Learning communities - communities of interest

Biodiversity projects. Above: a peacock butterfly photographed by a volunteer walk leader, Leicestershire. Below: a dragonfly photographed by one of our volunteer species recorder, Nottinghamshire. Nature is a great catalyst to learning. Dylan Thomas referred to the: "green fuse of everything."

Community Learning:

We build community & family opportunities. Our aim is to encourage & support life long -learning & activities which offer enjoyment. We promote access to education & skills improvement in local communities, offering resources for learning. We develop public interest & responsibility & involve new people, raising awareness & understanding. We maximize social & economic benefits through capacity building, training, personal development & community learning courses. Basic skills learning is embedded in much of our work, including practical skills building, arts & craft activities & outdoor projects such as recording biodiversity & historical features, community mapping, photographing ancient trees, horticultural & animal welfare tasks. We support forest schools & elective home education groups. Learning topics are organised by term: Hilary or Lent - January to April, Trinity or Easter - April to July, August is for special summer school activities, Michaelmas is from September to December. 

Our Learning Communities: 

A) by creating learning communities groups for disadvantaged people & those lacking confidence.

 

B) by creating communities of interest learning groups for specialist researchers and communicators who will enhance and create positive change in the wider communities. 

 C) by creating resources and activities that:

 1) advance knowledge and skills to improve life quality, social and economic wellbeing, social and economic welfare and help people become more fulfilled, happy, active, able to gain employment or volunteer. 

2) promote opportunities, enterprise and positive business models. 

3) advance understanding of equality, equity, democracy and collective responsibility and foster skills which enable people to obtain their ethical aspirations and participate in making decisions that affect their communities, lives, development and access to basic requirements. 

4) promote access to culture. the arts and heritage that enriches people's lives and respects people, animals and the environment.

5) advance understanding that places have special meaning to communities and the that natural heritage (habitats, landscapes and wildlife) is irreplaceable and may need to be both accessible and protected for the enjoyment of all.

6) promote skills that reduce harm, neglect, cruelty, exploitation and suffering in human society; advance  animal welfare; promote understanding of climate change, environmental issues and empower people to live sustainably, conserve heritage plants, ecosystems, water, soil and clean air. 

Education:  working with learning communities to provide educational activities, resources and information, to advance understanding. Lifelong learning, family learning and academic research and the collection of knowledge will be nurtured by building community education networks. We will share best practice of how to deliver learning effectively. The charity will engage, motivate, enable, encourage and support thoughtful learning and debate; offering, honest, compassionate and enquiring testing and challenging of ideas within safe, welcoming and lawful environments. Learners may develop confidence, skills, knowledge, individual capabilities, competences, employability and increased well-being. We aim to promote respect and compassion and active conservation of the environment, contributing to a positive & ethical society that shares knowledge, interest, friendship and enjoyment. We will also nurture communities of interest in specialist research and communicators who will enhance and create positive change in the wider community. Delivery methods will include online educational information, media resources, forums and publications.

Environmental protection: the charity will promote understanding of climate change and environmental issues and empower people to live sustainably, conserve heritage plants, wildlife, habitats, ecosystems, water, soil and clean air. Educational activities will advance appreciation that places and landscape heritage have special meaning to communities. The learning programmes and eco-philosophy and eco spirituality research will support the protection of the environment, flora, fauna, biodiversity and natural history and increased climate change awareness.

Animal welfare: the charity promotes kindness & and thoughtful, mindful & compassionate attitudes, seeking to suppress cruelty to animals & wildlife and promoting the understanding that responsible and sustainable lifestyles can benefit animals, wildlife & habitats.

Community development: we promote learning about sustainable development to empower and enable people to share best practice and help to create communities in which the basic means of life, growth and development are available for all. We encourage participants to champion creative social and environmental innovation and contribute to community and economic welfare benefits in society. We offer a sustainability check-list and deliver learning in organic plant-based food growing, seed saving, propagation, pollination, composting and soil management, We create evidence based initiatives and keep up to date with the latest research from universities, such as The Nature-based Solutions Initiative at the University of Oxford, who have illustrated strong evidence showing that soil health & biodiversity can improve under holistic regenerative agricultural practices Again, Cambridge Zero messaging via the BBC explaining the climate science that assists understanding of the increasing intensity and frequency of heatwaves. We encourage the development and sharing of innovative low technology solutions by networking information. 

