These learning resources were created collaboratively by Cloughjordan Ecovillage, The Burren College of Art, Carrig Dúlra Permaculture Farm and Sonairte – the National Ecology Centre and are primarily for:
- established place-based centres working in community climate action
- new place-based centres
- community projects
- place-based groups
as well as for those who facilitate community led projects (e.g. funders such as Leader, Pobal) and universities.
Insights
Learnings, challenges and opportunities for Irish place-based education centres.
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Fuascailt na Samhlaíochta
Slite chun an Ghaeilge a úsáid mar acmhainn don inbhuanaitheacht.
Liberating the Imagination
Tools for using the Irish language as a resource for sustainability.
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Bigger than ourselves
Mapping all-Ireland place-based education centres and exploring the potential for a solidarity network.
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Image Credit: Justmultimedia
Cloughjordan Ecovillage
Cloughjordan Ecovillage is a living community of 120 residents,10 businesses as well as an educational project. Its mission is to respond to the greatest challenges facing humanity today: the growing impact of human activity on the planet and how its people live and work together.
The deeper purpose of the Ecovillage is to create a living example of a healthy and harmonious future while treading more lightly on Planet Earth. This village is people led, local focused and has the lowest ecological footprint in Ireland.
The Ecovillage is:
- building a resilient, supportive community based on fairness and mutual respect.
- caring for the land in partnership with the living world.
- learning to live more socially, economically and environmentally sustainable lives.
- sharing the fruits of this exploration through research and education.
The Ecovillage was designed with key permaculture principles in mind:
- clustered high performance green homes.
- planted woodland, edible landscape, wildlife corridors.
- community farm, regenerating soil and supporting biodiversity.
- sustainable energy systems: community owned heating system with renewable local fuel, urban drainage system, solar panels, car sharing.
The Burren College
of Art
ReSource is a dedicated centre at Burren College of Art that convenes organisations and systems to find creative responses to complex challenges.
Based on the College’s foundational principles of providing Time… Space… Inspiration…. ReSource invites groups from organisations and/or systems to retreat, reflect, replenish, reboot and reimagine new ways of being and of working with uncertainty – something that is particularly required in current times.
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Carraig Dúlra Permaculture Farm
Carraig Dúlra Ltd is an environmental social enterprise set up by Mike and Suzie Cahn in 2007. Its activities and programmes are run throughout County Wicklow and beyond, aiming to help people maintain or develop their connection to the natural world. Carraig Dúlra creates spaces to learn how to live more justly, healthily and sustainably into a resilient future.
Courses and activities include: permaculture design, community/organic gardening, creating local livelihoods and sustainable business, skills exchange networks, community collaboration, arts and ecology, natural building (e.g. cob, straw bale etc), tiny homes, foraging and nature walks, cooking with un-processed home grown ingredients, heritage skills, woodland crafts, natural well-being workshops, bushcraft and more. All their educational and outreach offerings are underpinned with the ethics of permaculture, which are: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share.
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Sonairte - The National Ecology Centre
‘Sonairte’ is an old Irish word meaning `Positive Strength’.
Our Vision: A community hub supporting and inspiring people to live more sustainably.
Our Mission: To protect and increase understanding of the natural world, and to educate in ways of conserving nature.
Established in 1988 by local community and concerned environmentalists, Sonairte is now an interactive, organically certified ecological centre that has been serving and growing with the local community for over 25 years. Sonairte values cultural diversity and recognises how much we can learn from intercultural exchange and respect for the wisdom held by other cultures and traditions and are grateful for a thriving multi-cultural community of workers and volunteers.
Our facilities include: Organic Vegetable Gardens, Eco-Shop, Indoor educational spaces, Vegetarian/Vegan Cafe, Riverside-Woodland Nature Trail, Bee Museum and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle shop.
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The Community Climate Action Project: ‘Catalysing Change – Creating Centres of Excellence for Community Climate Action’ ran from January 2023 – June 2024.
The purpose of the project was, through peer learning, to develop best practice approaches and resources for place-based sustainability education centres, in demonstrating the actions needed for communities to transition to a low carbon society.
The partners are considering ways to continue their work via the creation of a solidarity network and potentially seek additional funding to take this forward.
This project is funded under the Community Climate Action Programme: Climate Education, Capacity Building and Learning by Doing (Strand 2) funded by the Government of Ireland through the Department of Environment Climate and Communications.
With thanks to Eimear McNally for her beautiful illustrations.