Written on october 14th 2016, by Penelope Reyes, member of Gaia Education team

The second edition of the Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) programme in LaCité Écologique in Quebec, Canada was a huge success! The programme offered by the CAP Eco-Community team at the ecovillage took place between July 8th and August 8th, 2016.

This month-long ecovillage immersive course provided all the support the participants needed in the design process of their projects. Students aged between 20 and 30 from various backgrounds took part in the programme with a goal of being better equipped in realising their dream of living in a positive society.

Several members of La Cité Écologique Ecovillage made sure the students were well-connected with the host community. They also offered workshops in their areas of expertise: organic farming, holistic health, permaculture, education, sustainable forestry management to mention but a few. Throughout the training, the concept of sustainable development was weaved in through practical workshops, theoretical classes and study time sessions.

The magic of confluence occurred when a group of three participants who did not know each other before the course were united by the profound EDE learning experience and found themselves not only sharing a common vision, but with a drive that led into forming a perfectly balanced, effective and supportive ecovillage founders group. The collaboration eventually gave birth to an actual new ecovillage project named l’AmarréE.

The student group has now made plans to visit land that could possibly hold their future community. As the group was fairly small, they had extra support, building up their plan of action and they strongly connected with La Cité Écologique ecovillage members to add inspiration for the manifestation of their ecovillage dream.

The EDE organisers are very proud of the success of this course and are already planning their next EDE offering for 2017. Watch this space!