<< Background >>CONTEXT & MOTIVATIONWe are living historic times that define the new normality as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The world is still facing the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest of four epidemics of the last decade. Yet every year we face accelerated challenges that are becoming a permanent phenomenon - i.e. grave climate disruptions, cyclic economic crises, overlapping refugee crises. An increase in populist governments is appearing as the widespread socio-political answer to these phenomena, while ecologically we are also living what is scientifically known as the Anthropocene with the 6th mass extinction in the history of the planet.From this complex and dynamic situation urgent needs emerge: the need for a more just, equitable and resilient society and the need for a regenerative stewardship of the environment combined with transformative economic practices which give place to decent and regenerative livelihoods.At the same time, UN proposed the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, and in 2016 adopted the interpretation of the SDGs from the perspective of resilience. In 2019, the EU passed the European Green Deal, also framing targets and funding for the next few years.As a partnership of five organisations and one institution, we share the concern that cities are getting most of the resources related to resilience adoption, despite an observed rapid rate of adoption by rural territories. When combined with (1) the availability of high quality learning, (2) an increasing civic engagement and participative democracy, (3) co-created policies for community resilience and social and solidarity economy, we postulate that rural territories can become a leverage point for change in the cities, helping them reduce their overpopulation, providing them a healthy and sustainable food supply, and prototyping social, economic and ecological innovation at a low cost, while establishing more diverse, sovereign and mutually supportive regions.For these reasons, we have designed the proposal for the transnational project “Catalysts for Civic Engagement and Community Resilience”.MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE TARGET GROUPSThis project responds to two different but complementary needs of the target groups mentioned below. On the one hand the need to experience learning collective processes and sustain and experiment innovative resilient practices. On the other, the need to transfer methodologies and tools to further engage the local population, and to ensure the sustainability of the project results.More specifically, the project responds to the target groups needs by:1. YOUTH & ADULT RURAL COMMUNITY MEMBERSOffering innovative learning opportunities, embedded in a networked learning environment, both in-person in their rural communities as well as digitally, so that they can gain the skills and competences required to be more resilient and adaptable to times of change and uncertainty, while helping their community as a whole become more resilient through participatory policy development and planning. 2. COMMUNITY EDUCATORSOffering high quality resources for educators to facilitate learning environments that engage community members in participatory processes aimed to build community resilience. 3. PUBLIC & PRIVATE TECHNICIANS Offering innovative learning opportunities, embedded in a networked learning environment, both in-person in their rural communities as well as digitally, so that they can gain the skills and competences required to be able to carry out their specialist work in the framework of civic engagement and community resilience.4. POLICY MAKERSOffering innovative learning opportunities, embedded in a networked learning environment, both in-person for rural policy makers as well as digitally for both rural and European policy makers, so that they can gain the skills and competences required to be able to carry out their specialist work in the framework of civic engagement and community resilience.<< Objectives >>MAIN GOALIn response to this context, we have designed this project “Catalysts for Civic Engagement and Community Resilience” (CCECR), whose main goal is:Developing methodologies and tools to catalyse rural regions so that they can become leading innovators and policy contributors of the European transition towards overcoming the systemic crisis; training potential catalysts through the development of practical and educational resources, an educational platform and a community of rural resilience practitioners at the European level.SPECIFIC CROSS-CUTTING OBJECTIVES1. COMMUNITY RESILIENCE AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT: To establish a transversal and intercultural dialogue that evolves the democratic processes in our rural territories, making space for collective activation of civic engagement, participation and policy development and integration.2. SUSTAINABLE AND REGENERATIVE DEVELOPMENT: To teach new ways of understanding and planning for rural bioregions, based on the promotion and the bridging of local cultures and European policies that steward and regenerate our natural and cultural heritage.3. SOCIAL AND SOLIDARITY ECONOMY: To promote collective entrepreneurship through social technology in rural areas, generating learning environments that act as hubs of resilience innovation, adaptation and adoption in our territories.4. EUROPEAN RURALITY, AS NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE: To create a broad and diverse learning community of rural practitioners and researchers who share experiences and solutions to common problems, working together to understand, map and scale up tools, strategies and methodologies that are applicable to other European territories.