Deep civilization and sustainability as a way of living brings us together because it is meaningful!
In project "Deep civilization and sustainability as a way of living" we gave space for meaningful experiences to our workers to share good with the students. We got education in Nature School in a forest. In value workshops we studied ecososial education. There is only one planet Earth and wanting something is different than what we need. We need to connect! In theatrical working we shared our thoughts about our values and realized that together we can find a way to live following these values.
Regional
Finland
Tampere and Ylöjärvi
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
No
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Tampereen seudun työväenopisto Type of organisation: Other public institution First name of representative: Taru Last name of representative: Huokkola Gender: Female Nationality: Finland Function: Project leader Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Sammonkatu 2 Town: Tampere Postal code: 33540 Country: Finland Direct Tel:+358403553176 E-mail:taru.huokkola@tampere.fi Website:https://www.tampere.fi/organisaatio/syvasivistys-ja-kestava-kehitys-elamantapana
Sustainable life is possible if we do it together. In our project "Deep civilization and sustainability as a way of living" we approached sustainability through ecosocial values, and we shared experiences in nature and art exhibitions. We have taken time during the working days to reminiscence and discuss those things that really give us a feeling of living a meaningful life. We have had time to care about the people nearby and also reconnect with nature.
Living individually and fast separates us from each other and we lose the feeling of connection. In other words, we lose our perspective about what really matters. We need the feeling of connection to care about others and the environment and to remind us that together we have the power to do good.
Living too fast makes us lose awareness of what is really important. We start to want material wealth even though we would really need mental wealth. In a fast life we create all the time something new, but are we always heading to right direction? We need time to think about the direction and consequences of our actions. What kind of effects will our actions have after ten (or more) years?
There are about 30 workers in our organization and also 400 teachers working part time. In value workshops we practiced awareness, shared information about ecosocial values and handled them by using theatrical methods involving the whole body and presence to connect with each other. These workshops brought people together and gave them a feeling of being part of the group.
We chose democratically 3 new values to The Adult Education Centre: awareness of the consequences, reasonableness and interpersonality, which in this context means that individuals have a chance to belong to communities and be part of them. These values were discussed and processed with the students in pilot courses. The results show that working with these values made people experience connection despite their age, background or other differences.
meaningfulnes
sustainability
communality
awareness of the consequences
Theatre
Our key objective is that people start to feel they can make a change to a more sustainable life together. We offer experiences where teachers/students can make art about meaningful subjects in a group. We aim to think bigger than we normally do: to capture wider connections between phenomena, e.g. what is a human being, what are my values and what is our connection with nature?
There are a lot of things to worry about in this world. That is why we wanted to concentrate on the meaningful and dignified ways to sustainability. In Finland and maybe in other countries, too, people are sometimes afraid of getting out of their chair to have a chat because at work we should be efficient all the time, even though pauses make good for your brain. We wanted merciful thinking to be part of the project. We have had moments of meditation in the meetings and meditation has immediately empowered us to do
what we must at the moment, not trying to do it all now because our work is never done. Being more present is a way to better solutions.
In one of our pilot courses in fine arts the teacher and the children started to consider a human being as an ecosystem where the bacteria live. In that way the children started to see us as part of nature. We belong together and to nature. We should care about nature in the same way as we care about ourselves. They also started to pay attention to things they use and to think about their life cycle. Where did these things come from and what will happen after using them. The children became aware of the consequences and they proposed a principle they could follow together: “Let’s honor all the material and things we use.”
One of our teachers in fine arts, an artist herself, made recycling posters to inspire us to recycle. In these posters there is a painted dog telling you what kind of trash you should put in a dustbin. These beautiful and colorful posters definitely catch our attention.
To create positive emotions has been our main target because we need positive energy to move towards the circular economy and a different way of living, where meaningfulness is deeply involved in all the things we do. We have to start to see things from a wider perspective and that is one of the new civic competences we will need in the future.
We wanted to open our eyes together to the long-term influences of our work. That is why one of the values was awareness of the consequences. The other two are reasonableness and interpersonality, which in this context means that individuals have a chance to belong to communities and be part of them.
The pilot courses where values were hadled have been deeply meaningful to the participants and some people even made personal decisions to consume less and to live their lives in a more sustainable way. Processing values was also important to the teachers and for those employed at administration. It made us stronger as a community because you get to know people in a different way, when you experience things together.
For example, our trip to Nature School in March 2022 touched the teachers strongly, because normally they do their work quite alone. Covid had also isolated people, and now it was possible to spend the whole day together mostly outside in the forest in this trip. Nature School normally offers education on nature for children but we had a change to get it for adults. We investigated insects and wandered in the forest with different kinds of tasks like listening to the sound of the rapids.
