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Dear ,

The Ecovillage Gathering 2025 is just one month away! We're thrilled to also celebrate 30 years of GEN - A very special anniversary with which we hope to look back on what was, how we changed & impacted together. Reflect where we are at in the now and where the world needs us to go from now on. 

We can't wait to share hugs, laughter, and celebration with all of you. See you soon!

With love and in community,
Ziska and Lena on behalf of the GEN Europe Team

🔍 Content table

1. News from GEN EU

• Invitation for General Assembly
• The Gathering Schedule is live!
• Meet the Ecovillages at the Gathering
• New Donation Page
• The Role of Ecovillages in a New Digital Culture

2. Project Updates 

• Adult Education Online Info Series

3. News from around the network

• Summer Camps
• Seminar in Community of Living Ethics
• Findhorn Celebrates New Beginnings
• Pourges wins Social and Solidarity Tourism Price 2025
• Volunteers Needed for Permaculture Project in Hungary

4.  Erasmus+ opportunities

• Training Courses
• ESC opportunities
• Youth Exchange

5. Communities searching Members

• The Oak Community in Belgium Seeks New Members

6. Invitations from our partners

• ECOLISE Lauches Seond Call for Demonstrators

7. News from YTS

• Beyond Inclusion Training Report

8. Opportunities from beyond the network

• Call for Members: Climate Justice Think Tank
• Further Inspiration

As we approach the Gathering, we're also just one step away from our next General Assembly. Here is a kind reminder to register if you haven't yet. Find all information needed here.

📃Find the Infopack for the GA here!

▶️Watch the recording of the Info Session on Proposals here!

🎉 IT'S LIVE! The European Ecovillage Gathering 2025 day-to-day schedule is now available!

Check out the full schedule and secure your spot here!

Can't wait to see you there! ✨

As in previous years, we are excited to again be offering the “Meet the Ecovillages” market - this year in a changed format!

To ease the pace and create a more relaxed, engaging environment, MtE will now take place every day from 14:00 to 15:00, right after lunch (without the obligation to be present every day). This new rhythm is designed to create a calmer, more spacious environment for connection and sharing.

If you would like to be a stallholder at this year’s market and present your community, please find more details here and write an email to membership@gen-europe.org. 

In times of crisis, the power of solidarity becomes most evident. As a network committed to peace, justice, and mutual aid, GEN Europe stands with communities facing violence and displacement in Ukraine and Palestine. We invite you to join us in offering concrete support to those in urgent need. 

Visit our new donation page and help people in need here!

Our IT Manager, Angel, has written a wonderful article on the role of ecovillages in shaping a new digital culture. He explores innovative approaches already in practice within several communities and highlights how ecovillages serve as living laboratories for reimagining our digital lives.

👉 Read the full article here!

Wednesday 4th of June we had the first online session about the Adult education program and we are happy to share with you the recording of the presentation part. We had a clear presentation by Anna about the program, followed by fruitful discussions in the breakout room, and finishing with follow up steps.

If this presentation has sparked your interest please:

• Check out the informative we have created on our website.
• Inform fanny@gen-europe.org by email whether your organisation has interest in applying for an Adult education grant.
• Sign up to the two follow up sessions:

Session 2: Blueprint and application form
📍 Date: Monday, Sep 8, 2025
🕓 Time: 17:00
📝 Register here! 

This open session about the Erasmus+ Adult Education program is more hands-on, where we will walk you through each section on the application form, offering practical tips on how to align your proposal with program priorities, formulate objectives, design activities, and ensure your application meets quality criteria.We will explore how to design a well-structured project, Identifying needs and defining goals, and sharing a blueprint for what activities you can include in your application.

Session 3: Q&A session for deadline preparation
📍 Date: Monday, September 22, 2025
🕓 Time: 17:00
📝 Register here!

Bring your questions, project ideas, and a willingness to learn! With this last session just before the deadline, we will make sure all questions are answered so that you can submit your project in the Erasmus+ Adult Education program.

In this group experience in Umbria, this seminar will approach the field of relationships and explore relationships with creative meditation and elements of psychosynthesis.

More info here! 

Nestled in the northeast of Scotland, The Park, Ecovillage Findhorn has long stood as a beacon for spiritual inquiry, ecological innovation, and community living. But in recent years, like so many communities worldwide, Findhorn has faced immense challenges – and now, against all odds, it is rising once more, renewed by the very principles on which it was founded.

Read the full article here.

Thank you for everyone who has voted for Pourges! 🎉

We are thrilled to announce that during the RESILIENT competition awards ceremony, organized by the Open Tourisme Lab, the Ecovillage of Pourgues was honored among dozens of inspiring initiatives promoting more sustainable and human-centered tourism.

This recognition highlights the Pourges’ commitment to offering a cooperative and  inclusive tourism experience,  and with that also helps to make the ecovillage lifestyle more visible.

A unique 5,000 m² land restoration project in Oszkó, Hungary, is in need of support.

Half of the property is a former orchard; the other half is being transformed into a permaculture forest garden.

To continue this work, the project is seeking volunteers who live nearby or are open to relocating. Help is needed to care for the land and small buildings in alignment with permaculture principles.

📬 Contact: Elisabeth Wolfmayr - elisabethwolfm@gmail.com

📅August 19 – 29, 2025
👥 20 participants, 18-30 year old from Spain, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, Germany + 5 group leaders (No age limit)

The exchange will bring together young changemakers from across Europe to learn how to design and cultivate food gardens inspired by wild ecosystems. Through regenerative agriculture and permaculture, you’ll gain the tools to create self-sustaining, biodiversity-rich systems and the mindset to inspire change wherever you go.

More information here!

Residents co-manage 2 hectares of land, cook together, practice weekly rituals, and use Holacracy for governance. Children are embraced through a shared parenting model.

The community welcomes those committed to this lifestyle—ideally working part-time outside the project. The site is alcohol- and drug-free and not suited for light housing (e.g. yurts or tiny homes).

Contact rejoindrelechene@gmail.com to learn more and get involved or visit this page.

ECOLISE launched its Second Call for Demonstrators under the Regenerative Communities Fund (RCF). The call will open on 21st July 2025 and it is a chance for established, community-led initiatives (CLIs) in Croatia, Finland, France, Portugal, and Spain to receive funding and capacity-building support to deepen their impact, inspire others, and help drive a just, regenerative transition across Europe. Learn more here!

Selected Demonstrators will play a key role in supporting emerging Pathfinder communities, sharing good practices, organising local policy dialogues as part of the European Day of Sustainable Communities and engaging in campaigning and collaboration through ECOLISE’s network. If your initiative or other CLIs you know in the 5 eligible countries are already active in climate action, regeneration, and local empowerment—please share about this funding call and start preparing ideas.

The deadline for applications is 30 Sept. 2025, 23:59 CET.

Between May 21st and 26th, twenty participants from across Europe came together in the ecovillage of Lakabe, located in the Basque Country, for an immersive training experience organized by YTS. The Training course, Beyond Inclusion, provided a space to deeply explore themes of inclusion, gender, privilege, power, discrimination, and oppression. Participants from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Kosovo, Serbia, Sweden, and Portugal engaged in critical discussions on how sustainability intersects with LGBTIQ+ inclusion within a world influenced by cis-hetero-patriarchal structures. 

👉Read the full article here!

Climate Justice Think Tank – a space for driving youth-centred action on climate justice and helping shape long-term strategies for a fairer, greener future across Europe and beyond.

Check out more here!

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