Educational trail to wild design by Pfadis e.V.

The “educational trail” is a one-year, interactive and child-friendly camp-life training in 2019.

With this campaign we, 25 large and 7 small people, would like to co-finance certain parts of the further education.

The “educational trail” is a 91 days comprising (split in 11 modules), participative and child-friendly camp-life course in 2019/2020 uniting several alternative concepts. 25 adults, 7 children and 3 dogs form the “educational trail” in 2019.

As you can read below in detail, we will play and experiment with various financing models within the framework of the continuing education program.

With the own contribution, which the participants themselves determine based on their available monetary means and pay in small installments, about 1/3 of the training costs are covered.

The coverage of the remaining 2/3 is made a central and collective project of the participants.

This is, among other things, this fundraising campaign here.

With the proceeds we finance our modules, the teachers, food and parts of the infrastructure.

The success of the “educational trail” depends on the intrinsic motivation, creativity and community of the participants.

The module contents are peppered with holistic methods and tools, which can be helpful and supportive for this way.

This encourages a dynamic away from the consumption of education towards self-determined, free and wild learning.

There are 3 special characteristics:

1.The choice of learning content

Focus areas are permaculture, wilderness pedagogy, (traditional) handcraft, sociocracy, self-organization, (food)sharing, “flake”, welfare economy, camp life, communication, activism, deep ecology, “Humus-Festivals”, “Lernfahrt” and knowledge-sharing

2. Child-friendliness

It is surely unusual to explicitly invite children to workshops, since they are often seen as a hindrance to participants’ concentration and profound mental input. In children participating in our continuing process of learning we clearly see the advantages of diversity, strengthening of group culture just as their positive influence on camp life, which we understand as an integral part of society.

3. The financial framework

Each participant pays a self-chosen contribution, which is about 1/3 of the total costs. The remaining costs will be covered by means of a collaborative fundraising project. Driven by intrinsic motivation, supported by experienced mentors, sustained by methods accomplished all 25 participants will dedicate themselves to the task of directly putting into practice what has been learned in order to finance the course by themselves.

***Why “educational trail” and why “wild design”

The “educational trail” is an individual path of learning, which each participant tailors to her or his own requirements.

There are several topics, of which we think are complementary and reinforcing each other, offering a more holistic view on matter, consciousness and the nameless. Each participant picks her/his favorites and creates an individual toolbox out of those, taking it to travel Germany with the other 24 ‘learnlings’ and experience it.

With the first stage…
…we finance the 6-day start module where we get to know each other as a group, look inside, define our learning goals and design our individual “educational trail”.

We will be assisted by two experienced fundraisers, who will be pierced with questions, and then we will devote ourselves to a “Dragon Dreaming” process, with the help of which we will draw up a plan on how to continue to finance the “educational trail” in a participative and collaborative way.

More precisely, the money from the first stage goes to the teachers, we call them mentors of the module. These are 2 people who will accompany you for the complete 6 days, and in addition 3 people for one day each, supporting you, who these great inspirators are, you can read here:
www.wildgestaltung.de/kreis-der-mentoren

In addition, the funds are used for infrastructure, food and any learning and teaching materials that may be required.
You can read the breakdown of fees, food expenses and so on here:
www.wildgestaltung.de/finanzierungsdetails

With the second stage…
…we finance the 12-day permaculture module on which we devote ourselves entirely to this topic. After an extensive introduction to ethics, process models, principles and methods we dive into permaculture.
In the horticultural part we mainly deal with “humus building” and the preparation of the soil.
In the social part we focus on the topic “Permaculture and children”.

More precisely, the funds from the second stage are again used for the mentoring of the module. There are 2 people who accompany the first 5 days, in addition 1 person for one day. In addition, the money flows, as usual, into the infrastructure, food and possibly accruing learning and teaching materials.

**From each stage 3% commission goes to the dear people of Ecocrowd! Thank you very much!

The entire financing

The financing of the 91 days-workshop is split in: 

1. Personal contribution by the participants, paid in installments.

2. Three to six crowdfunding campaigns (ecocrowd) in 2019/2020

Per capita costs are approx. 2,720€ for the whole course (68,000€ in total). These costs will be covered as follows (amounts are calculated based on the maximum of 25 participants):

1. Personal contribution/fees covering costs

Participants will pay between 900 and 1800 Euro, according to self-assessment. This will cover the costs for organisation, administration, coordination, supervision, infrastructure

2. Crowdfunding

Participants search for sponsors and supporters with the help of 3-6 crowdfunding campaigns in 2019/2020. The aim is to achieve the differential amount between 68,000€ (total costs) and 26,200€ (personal contribution).