We supported Hey Park activists to have their voice heard and those people who gave us feedback about café, experienced that the feedback was worth of giving because it led to a change.
Our school Tampereen seudun työväenopisto The Adult Education Centre of Tampere Region is part of Tampere City. It offers affordable courses to compensate the income gap, and it is partly financed by the state and Tampere City.
In this project we have got feedback from our students, teachers and people living nearby on the cafeteria in our “school building”, because it is only open at the daytime and not during the evenings when our students need it. In the same building there is a high school and a library but the company keeping the cafeteria concentrates on offering high schoolers school food. The cafeteria is cheap and accessible so we have also got feedback from the families who live nearby and don’t have that much money to spend that it would be great to have a cheaper place to visit and because there is space in the cafeteria and it is accessible you can come there with a baby carriages or wheelchair.
In spring 2022 we got feedback from a mother who told us that visiting the cafeteria has been the highlight of the week to her and her child and she asked if we could do something to keep it open in the evening. This is how this cafeteria case became part of our project. When contacting the company did not work, we opened a petition to find out if there were a lot of people interested in the cafeteria issue. We made a video to Facebook where I/project leader Taru Huokkola read this touching feedback and then we asked the company, if there was any possibility to rethink keeping the café open in the evening.
In a few weeks we got over 400 signatures for our petition. We shared these signatures with the company which keeps the cafeteria and proposed co-operation, where we could organize weekly program in cafeteria for free to get clients to come there. The cafeteria is located in a big hall, so it is possible to come there and follow the programme also without buying anything. The happenings called Wednesday Coffee were arranged in the fall 2022.
In the pilot courses there were students who processed values really deeply. For example, in the handicraft art there were students who made personal choices not to buy anything extra for six months. They felt the course was really significant for them, because they started to feel that they are part of the humankind in this planet, and they can participate together in doing good and promoting sustainability.
It reads in the strategy of the Organisation of Tampere City that people have a right to influence their own neighbourhood. One of our teachers told us that there is a group of pensioners and also other people who are worried about a park called Hey Park in their neighbourhood, because changes in the city plan make it possible to build block of flats there. The scenery in Pyynikki area is cultural historically significant and Hey Park is really important for the pensioners who cannot walk far away to enjoy plants, flowers and trees.
This project helped this group to make their voice heard. People have a right to participate in the decision-making concerning their environment. As a result, several Hey Park festivals were organized to promote the preservation of the park. The group could lend tents, video cameras and other objects from the Adult Education Centre of Tampere. We also helped them to share information and we participated in the festivals for example by giving a speech on awareness of the consequences. We should also collectively take care that the diversity of nature remains intact in the cities. We are not alone. There are plants, insects, rabbits and other creatures to take care of.
As many as 2205 people signed the petition to retain the park and the change of the city plan concerning Hey Park is now “on the table”.
This project is mostly done at the regional level. The Adult Education Centre of Tampere operates in two cities/towns: Tampere and Ylöjärvi. The plan for the project was done in a group of education coordinators, teachers who also plan courses and forepersons. In this group there were people from both cities. Our co-operators are mostly from Tampere. For example, we have done and are still doing co-operation with different units in the City of Tampere.
There is also a national research project called Kesto and its sub-project ongoing in the University of Tampere. In this project they try to find out how to make sustainability work at a concrete level and they have also studied our work. They have made interviews, analysed our visualizations about implementing the values in practice and they have participated in our value workshops and to our collective planning day.
We have done a lot of co-operation with our regional student association. They asked us to be a partner in happenings organized in their summer place (Kesäpirtti) in Ylöjärvi. They need more attendants to the association so we organized an open day in Summer Cheery (Kesäpirtti) with program down by the Näsijärvi lake. People in the association are interested in protecting Näsijärvi lake and we also organized together a
day called “Keep Näsijärvi clean”. It was open to everyone. There was a lecture about Näsijärvi and how to protect it and we also had a nonstop workshop where it was possible to do fire lighters to fireplaces from the old candles. Recycling was present through handcraft.
Ecososial civilization has been the most important theory in the project because of the values and the way of thinking that we should learn to see the big picture. It has inspired us a lot! And we chose 3 values to our Education Centre which formed the core of the pilot courses.
Deep civilization offers the idea of an experience as a motivator. Shared experiences connect us. This idea has given a great opportunity to use art as a method but also as a valuable way of being.
The project leader has been part of the working community in The Adult Education Centre of Tampere before this project so she knew what this community needs. The project leader is a theatre specialist and yoga teacher so theatre as a method has been used and meditation has been part of the working.
There is a lot of knowledge in our school about handcraft, traditional cultures and way of living. Many ideas came from inside the school.
