing peer support.NEEDS OF TARGET GROUP: We talked to about 150 mothers and professionals at multiplier events in 2020 (“Mother Nature - strengthening professional capacity to support mothers in personal transformation”) in Slovenia, Italy, Germany, Hungary, and UK about what they found useful in our project and what further tools would support their work. We conducted a target needs analysis (http://bit.ly/MotherNatureAnalysis) between January-March, 2020 with 105 women. The lessons learnt from the survey we conducted are:There is a strong need for networking and community for mothers and professionals (blending targetgroups)Online tools are considered very valuable both from mothers and professionals, for many reasons, including:-Online courses are less time-consuming for mothers that often have limited capacity to travel and to leave their homes.-Online courses are considered more affordable and within reach for a wider audience.-The current situation (Covid-19 emergency) calls for a rethinking of our learning habitsTo increase our personal Nature connection can strengthen our engagement in tackling climate change in our everyday lifestyle choices, also time spent outdoors is needed to counterbalance for the longer amount of time we tend to spend online.Professionals were asked to outline, in an open question, what knowledge, skills and information could help them to improve their support for mothers. These are the main topics that were mentioned: 1. How to hold space for circles and groups (""How to engage mothers in mother circles, how to create and keep a lively community"" ""A course for mothers to lead regular, self-helping mothers group""); 2. Activities and tools to empower mothers: Nature connection, zero-waste and personal growth were the most named topics.The pandemic has a great impact on women (specially single mums) some have lost part time work etc and need to have access to training for free in order to get the benefits and this will then help them get back to work in the future<< Objectives >>We want to achieve an increase in ecological literacy and strategies for tackling climate change, and enhanced capacity for online learning and networking of mothers and professionals working with mothers.Environment and fight against climate change is the main focus of the project, as we aim to support mothers to become change agents towards ecological sustainability, both in their immediate environment as families, and both in their role of providing peer support for other women in the form of mother circles. We will be fostering ecological literacy through nature connection activities - a nature connection handbook and visual aid. These nature connection practices will lead mothers to a greater care for the natural environment and increased ecological understanding, which will in turn provide them with peer support and necessary skills to tackle climate change. The routes will include cultural, thinking and behavioural change of mothers such as changes in home and travel energy consumption and waste habits. These skills gained will benefit mothers and their wider networks of families and communities.Our project aims to improve the competences of mothers to be able to become these agents of change towards a more ecological way of living - and we consider mothers not only adult learners, also change agents, with a great influence on their immediate communities, their families' lifestyles and children's future habits.Addressing digital transformation became more important during the COVID pandemic where mothers became even more isolated and need even more peer support and community. Through our project results, women, mothers across Europe will gain tools and competences to enhance this connectedness through digital means, and use innovative digital learning tools.<< Implementation >>We have chosen the following project results to reach our objectives and to meet these priorities; a handbook, a digital e-learning course, a visual aid and podcast series. These will in turn be supported by 2 in person training courses and multiplier events in person and online. The e-learning course on how to run Mother Nature circles will also initiate many happening in the partner countries.The handbook relates to climate change and digital learning because it will disseminate information and practices for tackling climate change and encouraging nature connection in mothers, in a low carbon and easily available digital format.The e-learning course for mothers to run Mother Nature circles will engage mothers internationally across a digital platform. Thereby increasing the competencies of mothers to engage digitally. These Mother’s circles will also provide valuable peer support for the cultural and behavioural changes and dissemination of the tools.The visual aid will focus on nature connection practices and principles that support an increasing ecological literacy. The visual aspect is crucial in grabbing user's attention, maintaining accessibility and is an innovative way to convey messages relating to tackling climate change.The podcasts will engage mothers new to nature connection and practices tackling climate change and enable them to increase their awareness of the issues and encourage them to move further in their learning through the handbook, visual aid and ecourse. Additional activities include multiplier events in the 4 partner countries and online, where we will disseminate the outcomes of the project to mothers and professionals.Two face to face courses where project partners, mothers and professionals develop skills and tools for nature connection and tackling climate change, therefore to become agents of change towards a more sustainable world.<< Results >>CONCRETE OUTCOMES1. Development of a handbook “Nature Connection for Mothers”. This will develop nature connection practices and share green lifestyle tips. This will be tested with 20 learners from partner countries during a 5 day residential training in Hungary. The final version will be published on the mothernatureproject.org website, in 4 languages and downloaded 500 times. 