Human rights and well-being: human rights and the advancement of health and well-being, with better understanding between persons of different races & religions, is central to our educational objectives. We aim to build community capacity and nurture ethical communities by the promotion of civic responsibilities and increasing understanding of citizenship, promoting inclusion and good relations, challenging bullying, advancing equality, equity. We strive to teach good models of democracy and collective responsibility. We will endeavour to foster skills which enable people to obtain their ethical aspirations and participate in making decisions that affect their communities, lives, development and access to basic requirements. We will promote skills that reduce harm, neglect, cruelty, exploitation and suffering and give opportunities for increased welfare, well-being, quality of life, happiness and enjoyment. We seek to nurture good, respectful and tolerant community relations so that people feel involved and equally valued and respected. We offer access to cultural, natural heritage and arts experiences, including rural heritage & crafts, for the enjoyment of all. We network information on the proven beneficial effects on human well being of mindful activities, visiting nature and healthy eating. 

First Peace Chaplaincy and The Juno Project assists implementation of strong standards. It's responsive flexibility; clear, simple achievable and creative concepts; moral, ethical and meaningful action creates healthy outcomes; local enjoyment and worth.

In addition, we share global benefit & positive change through our International Co-operation Programme.

• Our Learning Community Networks engage, nurture, motivate, enable, encourage and support learning. 
• It offers participation, learning resources, assemblies, deliberations, communication, forums & experience with the potential to increase self determination. 
• Benefits include increase in thoughtful, mindful & compassionate attitudes; opportunity; multi level community connections & potential 
• The Juno Project offers participation, learning resources, assemblies, deliberative forums and experience that generate the potential to increase self determination.

This Co-operation strengthens delivery of benefits, through the following work that we do :

We assist in the understanding of democracy & foster skills for participation in decisions that affect communities & impact on our lives & economy. We encourage accessible local democracy, encouraging collective responsibility, to help assure that the basic means of life, growth & development are available for all.

We nurture community learning & skills development in order to enrich lives and help people into the labour market in exchange for fair pay, security & dignity.

We work within communities, discussing & exploring how their own resources & destinies can be ethically secured; fostering the understanding that life resources, such as water, needed by plants, animals & humans, should be affordable, accessible to all, uncontaminated & sustainably managed.

We deliver learning in organic plant based food growing, seed saving & propagation, pollination, composting and soil management. We encourage the development and sharing of innovative low technology solutions by networking information.

Below: healthy growing, healthy eating, photograph by supporter

We work with communities to stimulate cultural enjoyment & enterprise

through participation in activities in heritage & history, the arts & crafts, such as the visual arts, ceramics, music, words and language, needle crafts, cooking, plant crafts & traditional wood skills.

We cooperate with indigenous communities in specified international locations, respecting their right to seek inclusion in international agreements among nations, thus giving them a voice; indigenous people must be on an equal footing with other people & nations.

We offer and publicise opportunities & support for all, helping people meet their needs & fulfil their ethical aspirations, showing that enterprise is rooted in & responsible to communities & future generations. We work cooperatively, especially with women headed households and children leaving care, to create positive community business models, favouring self management & worker ownership.

Above: projects inspire future generations and create sustainability. Photograph by a supporter

We understand that places have special meaning to communities & that places have irreplaceable habitats, ecosystems & beauty, that should not be desecrated by exploitation.

We support access to cultural heritage that respects human, animal & environmental well-being, for the benefit of society.

We help communities protect & conserve the life-sustaining systems of the planet; extending understanding & helping to bring about positive behavioural change. 

Above, Patrick Harry raising awareness of deforestation & promoting plant based food growing

We nurture respect for :

human communities
the natural environment
wild plants and open-pollinated heirloom plants
habitats and ecosystems
ecological communities 
all animals
 
All are too precious to be made commodities, be harmed or exploited; all should be free from suffering, neglect & cruelty.