Description de l'organisation

Evolving Cycles was established as a legal entity in 2018 based on the pillars of culture, education and environment. It currently has 2 sites (“hubs”) each centred around efforts to integrate, engage and regenerate their local community. Each “hub” or site is within its own right a permaculture project, an educational space, a hub of participatory and artistic/cultural experiences, a model of transition from an individualistic to a collective lifestyle! Our ultimate vision is: self-empowered communities of abundance, where community members can use their initiative, participate actively and self-actualise.

At the moment, “Evolving Cycles” has 2 sites: Calme Garden and Kompostopia. Calme Garden is located 50km South-East of Athens and Kompostopia is located 70km South-West of Athens, both in semi-rural areas.

We believe that every neighborhood needs conscious, educated and active citizens around social and environmental issues, especially young leaders. Therefore, we are experimenting with different ways to engage the local community and especially the youth, by integrating the arts in most of our activities, "eco-arts" (theatricals, artistic constructions, etc) and by designing the collaborations in a participatory manner eg. through participatory councils.

We are also in the process of building bioregional directories (community databases) which capture the diversity and wealth of each bioregion through simple online surveys to identify:
*people (skills, needs, offers - what can they offer to the community for sale and/or sharing)
*products, services, tools, machinery and surplus available to share with the community
*resources and waste that can become materials for new or existing projects
*community issues that can be addressed by pooling resources.

These databases reveal the needs/resources of each area, which can be converted to community projects - each project matched with a suitable young leader, thereby creating substantial self-employment opportunities and youth retainment in local areas - since the youth are the first ones to leave rural areas and we want to keep them here and we want them to want to stay!

Essentially, we are creating the opportunity for each member to have roles/responsibilities in building a self-empowered local community and broader network, within which we meet our needs and are able to offer our own products and services. We are also exploring collaborations with refugee groups who wish to utilise our spaces as demonstration sites of what is possible both on the levels of food production and community building.

We attract members through our regular activities (more details in the activities section):
* Workshops and seminars
* Day visits by kindergartens, schools, refugee groups, etc
* Kompostopia Theatrical Performance
* Youth Camps
* Community Building Experiences
* Festivals
* Community Projects
* Upcycling and constructions

Essentially, we open our doors to people who want to explore practical ways to transition to a holistic lifestyle. We especially invite young people (with their families/ through school visits/community building experiences) to experience a diversity of activities (gardening, constructions, cooking, composting, wild-food foraging, yoga, dancing, community projects, etc) so they can discover what they like doing, understand themselves better and take control of their lives.

In summary, our target groups are:
*The local community within a 10km radius of each hub - with a focus on local, rural unemployed youth who lack opportunities and inspiration to remain in the local area
*Students and teachers from formal institutions (schools, colleges, universities, etc) and non-formal education groups (such as permaculture networks, etc)
*Refugee and migrant communities