Cabane dans les arbres

https://www.facebook.com/Ecovoyageurscom/posts/607867189292924:0

Free skills training in bio-construction

The Interaction point of Collserola (PIC), together with Permacultura Barcelona organized two week-long training workshops on bio-construcción techniques and sustainable rehabilitation. The objective of which were to integrate ecological thinking into the development of the social movement in Barcelona as a tool for cultural sustainability and to provide sustainable skills training to those without full-time employment.

These workshops took place during the summer of 2012 and 2013 and attracted more than thirty participants. The groups consisted mostly of women (60%) and was focussed especially on those individuals who were living or had lived in a precarious economic or social situation.

The workshops were mostly practical in nature and were offered free of charge to anyone who wanted to join. Furthermore participants who were willing to join for the full length of the training were given free room and board for the duration of the course.

Here is a link to the first workshop held in September 2012 in Can Masdeu. During those 8 days wood working experts shared their knowledge and skills to help build a “Timber Frame". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNK7bMYD6HY

The second phase of the training was carried out a year later in October 2013. Here experts in bio-construcción provided the participants with theoretical and practical guidance in the construction of a passive house on top of the timber frame using recycled wood and adobe.

Self employment and organic bread....

During the summer of 2013, the PIC cultural association organized a 2 month long workshop for unemployed adults (25-40yrs) to construct a wood-fired bread oven at Can Masdeu in Barcelona. Under guidance of a two experts in the field of bio-construction and wood-fired ovens and using locally found clay over 15 people, from Barcelona and without full-time employment participated in the building process. The workshop was a big success and resulted in a novel design prototype consisting of a double baking chamber furnace with capacity for 70 breads, built on a central metal structure covered with adobe.

From the initial workshop participants a core group of 4-6 peoplse went on to set up a small business centred around the collective use of the new bread oven. "La Pana" currently offers 7 consumer cooperatives in Barcelona, artisenal, organic and local breads and pastries, on a weekly basis.

Their sustainable business model follows the principles of more direct relations between consumers and producers, and use of sustainable modes of transport such as the bicycle and the use of renewable energy (wood) to bake the bread. "La Pana" further provides self-employment and a collective economy for the people who participate in it. “La Pana” and their newly constructed oven further play and active role in spreading the knowledge of ecological and handmade bread production through workshops in the PIC social centre (www.canmasdeu.net).

Crakow, september 2013 : third meeting

The meeting between groups from Spain, France, Germany and Poland took place in Poland between Wednesday and Sunday ( napisz daty). This time the group To.Pole were hosting the meeting in the city where they work- Cracow.

The meeting happened at Biala Droga (http://bialadroga.wordpress.com/). It is an artist run space and it functions as a platform for working with Debniki community in Cracow. It is a place where knowledge, skills, and experience are exchanged. Participants can attend workshops, meetings and presentations.

The first day of the gathering started by showing the groups specific places around Cracow connected to our project, which we call EEE. EEE stands for Enough 4 Everybody 4 Ever. During the walk we talked about our project, exchanged ideas, inspirations and experiences. The outcome of exchange brought to attention important topics like communication between groups, plans for next meetings, and preparation for the final work. The Krakow group prepared an alternative walking tour around the city centre, we visited a local food market, the Jewish district and some important cultural spots.

On the second day, we split into two groups. One group took part in a theatre workshop organised by the German group. Second group worked on the EEE project blog. The theatre workshop emphasis was on the exercises with words meanings, and a collective decision-making without using speech. In this way the German group introduced to all participating groups the way how they work. All these were important to happen before our project culmination in March 2014.

The second group that was working on the blog, decided on the structure of the material, and all the elements consisting the content of the blog. The aim was to structure our work/material and to discuss the need of the project.

Second part of the day was dedicated for the workshop of Polish traditional dance, and later on the dancing to Polish traditional music. A group of musicians and dancers was introducing to the workshop participants the different steps and types of Polish folk dances. It was the presentation of To.Pole group that was to promote and educate about the Polish traditional culture.

Third day of the gathering we started in an art gallery Galeria Bunkier Sztuki in Cracow with the workshop run by the French group. It was a presentation of a wooden construction called ‘mobile’, which can be used for varies exercises in group work. It allows the group to play with the idea of “balance” and “sustainability” and bring new insights into these topics.

 

It is a visualisation that can be used in verity of workshops as a didactic/ a method of teaching. The aim of this exercise was to represent a creation of a construction in practice/in real.

Second part of the morning we attended the Fanaberie Festival, (http://fanaberieferformance.blogspot.de/), which concentrated around recycling and artistic methods against consumerism/consumption. To.Pole group was involved in this festival as well, and wanted to share they educational input in it. One of their project presented at the festival called POLtwor, was presented there, it was a form of recycling (http://poltwor.com/blog/), which is about ecological education through art.

In the afternoon we all gathered and summarised all the three days spend together. We made final decisions, and talked about our future meetings.   

Immigant women of Barcelona

 

Last weekend (26-27 Oct) the PIC assisted, for the first time, the Mujeres Pa-Lante (MPL) feminist collective for women from immigrant families. Mujeres Pa-Lante which freely translates into "women go forward" has been fighting for womens' rights within the immigrant communities in  Barcelona for over 7 years and the PIC wanted to help them spread their message and raise funds for the social and educational activities that they offer to those women who them selves or their family left their home country to settle in Spain.





The collaboration was a big success with a large number of both women and men from the immigrant communities of Nou Barris and Barcelona coming up to visit our social centre to learn about the different strategies the MPL women employ to cultivate independence and equality and social integration amongst those with different ethnical and cultural backgrounds. Not only were the educational activities well visited at the end of the day the MPL collective also managed to raise enough funds through the running of our bar and soup kitchen to cover their running costs for the coming months.

If you would like more information about the MPL you can visit their website www.mujerespalante.org or call (+34-93 263 37 65) or email (mujerespalantebcn@yahoo.es)


For those of you who speak Catalan here is what The Mujere Pa-Lante have to say about themselves:

Les dones decidim creuar oceans, fronteres, explorar el món i les seves moltes possibilitats per múltiples raons. Mujeres Pa'lante som un col · lectiu que va sorgir a partir d'un grup de dones migrades que construïm un espai d'acollida a altres dones des de fa 7 anys. Actualment som voluntàries de diferents procedències que impulsem aquest espai de trobada, suport i informació per a dones migrades i autòctones sobre Orientació psicològica, sociolaboral i legal

Prevenció de violència de gènere, tallers de creixement personal i monitores de salut, Cursos de català, castellà, informàtica i alfabetització Campanyes de convivència i solidaritat en els nostres barris.

Apostem per la solidaritat entre dones, perquè sabem de la importància de les xarxes de suport, entenem que la forma de deconstruir la xenofòbia és coneixent-nos, interactuant, i valorant la diversitat de cultures que convivim a Catalunya. Creiem que les dones hem de compartir eines que ens permetin ser autònomes, empoderar-i trencar els cercles de violència (de gènere i institucional) que vivim. Anem teixint xarxes de suport i afecte, anem filant espais comuns per compartir i créixer juntes.

Consumopedia

The Interaction Point Collserola (PIC) is collaborating with the Centre for Information and Research on Consumption (CRIC), editors of the ethical consumption magazine Opcions. Together we are creating a new web based platform called Consumpedia. Here people can freely access practical information in order to change their consumption patterns.

The web site has different sections:
- Participatory map: people will find 2000 alternative consumer initiatives all over Spain and could add form the computer more initiatives to complete the map
- Resources bank: people can find different materials (videos, presentations, books,...) related to alternative consumption useful for outreach, education, advocacy... purposes
- Blog: a weekly updated blog with reflection, news, etc. related to alternative consumption the perfect channel to stay up to date on the latest in the world of sustainable consumption.
- Product information: summarized information from the Opcions magazine on different consumer categories and products, practical information ready to be applied.

currently only the old version of the Consumopedia can be publicly accessed (www.consumpedia.org)

Promoting Food Autonomy

From December 14th to 16th 2012 the I Seminar on Local Agroecological Promotion, organized through the PIC and supported by Grundtvig Lifelong Learning Programme, took place in Barcelona. More than 80 people participated in it, mainly from Catalunya but also from other regions of Spain (Galícia, Euskal Herria, Canarias, Andalucía, Extremadura, Madrid...). The attendees were mainly experienced people, engaged in different kinds of Agroecological projects, who showed high affinity with the conceptual and methodological framework proposed for the seminar. The event quickly turned into a hard working atmosphere, in which everyone was highly self-motivated, sharing their experiences, learning from each other and networking for their project. This created a high level of exchange between inputs and discussions, allowing us to build a common ground of how to further promote Agroecological practices in our local communities.

Although the objectives and methodology proposed were very ambitious, the general evaluation of the seminar gave a highly positive response from the participants. The working-by-projects approach, and the hands-on methodology based on in-depth participatory techniques, allowed us to deal with different and innovative methodologies, and at the same time opened different discussions related to the complexity of Agroecology diffusion in our de-farmed postindustrial countryside. Working on three real case studies presented by their creators and representatives built up an emotional atmosphere in which we all got deeply involved in discussing the different realities. Participants and organizers of the three selected projects were highly satisfied with the outcomes of the seminar, in terms of both the methodological and strategic contents of each case study. At the end, everyone asked for a second edition of this seminar, to take place in one of the locations of the three projects we worked on during the seminar.

From May 2013 we have worked on the conclusions of the seminar, which will be published in an online document as a “Guide for Local Agroecological Promotion”. This Guide will compile every document and participatory piece of knowledge produced and collected during the seminar. Hopefully we will be able to edit some audiovisual documents with the most interesting outcomes of the seminar, such as the main talks, concluding remarks and some interviews of participants and speakers. For these documents, which will be posted in our open-access blog, we arranged a crowd-funding campaign in order to allow us to manage the technical and compilation work needed to analyze the results, and communicate the outcomes.