<< Implementation >>In addition to general project management tasks, which include ongoing monitoring evaluation & learning activities as well as communication & dissemination, the project Catalysts for Civic Engagement and Community Resilience proposes to implement the following activities:1. Project Result: Toolkit on Community Resilience - Create a toolkit for youth & adult rural community members, local policy makers & leaders, public & private technicians, so that they can have the tools and strategies needed to generate civic engagement and catalyze community resilience in rural territories.2. Project Result: Teaching & Training Curriculum on Community Resilience - Develop teaching & training curriculum for educators and trainers to teach youth & adult rural community members, policy makers & leaders, public & private technicians and the university students, so that they can have the skills and competences needed to catalyze community resilience in their rural territories.3. Project Result: Pilot Training in Civic Engagement and Community Resilience - In order to be able to design a learning process that is flexible and adaptable, we need to test it in a prototype form, to be able to receive feedback, and coherently improve it.The focus of this comprehensive training is to test the teaching of practical community resilience tools, methodologies and strategies with local actors according to the four transversal objectives, as well as engaging university students in this pilot training process from the perspective of future practitioners, policy makers and/or researchers.The four transversal areas to be covered in this training are in line with the four transversal objectives of this project:· Civic engagement for community resilience· Sustainable and regenerative development· Social and solidarity economy· European rurality as natural & cultural heritage4. Project Result: E-Learning Platform for Community Catalysts - Design and establish an online learning platform to disseminate tools and methodologies to catalyze community resilience in rural territories, through strategies and concrete tools for civic engagement, community resilience, social solidarity economy and regenerative development. This will be done through webinars and self-guided educational modules, and the facilitation of an online community with local hubs nested in a transnational space of dialogue, learning, exchange and innovation.5. Four regional Conferences on Catalysting Community Resilience - Carry out regional conferences in four rural regions across peripheral Europe, with the following objectives: · Learn about and explore the Project Results through the participatory and co-creative method called “Hackathon” to be able to harness and further innovate these results· Promote a broad participation in the E-learning platform on community resilience· Involve participants in the dissemination and multiplication of all Results at the regional and national level 6. One International Practitioner & Policy Conference - The International Practitioner & Policy Conference hosted by EPE in Brussels aims to create an exchange space between practitioners working towards socio ecological transitions in rural areas and European policy makers concerned with achieving the green and digital transition, while strengthening Europe’s resilience and social contract.The objectives of the conference are threefold:· to present to the educational outputs of the project which includes tools for the contextualisation of the Green New Deal to peripheral rural communities in Europe;· to create space for dialogue bridging the gap between rural practitioners and policy makers and charting new ways of collaboration in the context of the future of Europe and on matters related to civic engagement;· to question and deconstruct basic assumptions informing the urban-rural divide debates in Europe in the context of the necessary shifts and diverse roles towards net-zero societies.<< Results >>The CCECR project aims to achieve the following outcomes:1. Local community members, technicians and policy makers skilled and active proponents of community resilience processes and local & European civic engagement.2. Networked local communities in the rural case study regions, as localised community resilience learning and practice hubs.3. Transnationally networked local communities learning and working together to advance community resilience in different rural areas across Europe.4. Increased awareness around SDGs, European Green Deal and their potential implications for policy co-design and co-implementation at the local and European level5. An accessible E-learning platform that engages learners, practitioners and educators in topics related to building community resilience, through civic engagement, social solidarity economy and regenerative development proposals and content.The following project results and outputs contribute to achieving these outcomes:· A toolkit about the practical implementation of community resilience in rural regions for local agents, based on an innovative theoretical-methodological framework in community resilience and systematising local patterns and processes of community resilience in the rural case study bioregions. This toolkit is designed for community catalysts, including general youth and adult community members, community educators, technicians and policy makers. Toolkit aims to stimulate citizen participation, the creation of spaces for intercultural dialogue and social inclusion, the design of public policies, etc.· Open-source downloadable pedagogical material (including teaching posters and videos) and a community resilience curriculum for community and university educators interested in and/or needing cutting-edge innovative teaching material and curricula on how to foster and embed community resilience in rural communities and other marginal or vulnerable communities.· Pilot trainings for local community members and university students, in the practical application of community resilience in rural regions.· An E-learning platform dedicated to the exchange and learning between participants of the different activities of the project. Embedded into the E-learning platform are webinars on the different transversal topics and concrete outputs of the CCECR (i.e. Toolkit & Curriculum).· Local participatory conferences on Civic Engagement and Community Resilience strategies and tools, providing a space in which local community members, technicians and policy makers can exchange and participate in the collective learning around all four of the project results shared during these multiplier events.· A transnational participatory conference in Brussels on Civic Engagement and Community Resilience, providing a space in which local community members, technicians and policy makers can exchange with European policy makers regarding tools & strategies for accelerating community resilience processes in rural communities, with special attention to disseminating the four project results.

