This two day conference held recently at Manchester Town Hall brought together educators and community workers engaged in education for sustainable development (ESD), with a particular focus on disseminating the outcomes of the Development Education Project's three year Learning for Sustainable Cities project to teachers and community groups.
Day One, with 72 participants, offered a series of eight stimulating workshops throughout the day, followed by a lively plenary session identifying barriers/challenges and opportunities/ways forward to creating schools in a sustainable city. These provided issues and ideas to take forward to Day Two.
The morning of Day Two was attended by 51 participants and offered a series of fascinating international perspectives on creating sustainable cities, followed by discussion groups leading to a debate on the issues raised. A number of site visits to projects of interest in Manchester took place during the afternoon, and there was a successful networking event in the evening with over 60 participants engaging in discussions to enhance school and community links and share experiences from different cities around the world.
Overall feedback to the event has been extremely positive:
"The Sustainable Cities Project has generated some very interesting work, which it was great to hear about.""Inspiring, especially the Peer Education in Gambia."
"Very practical discussion of the real issues on ESD in an inner city comprehensive."
"Many thanks to all organisers and workshop presenters. It was a very interesting and stimulating conference and transferable ideas to lots of other ESD work. Working within Waste Education we wish to develop more home/school links and play and investigation to further developments and sustainability. This conference has given us some ideas."
To finish of the conference, the Environment Network for Manchester teamed up with the Networking Newsletter Project and the other conference partners to bring together some of Manchester's environmental and sustainable development groups and other organisations in the city. 60 people attended, representing 39 different groups ranging from allotment societies to Trade Justice campaigners bringing groups and individuals together to discuss some of the challenges that face us regarding sustainable development and our natural environment. Lots of new contacts were made during the evening, and there is already talk among some of the delegates regarding joint projects.
Plans for a follow up event are already beginning to hatch, so watch this space for further information.
The event was organised by Development Education Project in partnership with Southern Voices, Mersey Basin Trust, Manchester Environmental Education Network, Manchester Healthy Schools Partnership, Environment Network for Manchester, and Networking Newsletter Project, as well as schools and NGOs in Manchester, Banjul, Curitiba and Mumbai. A full conference report is in production. For this or for further information on the Learning for Sustainable Cities project, please see DEP website
Sustainable Development
Round up of green news
In Town Without My Car
Monday 22 September is car free day, but who's doing what?
Tons Weigh in for Trade Justice
campaigners hold 24 hours of raising awareness about debt
Climate Candour
Dr. Bob Watson, once of the IPCC, gives his views on climate change, the cause, effects and remedies
Make a Splash
it's time to plan your activities for this year's Mersey Basin Week
Manchester Rejects GM
massive opposition to genetically modified crops
Extra Recycling Emerges
recycling is set to expand over Greater Manchester
Clive, Manchester Development Education Project (0161 445 2495, depman@gn.apc.org)
Anton, Environment Network for Manchester (0161 273 1736, info@manchesterenvironment.net)
NETWORKING NEWSLETTER: