HOLDING S.P.A.C.E. Podcasts

Aims of the tool

Share reflections about the implementation of tools coming from group facilitation and the CLIPS model (clips.gen-europe.org) with groups of young people.

Description of the tool

A large number of groups that initiate collaborative projects fail within the first 2-3 years, with an observed failure rate of around 90% (D.L. Christian, 2003). Most of the time this does not happen because of economic or material obstacles, but because of problems related to relationships within the initiating group. Educated in an individualistic paradigm, we often struggle to operate in a collaborative paradigm. We need to train a generation of youth workers who can pass on the skills and tools needed to act collectively in an inclusive and resilient manner.

Ecovillages and sustainable communities, based on their founding choice of ‘living together’, have a long experience in managing and understanding collaborative projects and the relationships that are created within them. This knowledge has been combined with influences from the fields of sociology, cognitive and group psychology, ecology and systems theory and consolidated into a set of tools and skills that can be very useful to young people in shaping a more just, inclusive and sustainable future: group facilitation and the CLIPS model (Community Learning Incubator Programme for Sustainability).

This series of podcasts shares some reflections about the application of this methods by the participants in the project HOLDING S.P.A.C.E. (Support for Participatory Activities and Collaborative Entrepreneurship) that took place in the ecovillage Torri Superiore during May and October 2023.