2. E-learning course “Leading Mother Nature Circles” will be published on an e-learning platform in English and subtitled in 3 languages, with at least 400 people enrolled. At least 40 of the learners will go on to lead Mother Circles, online and/or in person in their communities, reaching an additional 200 women. 3. A “Mothers in Nature” visual aid on Nature Connection and Ecological Lifestyles will be produced and this will be tested with 20 learners from partner countries during a 5 day residential training in Hungary and the final version will be published on the mothernatureproject.org website, in 4 languages and will be downloaded 500 times. 4. “Mother Nature Podcast” this audio material will be published in English (season 1 and 2) and in Italian, Slovenian and Hungarian (season 2,) and will total at least 75 podcasts and will be downloaded or listened to 10,000 times from the mothernatureproject.org website and other podcast hosting platforms.5. A 5 day “Nature connection for mothers” training in Hungary with 26 participants (20 learners + 6 staff) from Italy, Hungary, Slovenia and UK. They will experience nature connection tools and gain competences to use and disseminate them.6. A 5 day “Mother Nature in Action” training in Slovenia with 26 participants (20 learners + 6 staff) from Italy, Hungary, Slovenia and UK, to learn how to use Mother Nature tools.7. During 10 dissemination-multiplier events across the 4 partner countries 400 mothers and professionals working with mothers are introduced to the outputs of the project.8. We will join at least 10 professional events (in person or online) during the project duration to further spread the project (conferences, online workshops).9. Through our communication channels we reach from the start to the end of the project:*Website: mothernatureproject.org 8000 visitors*4 languages newsletter: 3000 recipients *Facebook pages (all languages): 5000 followers*Facebook groups (all languages): 800 members*Instagram pages (all languages): 2000 followers*MN podcast: 10000 listensADDITIONAL OUTCOMES OF THE PROJECT:- With a focus on the burning global issues (pandemic and climate change), we are providing online learning tools, networking and support platforms for mothers, equipping mothers with skills to navigate the current crisis and to take active action at their local level to foster sustainable and ecological practices in response to climate change.- Partners will integrate new practices, shared through collaborative working into their activities. Staff members will gain international experience in the field of strategic development, leadership, ICT skills, project coordination and management, contributing to their professional development.- Participants, staff, associated partners and the wider public reached through multiplier events and online media will deepen their understanding on: motherhood as part of life-long learning, nature connection activities, mothers as empowered leaders and influencers of sustainable lifestyle.- Strengthened local, regional, national and European networks of mothers and professionals.- Functioning network will be established between the partner organisations, with the potential to develop further joint activities like international training courses and EU-projects- Valuable contribution in the fields of European adult education and support services for mothers - Increased capacity of mothers to be active change agents through organising learning and self-help support circles for mothers based on our free online resources."

CONTEXT & BACKGROUNDThe project has been designed with the following perspectives in mind:•The widely agreed need for massive levels of transformative change to achieve a sustainable low carbon future •The development of good practice in transformative learning•The relevance of transformative learning to behaviour change in this context, for individuals and communities•The emergence of blended learning methods and systems, which can combine the best aspects of digital learning (e.g. massive affordable accessibility) and experiential learning (deep engagement, inward and outward transformation) OBJECTIVESOur specific objectives are to:1) Provide a context for adult educators to improve their competences in delivering blended transformative learning for civic engagement in community-led initiatives.2) Increase reach and improve access, quality, attractiveness and coordination of educational delivery of transformative adult education initiatives across Europe that are supporting the social-ecological transition.3) Identify, pool, encourage and spread related social and educational innovations. 4) exploit results of other related EU projects.Achieving these objectives aims to bring about massive personal and community-led change over time by supporting people to engage actively in the socio-ecological transition in response to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and related goals. PARTICIPANTS15 people will engage in core BLAST project meetings, with 250 in-person attendees of multiplier events, and at least as many predicted on-line participants, the target being many more. Through dissemination activities across the partnership’s extensive networks, the objective is that the beneficiaries of the BLAST project outputs beyond the life of the project will be many thousands. The participants in the BLAST project is composed of a mix of people representing bigger networks of community-led initiatives and smaller adult education providers.They have complementary domains of expertise (such as regenerative design, community resilience, cosmopolitan communication, or social innovation) and have prior long-term collaborative engagement with each other (e.g. through ECOLISE), and more recent new linkages.ACTIVITIES The projects activities are to produce a set of 4 inter-related Intellectual Outputs, linked to a set of Training and Multiplier events that are designed to generate deep and long lasting benefits for the Community of Practice and the wider partnerships, network and collaborations that ReLeaP partners are engaged with. The project activities also include online and Transnational Project meetings through which partners will progress the tasks to deliver the project outputs, project evaluation, and extensive dissemination to ensure wide and ongoing take-up of the project’s outputs.METHODOLOGY: BLENDED LEARNING AND COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICEBlended learning can overcome the disadvantages of face-to-face and online learning for achieving Transformative Learning. This is coupled with the Community of Practice approach (Etienne Wenger) for sustaining and extending collective learning and providing a nurturing space for innovations.