In conclusion we need 41,800€ from crowdfunding to cover the following costs: fees for about 20 mentors and lecturers, supervision, infrastructure, accommodation and groceries, participation fees for “Humus Festivals” 2019

The whole financing model is to be found here (in German): http://wildgestaltung.de/finanzierung/

An itemisation of financing can be found here (in German): www.wildgestaltung.de/finanzierungsdetails

We will happily provide further and more precise information on request, as this financing model is one of the main projects within the course it will be subject of a documentary getting produced this year, taking a more detailed look on the model.

We continuously work on making the path more sustainable and beneficial for future generations.

What kind of contribution do we make to our social environment?

Human

The educational offer combines the learning aspects “earthcare”, “peoplecare” and “fairshare”. With increasing knowledge, awareness and opportunities for action in terms of planet earth, humanity and fair trade, we take an active role in shaping the change.

The aspect “peoplecare” subdivides into three parts: personal development, development of the group and development within society.

Tthe “educational trail” pointedly offers (single)parents the opportunity of training and development involving children

Self-organisation and participation instead of hierarchy and consumption in form of an interactive course; in order to support this, “flake” (an analogue platform for communication) and sociocracy (non-hierarchical form of organisation in circular structure) are our methods of choice and both content of an extra module

Soil, water, air

• We are committed to the preservation of resources. We will try to get the majority of groceries needed from foodsharing so we use food which is still good but would have been thrown away otherwise. The examination of this subject matter fills one of the modules and will be dealt with throughout the whole course.

• Another foundation of the course is permaculture. It comprises aspects of gardening and landscape architecture, such as cultivation of vegetables, mixed crops, crop rotations, humus setting, increasing beneficial organism, holistic area design and preserving natural habitat for general welfare of the soil, water and air.

• The course takes place outdoors only from April to October, thus we are closely attached to the ground/soil, water, air and the seasons. A good precondition to not forget about them.

Climate

On the “Lernfahrt” participants can join the journey (around 350km) of a horse-drawn carriage, by foot or by bike, visiting 3 modules and in this way, experience an original and slowed down form of traveling. The carriage is drawn by three young, experienced humans who are committed to traditional handcrafts and therefore only do manual work, without making use of electrical energy.

Animals and plants

The third foundation of the course is wilderness pedagogy (alongside foodsharing and permaculture): it offers a perspective encouraging awareness of the “wild”, unknown world in our forests and ecosystems. It considers nature a teacher. What can we learn about ourselves and creation if we address ourselves to animals and plants?

Biological Variety

• Permaculture and Wilderness Pedagogy teach the mindful observation of interactions between species, life forms and aspects of nature to promote a deeper appreciation of the awe-inspiring complexity of life.

• The “Humus-Festivals” are self-organized. They unify the networks of permaculture, wild(erness)pedagogy and foodsharing to a varied, common get-together and exchange of experiences.

Material and cultural assets

• we will produce a documentary on the subjects of “participatory financing model” and “child-suitability” of the educational path in order to inspire others

• the use of and creative design with ‘availabilities’ is a core element of the “educational trail”

• “Flake” helps its users with immediate (verbal) sharing, e.g. of skills or objects and therefore with re-/up-cycling as well as reshaping

• The training with traditional handicraft facilitates the usage of natural and renewable resources and the abandonment of energy-consuming production

• the experience of camp-life and its simplicity surely decrease power demands and foster awareness of utilisation

supporting criteria

Who is behind the project?

First there was the “Büro für sozialen Humusaufbau”, and its founder Lauritz Heinsch, who developed the ‘Lernpfad’ and supervises the project.

Now there are 25 participants, who increasingly create the “educational trail” for themselves.

In terms of monetary spending, the “educational trail” is very transparent. Everything is published on our website (only in German at the moment, but please feel free to ask for translation).

It has a very personal character, which will even broaden alongside our future activities.

Transferability

It is a fundamental aim to reflect on, document, share and repeat the experiences and knowledge gained.

Long-term basis

This is the first cycle of the learning path, but due to increasing interest it’s most probably not going to be the last, so another cycle is planned for 2020.

The “educational trail” is meant to be a prototype for future development of education as such or alternative ways of living, as well as the drawing together of existing concepts and movements, who all have similar aims, namely alternatives or add-ons to current modern society.

Participation/cooperation

These are CENTRAL tenets of the “educational trail”.

We are 25 learners, 7 children and 2 dogs, who will travel through Germany together in 2019 to learn more about all these topics, to experience them and to try them out directly in camp life.

You can find the brave learners with their own (german) profiles and ideas on this page:

www.wildgestaltung.de/kreis-der-lernlinge

And you can find our mentors with their own (german) profiles and ideas on this page:

www.wildgestaltung.de/kreis-der-mentoren 

The trail is organised by the “Büro für Sozialen Humusaufbau” (Office for Social Humus Development):

www.sozialhumus.de  (german)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

If you want to know more about the trail, recommend this english article:

https://infothek-waldkinder.atavist.com/advanced-training-learning-path-to-the-wild-designer

we want it to stay suitable for our grandkids!