When I first heard about the Global Ecovillage Network I had no clue the headquarters of GEN International were in Scotland. I did not know at all about the Findhorn Ecovillage spiritual community and GEN’s roots in it. In a way, these two are still a mystery to me. After a year of living and working in the midst of both, I certainly still discover new bits and pieces of their histories every week. The one thing that struck me before moving from Barcelona to Findhorn was the office’s ritual … Read more
Funded Project
Ecovillage Transition in Action An EU funded collaboration to scale up ecovillage solutions
Project Summary Addressing systemic crises will not derive only from international organisations, governments and politicians, they require a greater collective response. Communities, citizens, NGOs and other forms of civil society hold many of the solutions. In a fragmented world, successful cross-sectoral collaboration is key, particularly partnerships that blur the lines between top-down and bottom-up, i.e. partnerships between municipalities and community-led initiatives (CLIs). … Read more
Twinning Regenerative Educators
Since the project launched in January 2022, GEN has facilitated 20 educator collaborators to build a community among them, establish direct twin relationships, and created detailed outlines of three educational resources: a toolkit, teacher training, and ecovillage principles design cards for children. Spanning every region, collaborators bring experience from ecovillage schools, traditional schools, and community projects. GEN is stewarding this enquiry to weave the knowledge and experiences … Read more
BLAST – New Resources for Transformative Learning Blended Adult Learning for the Socio-Ecological Transition
Completing a 2 year collaboration, we are proud to launch a series of resources aiming to build capacity for blended and transformative learning for socio-ecological transition. These include: Guides to Blended Learning and Communities of PracticeA competency framework for trainers and community catalystsA Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion methodology All of which you can find below! Collaboration Partners BLAST was a strategic collaboration of transformative educators … Read more
Help us choose the Hildur Jackson Award 2021 winner! Inspiration From This Year's Most Impactful Ecovillage Projects and Solutions
We are absolutely thrilled to share with you the 10 finalists of the Hildur Jackson Award! The jury has had a challenging time deliberating, as we have received outstanding 25 applications from 18 countries and across all of the 5 regions. Together with Gaia Trust, GEN developed the Hildur Jackson Award, a €3,000 annual prize that supports and honors projects around the world that demonstrate regenerative best-practices in all dimensions of sustainability. Meet our 10 finalists for the 2021 … Read more
Moray Ecovillage Development
A Model for Sustainable Community Building in Scotland Based in Moray, North East Scotland, the Moray Ecovillage Development Project was the Moray LEADER-Funded transnational learning exchange project between three Showcase Scottish communities and two international ecovillages Kilden (Hurdal, Norway) & Schloss Tonndorf (Germany). It was delivered by the grant holder Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) and supported by delivery partners tsiMORAY. The project was built on a … Read more
ESC Opportunity with the Global Ecovillage Network in Findhorn, Scotland
In mid-November 2021 we will invite 2 ESC volunteers to the Global Ecovillage Network main office in the Findhorn ecovillage in the North of Scotland to participate in our one year long ESC programme. You will be joining GEN at a very exciting time in our evolution as an organisation and will be working closely with passionate and inspirational individuals committed to strengthening connectivity between sustainable communities worldwide. This year will allow you to gain a deeper understanding … Read more
A Year After Winning the Hildur Jackson Award Highlights from T.I. Ecovillage in India
In 2020, the Hildur Jackson Award jury welcomed a record number of 70 applications from across the globe. Celebrating their diversity and commitment to the network, we honoured the top 10 projects, communities, and ecovillages, giving special mention to the top 2, and selected one official 'winner' of the Award. We caught up with the winner, one year later to find out how their community has continued to shine, how it may have evolved, and how they've beneffited from being featured. First, a … Read more
Leading through Action A River of Life Story
Visolela Rosa Namises, a national leader, representative of GEN Africa and advocate for women’s rights has been initiating incredible work in Namibia. With the support of River of Life funds in 2020, Visolela was able to work with women from different communities to develop gardens for food security, nutrition and as a way to improve their livelihoods. She conducted 6 workshops and events in the past year, working in 6 villages and 3 schools, reaching over 850 people, including women, youth, … Read more
Tu B’Shvat Celebration on Kibbutz Gezer: The Jewish Holiday of the Trees
The 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat, or Tu B’ishvat, is the day that marks the beginning of a “new year” for trees. This is the time when the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel, perhaps most famously the beautiful almond tree, emerge from their winter sleep. Tree planting has always been a Jewish tradition. The bible states that "And you shall come to the Land, and you shall plant all kinds of edible trees..." (Leviticus, 19:23). Almost all the forests in modern Israel … Read more