• Specialised knowledge and related conversations can be accessed online, leaving precious face-to-face time for whole person experiential and social learning.• The participants are engaged with online peer group when they work on their projects at home. As the pioneers of change who may face resistance in their social environment, this is very helpful, providing confirmation and support, which maintains behaviour change.• Participating occasionally in a face-to-face module enhances an online course by increasing the identification with the group and enabling embodied experiences.RESULTS, IMPACT & LONG-TERM BENEFITSThe project will produce a set of results which enable adult educators to deliver transformative learning affordably at scale, in highly accessible ways. It will deliver training to educators that pilots and develops a methodology for maximising the effectiveness of educators and learners to engage with, use and benefit from the platform and system that the project delivers. The impact will be that Europe's communities will be set up to have access to high quality transformative learning that will help bringing about significant shifts to sustainable low carbon lifestyles and communities.POTENTIAL LONGER TERM BENEFITSThe potential longer term benefits include massive shifts to low carbon living, health creating and circular resource efficient lifestyles, resilient low carbon communities, with healthy local and regional economies and ecosystems that deliver healthy food and clean energy to the communities they serve in Europe, and beyond.

Mother Nature - strengthening professional capacity to support mothers in personal transformation Mother Nature aimed to equip professionals with adult learning tools and skills to support and empower mothers in developing, recognising and validating skills acquired through the informal learning experience of becoming mothers in order to foster employability, socio-educational and professional development. Our concrete objectives were: 1. to develop and test adult learning resources (website and online forum, training curriculum, workbook and visual aid) with a minimum of 30 participants (mothers and professional educators) and reaching a minimum of 6800 wider audience through various means of communication; 2. to improve professional competences and skills of up to 415 professionals working with mothers 3. to develop and disseminate a “Peer-to-peer mother learning group” model with mothers and test it with a minimum of 50 mothers 4. to engage up to 10 mothers in the 5 partner countries in opportunities to organise and lead peer to peer groups in their communities (involving 3 of disadvantaged target group: single mothers); 5. to consolidate and disseminate the project’s best practices in the 5 partner countries and to professionals throughout the EU with freely available online resources. Concrete results:- We designed and set up a website and online forum to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and best practices in non-formal learning programmes for mothers (mothernatureproject.org). The website reached 7230 views by the end of February, 2020, reaching 144% of our target. Our online forum (https://mother-nature.mn.co) with 196 members by the end of February, 2020, reaching 130% of our target.- We developed and published the Mother's Journey training curriculum and Mother Nature guidebook, by the end of February extracts were downloaded 392 times, reaching 156% of our target- We developed a FB page for dissemination of the results of the project, reaching 678 followers by the end of February, reaching 271% of our target- We created a pilot training and piloted our methodology with 15 participants, mothers, including 3 single mothers during our pilot training course in July, 2018, reaching 100% of our target- We trained 23 professionals supporting mothers based on our methodology, in March, 2019, reaching 153% os our target- We developed a network of facilitators providing the Mother's Journey course across Europe, piloting our learning curriculum as the Mother's Journey Course with 100 mothers by the end of February, 2020, reaching 250% of our target- We created within our Guidebook a chapter for supporting work of individuals in peer-to-peer mother learning groups.- We created a visual aid consisting a deck of 42 cards and a user's guidebook, to support learning on the topic that has been used, tested and promoted during the project.- We disseminated the project results through multiplier events in different countries with 170 participants in total. As project management and decision making mthodology we used Sociocracy which is a system of governance and organisational structure. As design tool we used permaculture which is a powerful design method for integrative sustainable systems. We will adopt permaculture principles & strategies for running our project. To develop our learning resources we used art- and nature-based learning methods, learning based on mindfulness, group sharing, deep listening and creative design. Impact at local level: * 22 mothers and 22 professionals participating in 2 international courses have strengthened their capacities to organise and lead courses and peer-to-peer groups of mothers* 100 mothers participating in the 18 local led Mother's Journey test courses have been through a process strengthening their consciousness of their role as mothers, and they have recognized and strengthen the soft skills developed through motherhood.