The Social PEAS project is focused on developing a special permaculture training for vulnerable adults as well as professionals working with vulnerable adults. The target groups of the project are:
- vulnerable adults,
- people who suffer from mental health issues,
- elderly people,
- homeless people and people with housing deprivations,
- former drug or alcohol users,
- people with disabilities,
- adult educators and experts, working with vulnerable adults.
Through this project, we will be able to:
- Support adult educators to increase their knowledge and gain expertise in regenerative social permaculture and the creation of permaculture gardens.
- Empower vulnerable adults to increase their knowledge and competencies to be able to use tools from social permaculture and nature therapy for the improvement of their well-being and social resilience while taking care of the environment!
The Social PEAS project is led by Friends of the Earth Cyprus, in collaboration with Friends of the Earth Malta, Fundación Intras (Spain), Hekate Conscious Ageing Foundation (the Netherlands), Promimpresa (Italy) and ICEP, the Institute of European Certification of Personnel (Slovakia).
About the project
Environmental and social challenges are deeply connected and to tackle these we need an equally interconnected approach. The Social PEAS project derived from the identified need to tackle social exclusion and climate and environmental challenges through the use of permaculture to create resilient and sustainable communities.
The project was designed to support adult educators and hence vulnerable adults that are: suffering from mental health issues – both diagnosed with chronic conditions and those that have been affected through the COVID19 pandemic; homeless people and people with housing deprivations; former drug or alcohol user; people with physical and intellectual disabilities; and elderly people, together making up 20% of the European population.
Working in a group, planning together how to create a garden, seeing plants and food grow, tending to plants, being outdoors as a community – these are all exercises that have an abundant benefit on the participants mental well-being. Such activities provide life skills in the aspects of planning, co-designing, executing a communal plan, and bringing together people from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, permaculture gardens are a gateway for nature learning and nature care, create food resilience and security, provide green havens for pollinators and other species and are alternatives to the linear extractive economies and mindsets that most people are exposed to.
In the Social PEAS project, Hekate Conscious Ageing Foundation is focusing on ageing populations and the health and spiritual well-being petal of the permaculture flower, especially on the use of permaculture in sustaining mental health and well-being.
Hekate 