Project Overview
The Circular Economy is seen as an integral and interdependent part of a Just transition to a lower-carbon society. While early legislation framed the initial development of the Circular Economy in terms of Waste and Re-cycling it is now essential for the policy led success of the ‘use, reuse’ model at the heart of the circular economy to become “owned” and “developed” by us, the consumers.
Consumers are, and will continue to be, major influencers in the development of the Circular Economy in Europe. With the explosion of social media and the huge numbers of ‘digital natives’ who are almost permanently engaged in online activity, the power of consumers to effect change is greater than ever before. What is now needed are consumer awareness and education programs that address issues of national and international importance, like adopting and developing the Circular Economy Model.
Project aim
Awareness Raising and Education for families across Europe are key ingredients, to graduate the Circular Economy to a more coherent and impactful future. That is the Family Circle project’s main objective.
Specific Objectives
Effective family learning requires that different sub-sets of the family are considered in the design of any proposed learning materials. For this Family Circle project, it is the intention of partners to create resources for 4 different sub-sets namely:
CHILDREN between the ages of 6 and 12 – these resources will comprise a monthly themed comic strip that introduces some of the main ideas driving the development of the circular economy;
TEENAGERS between the ages of 13 and 16 – these resources will comprise a series of challenge based educational resources that will be pitched at introductory and intermediate levels;
YOUNG ADULTS between the ages of 17 to 25 – these resources will comprise a continuation of the challenge based educational resources but on this occasion pitched at advanced and expert levels;
PARENTS, guardians and grandparents – these resources will comprise a series of workshop based, group learning exercises.
All resources developed will be themed around different elements of the circular economy.
Partners believe that this educational program will only be successful in the long-term if the skills of adult educators are also developed to allow them to produce their own comic strips and challenge based educational resources. Training to develop these types of materials on available open source.