Inovatívne budovanie ekologického povedomia a kultúry rozvíjaním environmentálnych zručností a formovaním postojov občanov s mentálnym postihnutím

Currently a great emphasis is placed on building a positive relationship with the environment. Environmental skills and competences are necessary for all citizens, including disadvantaged groups of people with mental disabilities. It is important that they can actively and fully contribute to sustainable environmental development in their personal, family, work, and civic life. Inclusive education is increasingly important in today's fast-changing world. In the preparatory phase of the project, we observed that in all partner countries, environmental edification, upbringing, and education take place mainly within formal education. Informal education in this area is available mainly for kindergarten children and students of primary and secondary schools. The needs analysis pointed out that ecological education for adult citizens with mental disabilities is provided only occasionally by the respective NGOs, and that their participation in lifelong learning is low. At the same time, there is a lack of comprehensive educational materials focusing on developing ecological skills and competences of people with mental disabilities. 4 partner organizations from three countries - Slovakia, Hungary and Romania - were involved in project.

The main project objective was to support social inclusion and lifelong learning of people with mental disabilities by developing their environmental skills and competencies, shaping their environmental attitudes and environmental responsibilities through education based on international experiences. The project specifically focused on supporting and developing international cooperation between the partners, and on the building and strengthening partners' networks and facilitating the professionalisation of organizations. We considered necessary to share good experiences among national and international experts in the field of environmental education of people with mental disabilities, to jointly develop innovative environmental education, to develop key ecological skills of citizens with mental disabilities shaping their values and positive attitudes towards protecting and creating the environment especially by involving them in educational activities. At same time, through our education tool, we wanted to contribute to the development of other important competencies such as problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, cooperation, teamwork, and digital skills, which facilitate environmental awareness and active citizenship.

Project activities were organized into 8 work packages: project management, coordination, control; sharing and promotion activities; organizing ECO-World Café round table discussions in partner countries; creation of the Electronic Collection of ECO-COMPASS Good Practice Examples; creation, pilot testing and evaluation of Innovative Environmental Education ECO-COMPASS; creation of the ECO-COMPASS Project Guide; transnational project meetings and ECO-COMPASS final workshops. As a part of the sharing and promotion activities, we emphasized the development of a dissemination plan, the creation of a quadrilingual website and e-learning platform, the preparation of a quadrilingual electronic leaflet and newsletter, and the creation of the project's Facebook profile. We continuously presented the ECO-COMPASS project at various events and published articles in professional journals and on the EPALE platform. One of our most successful activities was the creation and pilot testing of Innovative Environmental Education ECO-COMPASS with the participation of 5 trainers and 32 adults with mild and intermediate mental disabilities.

The main project results were the followings: Conclusions and recommendations of the ECO-World Café roundtable discussions in partner countries formed the starting point for the development of educational modules. The Electronic Collection of ECO-COMPASS Good Practice Examples aimed at enviro-education and raising ecological awareness was the supplementary material for the preparation of the education tool. The Innovative environmental education ECO-COMPASS contains educational materials for people with mental disabilities and professionals. Educational modules focus on ecological skills and competences in individual life; on the importance of ecological values and attitudes within the family; on sustainable workplace development and work-life balance and on active participation in the creation of a green society. The ECO-COMPASS Project Guide includes a comprehensive overview of the results of the project, the conclusions of the evaluation of the education and the possibilities of its utilisation. Other cross-cutting results – the project manual, the dissemination plan, the quality management plan, the quadrilingual leaflet, the newsletter, and the website – contributed to meeting our objectives at a qualitative higher level.