This first phase of LeCAKE starts in October 2022 and lasts for two years. It focuses on knowledge sharing, training and publication of results.
The first objective of LeCAKE Train is to mobilise 7 European cultural organisations associated with a think tank in a process of ecological transition.
Realising that this approach must be aimed at the long term, organisations want to equip themselves with a common base of knowledge, skills and resources. They will thus be “equipped” to lead their transformation.
For their programme, the partners have defined 4 themes to be explored and transformed into educational modules. These modules will be shared and tested internally and with 20 associated partners, then evaluated.
Then, the partners will publish and promote these tools in order to make them available to cultural actors in the broadest sense, including education and citizenship.
A project that combines cultural action and sustainable development
The environmental priority is at the heart of the project. For two years, the partners will take on the challenges of climate change by designing learning tools together that are adapted to the cultural sector in which they operate.
The many existing reports on these issues, such as those of the IPCC on a global scale, or the Shift Project on a French scale, show that structural changes must be implemented now with a perspective of impact in 15 years at best.
We also note that immediate measures that require sacrifices have difficulty in attracting support. Cultural actors feel that their contribution would have little impact compared to that of states or large companies.
This situation leads to procrastination in the transition and to a form of denial of the link that can exist between small cultural organisations and the fight against climate change.
To reverse this trend, LeCAKE Train wants to be a vector of ecological transformation for the members of its consortium, the associated partners and, more generally, other small cultural organisations through its exemplary value. It wants to embody the idea that transition can become desirable. Rather than taking a reduction-limitation-abandonment approach, LeCAKE Train wants to take a long-term structural approach. An approach that triggers appropriation, innovation and emancipation through respect for the environment and the fight against climate change.
A European cooperation project
A survey within the circle of our partners and associated partners shows that a European approach would be a potential trigger for membership.
The work of reflection and proposal carried out by the EU with the Green deal and then the New European Bauhaus created a sufficiently strong trend to mobilise structures that remained on the sidelines. On the other hand, at national level, the signals encouraging transition may exist, but they fade into the background as soon as a more “urgent” crisis occurs.
By working on the issue of ecological transition at the European level, LeCAKE Train will encourage greater commitment from partners who will find in the collective effort the satisfaction of being actors of their change. They will be able to tell together a story of transformation that they will be proud to share.
The crisis of the war in Ukraine have restored our confidence in the EU, proving that its members were able to express a common opposition. The European voice was heard in places where the voice of each member country was understated.
Back to the scale of our project, the LeCAKE Train approach will also benefit from the strength of the collective when it brings together teams from 6 countries, however small.
By producing educational resources adapted to their context in partnership, and by linking their efforts in a positive approach towards future European projects, LeCAKE Train brings an added value to the ecological transition that is far superior to the “solitary” approaches of the various structures in the consortium.
A project that is part of an education and training approach
LeCAKE Train intends to have an impact in the field of adult education and training, including young adults (18-30 years) and more experienced professionals.
It aims to contribute to the ecological transition of the partner structures and their associated partners.
Rather than a discourse advocating reductions or abandonment, LeCAKE Train wants to combine education and training in a logic of creation of new projects carrying the values transmitted during the experience. The learning proposed by the project will stimulate the innovative capacity of the members of the partner and associated structures to give them a taste for a sustainable approach to their new projects. The ideation and sharing dimension promoted by the method should enable the knowledge base to be converted into concrete actions.
The story of a transformation and emancipation resulting from the experience should contribute to inscribe LeCAKE’s ecological values in the modus operandi of each partner, and then serve as an example to other actors in the culture-education-citizenship sector.
In this perspective, each partner will host a pair of young European volunteers who will participate as young ambassadors in the development of the project.
This scheme is intended to strengthen the impact of the project among the partners. It will also result in the training of a group of 48 young European future professionals. They will be able to inspire their sector when they take up their first professional positions after the volunteering.