* Professionals working with mothers are able to implement the tools learned during the training course (C2) in their daily work with mothers and families.Impact at international level:* Through our Online forum we have involved 260 mothers and professionals working with mothers. Extracts of O2 and O3 are available on the platform. * Mothers and professionals working with mothers that are using Mother Nature’s tools can share their experiences, ask for peer-to-peer consultancy, share experiences. A network of professionals and mothers leading peer groups is developing on the online forum, which will be available after th eend of the project and group leaders in Europe.Impact at European and international level:* increased international networking of facilitators of mother circles after September, 2019 when we organised our European Launch of Mother Nature tools* increased cooperation and exchange of information through our website, online forum, FB pages and the international courses we organised

CONTEXT & BACKGROUNDThe project has been designed with the following perspectives in mind:• The widely agreed need for massive levels of transformative change to achieve a sustainable low carbon future• The development and sharing of innovation and good practice in learning about and demonstrating sustainable, low carbon living• The importance of place-based transformative learning to create behaviour change, for individuals and communities• The emergence of blended learning methods and systems, which can enable massive affordable accessibility and while linking this to experiential learning for deep engagement, and inner and outer transformationOBJECTIVESOur specific objectives are to:1. Create a hybrid virtual and physical networked adult learning system for environmental and climate solutions with its foundations in place-based ‘learning-for-action’2. Create a system of blended learning and quality assurance 'badges' that reflects a commitment to high quality adult education on positive, deliverable solutions to the environmental and climate crises.3. Facilitate, inspire and accelerate adult learning that brings about change that actively addresses the significant sustainability and climate problems of our time.Achieving these objectives aims to bring about massive personal and community-led change over time by supporting people to engage actively in the socio-ecological transition in response to the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and related goals.PARTICIPANTS & TARGET GROUPS 14 people will engage in core iACT project meetings, with 200 in-person attendees of multiplier events, and a target of 200+ on-line participants. 43 people will be engaged in in-person iACT training, with at least as many participating in online training. Dissemination activities across the partnership’s extensive networks will benefit many thousands of people, by giving them access to and use of the iACT project outputs. The iACT project participants are composed of a mix of people representing bigger networks of community-led initiatives and smaller adult education providers. They have complementary domains of expertise (including community resilience, social innovation, collaborative and asynchronous working, online learning) and most have long-term collaborative engagement with each other. The project will cater for diverse target groups by creating a network and learning system which is highly accessible by: i) being both virtual and multi-sited; ii) having many points of entry for learners; iii) catering for a diverse range of learners; iv) creating or strengthening a sense of belonging by being place-based and through social learning programmes; v) stimulating new livelihoods in the emerging circular, ‘net zero’ and ethical enterprise economy; vi) fostering social inclusion and local solidarity in the face of the climate and environmental challenges.ACTIVITIES & METHODOLOGY: DEMONSTRATION AND BLENDED LEARNINGThe project activities will produce 4 inter-related Intellectual Outputs, linked to a set of Training and Multiplier events that are designed to generate deep and long lasting benefits for the partners and particularly for the wider partnerships, network and collaborations that iACT partners are engaged with. The project activities also include online and Transnational Project meetings through which partners will progress the tasks to deliver the project outputs, project evaluation, and extensive dissemination to ensure wide and ongoing take-up of the project’s outputs, from local to international levels. The methodology will be gather, analyse and collate best practice across a set of relevant themes, define a competence framework and learning pathway for those involved in creating and managing such learning and demonstration centres, and collate a set of valuable tools, all drawn together through a consultative process across partners and though building a wider community of practice.RESULTS, IMPACT & LONG-TERM BENEFITSThe project will produce a set of results which enable a growing network of iACT Centres and trainers to deliver highly accessible and affordable transformative learning and action for individuals and communities at scale. It will deliver the iACT centre badge as a quality assurance system, that develop locally-rooted methodologies for maximising the effectiveness of place-based learning and community engagement using tools and good practice that deliver significant shifts to low carbon sustainable living. The impact will be that Europe's communities will be more resilient, with access to high quality transformative learning and community facilitation that bring significant shifts to sustainable low carbon lifestyles and communities. The potential longer-term benefits include massive shifts to low carbon living, health creating and resource efficient lifestyles, resilient low carbon communities, regional economies and ecosystems in Europe, and beyond.