CONTEXT European society is demanding a greater voice in decision-making in order to ensure greater equity and prosperity in their communities and to contribute to a more biodiverse and healthy environment. Some municipalities are responding to this demand by launching citizen participation processes and promoting sustainability projects. In spite of these initiatives, climate change continues to confront us with challenges that are difficult to overcome. However, the UN Sustainable Development Goals may provide an administrative framework and the concept of community resilience may provide the socio-ecological framework to overcome these challenges. DEFINITION OF TERM Community resilience refers to the capacity of a community or society to overcome great social, economic, political and / or ecological challenges and to get ahead with even more strength compared to its initial state. PARTICIPANTS AND NEEDS ADDRESSED This proposal of Community Catalysts for Regenerative Development is driven by the social and global need to promote citizen participation and contribute to community resilience. We have seen that this need can be effectively addressed through ecological regeneration practices and strategies, and we believe that this requires the participation of the following actors in order to have a long-term impact: · Youth leaders; · Community leaders; · Technicians from the private sector and the public sector MAIN GOAL Create a pioneering training aimed at youth leaders, community leaders and technicians so that they can become community catalysts of regenerative development in their rural regions, through tools and activities of participatory action research, citizen participation and the co-creation of public policies. SPECIFIC PHASES AND OBJECTIVES PHASE 1: Participatory Research-Action in Regenerative Development Specific goal: Collect the knowledge, strategies and good practices of youth leaders and community leaders in promoting regenerative development in their rural regions. Activities: · Conduction of participatory research in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Hungary · Collection of good practices and identification of conclusions and recommendations within a report PHASE 2: Creation of a Guide for trainers and a Toolkit for participants Specific goal: Create a guide and didactic material for trainers and a toolkit for youth leaders, community leaders and technicians in regenerative development. Activities: · Preparation of a guide for community catalyst trainers · Preparation of didactic material for the training of community catalysts with a regenerative development focus · Preparation of a toolkit in regenerative development for leaders and technicians PHASE 3: Formations Specific goal: Conduct a series of pioneer training in regenerative development for youth researchers, trainers, youth leaders, community leaders and technicians. Activities: · Training of community researchers (mainly young people) in a transnational formation · Training of trainers in a transnational formation · Pilot training for community catalysts on regenerative development CONTINUOUS PHASE: Communication and Dissemination Specific goal: Share the achievements, results and lessons learned from this project with local and European audiences. Activities: · Create a website for the project · Create teaching capsules on ecological regeneration · Conduct multiplier events in each participating country · Conduct a high profile transnational multiplier event CONTINUOUS PHASE: Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation for Organizational Learning Specific goal: Ensure organizational learning and continue through participatory monitoring and evaluation activities. Activities: · Participatory monitoring throughout the project · Participatory evaluation at the end of the project REASONS FOR TRANSNATIONALITY Transnationality benefits the CC-REGENERATION project mainly because it fosters co-learning among partners and includes a wider selection of good practices in regenerative development. In addition, it encourages formal and non-formal exchange between participants of the two transnational formations and inspires the creation of projects and networks.

CONTEXTWe are living through historic times of rapid and turbulent global change. The world is currently facing the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is in fact the third epidemic in the past decade. Every year we face new climate challenges, trade wars, we have economic crises every 10 years that are becoming a permanent phenomenon.Urgent needs emerge from this complex and dynamic situation: the need for a fairer, more equitable and more resilient society and the need for regenerative stewardship of the environment combined with transformative economic practices that lead to regenerative and dignified livelihoods.At the international level, the UN proposed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 in 2015, and adopted the interpretation of the SDGs from the perspective of resilience in 2016. (Stockholm Resilience Center, 2016). The knowledge about these developments at local level is not widespread enough, it is needed to connect these two levels.MAIN GOALDeveloping methodologies and tools to catalyze SSE-s operating in urban and rural territories to design systemic responses in overcoming the crisis and reaching long lasting positive changes in their own operation mode and in handling the problems of their community to realize the true potential of the transformative economy. By the toolkit that contains useful, practical tools and the course curriculum the project contributes significantly to strengthening and developing the transformative economy.CCRES is a consortium created between 6 partners, coming from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Hungary and the United Kingdom. One representative of the private sector (a cooperative), the third sector (four associations) and the public administration (one university). In addition, 4 of the partners are operating in rural communities, in bioregions with different geographical and cultural characteristics, from the peripherals of Europe, which ensures the linkage to the local realities. One partner is a notable member of the international professional community, their network ensures our access to the level the most progressive professionals and groups of developers internationally. In this way our project covers the whole verticum from the local/regional, national, European and international levels.TARGET GROUPS AND ADDRESSED NEEDS:The project is aimed at the following target groups, with the following needs:1. social entrepreneurs - stabilizing their economic activities and ensure their long term environmental, social and economic sustainability2. formal and informal communities, individuals who are looking for alternative economic practices - widen the field of their knowledge, getting familiar with the theoretical frameworks of the transformative economy, motivation in starting new initiatives3. academic community - researchers with concern for the effectiveness of the processes of change and transitionPROJECT ACTIVITIES AND REASONS FOR TRANSNATIONALITYThe activities and reasons are:- Participatory research on transformative economy through case studies in 4 countries (O1)- The co-production of a methodological guide on transformative economy (O2), the quality of which allows us to scale our impact on generating positive social change- The co-design and co-development of a toolkit (O3) and the framework and materials of a course for transformative catalysts (O4)- Joint creation and facilitation of an online learning platform on transformative economy (O5)- 5 local seminars and 1 international conference for making the project results available and known in the professional communities and for the wider audience (E1-E6)Finally, the community of professionals we are creating aims to be European in scope.