We had 3 silent walks in the city in co-operation with the church. It was a different way to be in a group when not talking at all but being together. We noticed the environment differently. The whole point was to give space to the feelings rising from the environment issues of today. It was also very interesting in that respect that teachers have to share their knowledge all the time but sometimes sharing a moment in a different way might be a possibility for new ideas.
We have a strong theoretical background. However, putting values and sustainability into practice has really been our strength. Especially, when considering that there is only one person working in the project. Inspiring people to participate by giving them good experiences has succeeded well. There were many ideas about how to put these values in practice and we tried most of the ideas because everyone should feel that this is also their project. One of the most popular things has been very simple. We opened a recycling table in the hall of our school building. You can bring there something or just take something. This table is very popular and we will keep it even after the project ends in the 30 March!
There has been a lot of co-operation. Last spring, we visited the neighbouring apartment building of our school to find out if there was any interest in circular economy and protecting the diversity of nature. A gardener and permaculture specialist were there too to give some information. We organized group work in small groups about natural diversity and circular economy. About 50 persons participated in the group work. They discussed the possibility of owning some tools together and planting a flower meadow for bees etc. This pilot created hope because people were really eager to do something when they were together.
There has been a lot of co-operation. Last spring we visited in bees of our schools neighbor apartment-building to test if there was any eagerness to proceed the diversity of nature and/or circular economy. A gardener and permaculture specialist was there too to give some information. We organized group working in small groups thinking about question made about natural diversity and circular economy. There were about 50 persons around. They were discussing about possibilities to own some tools together and planting flower meadow for bees etc. This pilot created hope because people really had eagerness to do something when they were together.
It is possible to transfer the whole operational model to other schools and institutions if given time, space and a leader concentrating on the big picture. It might not be possible to do exactly the same things as we did because the schools are so different but it is essential that the main principles are followed. It is important to have inspiration time and time for knowledge! There are many ways to do that but connecting art and information is essential because art is something you experience. People have information, they know quite a lot about the global problems but how to inspire them to do what they know is best? You need to touch them and make them feel that it is important that they are in. Do not give me all this information, please touch my soul! Discovering values comes when having knowledge. Then finding out collectively what the values are we want to engage with. The values are chosen democratically. Next it is important to find ways to make things concrete. For example, in the way they did in the handcraft course where they dyed threads with colours made of berries outside on the beach at the campfire. While threads were boiling in the cauldrons, they had time to ponder values and what these values mean for themselves. These discussion and feelings were seen in concrete art pieces in courses final exhibition. This process was deeply meaningful to the participants. The participants have nowadays much more knowledge of the sustainable life and what is most important: they have experience of doing something and they want to follow this path also after the course. This experience inspired also the teacher and her work became more meaningful.
The approach of sustainability is different. We approach it through the values and through the communal sharing of thoughts and it brings us together. Theatrical working with values in Value Workshops gives the time and space to share and to experience the power of doing together. We have change to understand each other deeper.
In our project, the underlying idea is that when you experience good things, you can further share these good things to others. That is why we have been giving these significant moments to the teachers so they can share their experiences. One important thing has been meditation and relaxation in the middle of the day, so we can widen our perspective. There is more power in peace than in rush. In one of our pilot courses Theatre Art for Children and Yang meditation was included as part of the weekly program. At the beginning participants were confused about this new practice but when they learned it, they started to ask for it. The teacher also told that meditation has affected the classes in a positive way, because the participants are more present.
Giving and experiencing knowledge in different forms at the beginning of the project has been one of the main points. There was for example a course where people brought an object (wooden plate, bauble) and its life cycle was made longer coating them with eggshells. Sustainable solutions are experienced not just heard.
Our operational model gives a way to put values into practice, and it gives an experience for the participants that they can be part of the solution. It gives an experience of participation when people are just not getting information but being part of putting the values into practice. It is important because one of the global challenges is the feeling that there is nothing I can do.
Another global challenge in the Western world is overconsuming. If you have meaningful content in your life, there are other ways to feel good than consuming. We also create culture where consuming material stuff is just not cool. There are more fun in our permaculture course!
The third problem is individualism where you build your image by consuming. It makes us feel empty. We need something deeper. This kind of collective working reminds us what it is all about being human being. Connecting with others and having nature and art experiences gives us a feel that we are strongly alive.
Our target was to test values and give meaningful moments to the students in our pilot courses. Now we have a lot more experience on how to continue this work. We are trying to get a follow-up to this project so we have a possibility to give more Value Workshops and other experimental workshops and happenings for the teachers and students.
Our other pilots like Wednesday Coffee and recycling spot are going on right now and they will after the project because they were popular and they bring good wibes and also is helping us to go to sustainable direction.
There are free materials on our websites for example on how to work on with diversity of nature or recycling economics.
The project "Deep civilization and sustainability as a way of living" ends in 30 March 2023.
