she-ede

WHAT IS AN EDE?

The Ecovillage Design Education was developed by Gaia Education & the Global Ecovillage Network.

The curriculum is based on the experience and expertise of the most successful ecovillages and transition settings around the world.

Since 2006, Gaia Education has launched more than 350 EDE programmes in 55 countries around the world. EDE courses have been offered in settings ranging from tribal and traditional communities to intentional ecovillages, from urban slums to universities.

The Ecovillage Design Education was developed by Gaia Education & the Global Ecovillage Network.

The Ecovillage Design Education is a comprehensive course in Integrative Whole Systems Design for Sustainability. The curriculum is organised as a mandala called the “sustainability wheel” encompassing what are perceived to be the four primary dimensions of human experience – Worldview, Ecological, Social and Economic.

By fulfilling the course requirements, you will receive:
Certification by Gaia Education as an EDE designer

SHE-EDE PROGRAM

The SHE-EDE offers an interactive and experiential learning journey, aimed exclusively at women, from young age to advanced age. We want to give space for intimate interactions and deep listening to the unique yet diverse experience of being and living as women in this society. Together we want to heal and transform wounds, get inspiration from matriarchal societies, indigenous cultures and ecovillages around the world, build and experience community among women in order to dream and research: How do we truly want to live on this Earth?

Our aim is that through the collective process of introspection, sharing and healing in a safe, delicate space, all participants will be empowered to shape their local environment and communities in a meaningful way. In this course, women will become aware of their powers and their history in order to create a new wisdom in compassion, within themselves, as a group, and in society – to meet the challenges of today´s world. We come together for mutual inspiration, inner growth, and learning to be able to facilitate the creation of projects, communities, and social systems inclusive of every gender, race, and nationality.

The Ecovillage Design Education program will be fully acknowledged, while proposing a particular perspective and focus aimed at the experience of women. The SHE-EDE program will revolve around the cyclicity of life, Mother Earth, and our meaningful place within. Participants will be guided on a journey inspired by Deep Ecology/The work that reconnects. The entire program is structured along the Spiral of Deep Ecology, incorporating all dimensions of the Ecovillage Design Education curriculum.

We trust our loving powers.

What you will learn

Curriculum

Social

  • Matriarchal and Indigenous cultures
  • Motherhood as a cultural model
  • Collective processes for community building including Scott Peck
  • Sociocracy 3.0
  • Group Decision Making
  • Possibility Management
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Circle Culture
  • Transparent Communication and & Active Listening
  • Reclaiming your power
  • How to heal your wounds

Worldview/cultural

  • Deep Ecology
  • The Work that Reconnects
  • Meeting Women and Local Communities
  • Global Ecovillage Network
  • Women Circles
  • Singing Culture
  • Decolonizing Patriarchal toxic system
  • Matriarchal Societies and Indigenous Cultures
  • Patriarchal system and unconscious mindset awareness
  • Contact Improvisation
  • Authentic movement & Authentic voicing
  • Life Dance
  • Holistic Dance Practices
  • Meditation, Yoga & Breathwork

Ecological

  • Permaculture Design & Principles
  • Bio-Architecture, Class A buildings
  • Sustainable Infrastructures, water and energy
  • Whole system approach to Design
  • Agricultural Self Sufficiency
  • Ecological Italian Gastronomy
  • Dynamic Agroforestry – Food Forests
  • Hands on gardening
  • Food Waste
  • Going back to the Roots of Mother Earth awareness through Women’s wisdom

Economic

Embodiment

  • Movement for self contact and empowerment
  • Embodiment practices for non-verbal research & self expression
  • Contact Improvisation
  • Authentic movement & Authentic voicing
  • Life Dance
  • Holistic Dance Practices
  • Meditation, Yoga & Breathwork

Bring your project
in the end of each week

During the EDE you will have a chance to work on a project and implement what you learnt. At the end of the course, all participants will form small project groups based on their curiosity and interest. You have the chance to work on a project you burn for, while applying your new perspectives and making a group experience. You are very welcome to bring your idea, dream or already existing project into the course.

Get help making your dreams come true,
bring your dream projects!

OUR OBJECTIVES

Our aim is to offer a meaningful experience that allows women to develop holistic strategic thinking and learn practical skills to face the social and environmental challenges of our time. An introduction to best practices of ecovillages around the world, as well as indigenous matriarchal cultures and the historic premises of existing equalitarian, sociocratic societies with sharing gift economies and sacred cultures offer a precious mindset and inspiration for women’s future actions.

We wish to raise awareness and create a new consciousness, by offering a systemic approach unifying thought, feeling, spirituality and action to address the world’s problems. We embrace a holistic worldview, seeing ourselves as part of Nature and Mother Earth in her bio-complexity, challenging the individualist narrative of Western culture. Developing a worldview integrating humans and nature is a crucial aspect for meeting ecological emergencies.

By offering a space of healing, learning and connecting, introducing knowledge and skills, as well as creating consciousness, we wish to empower women to contribute to the co-creation of an alive, ecological, egalitarian, and peaceful society on Earth.

Together we want to research what we can learn from matriarchal societies around the world, dive deeply into our own wisdom and struggles as women.

Send me a FREE EDE Curriculum!

Ecovillage Design Education Manual

Gaia Education’s Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) programme curriculum will guide you through the four dimensions of sustainable design; Social, Ecological, Economic, and Worldview.

The educational curriculum includes tons of information on each dimension and engaging learning activity examples that can be applied to different settings.