The first part of the event was an international conference on community planning. The aim was to introduce community planning as a method of collaboration between local governments, schools and their communities. “School is much more than an educational institution: it is a place for local inhabitants to meet, a place for the care and training of children, it is a place where the relationship to our home is born,” community development expert and keynote speaker Blazena Huskova told the gathering. “The wise municipality cares for its children and the wise school lives in the close contact with its community and strives to bring the best benefits for it.”
The second part of the conference involved a field trip to six school-community projects that have been successfully implemented in the Hradec Kralove and Liberec regions of the Czech Republic. One of the most interesting stops on the trip was the visit to the Bodlak and Pampeliska basic school in Velis, which acts as the engine for community life in the both the village and nearby region. Parents and members of the local community have been actively involved in revitalizing the school through activities such as improving the school garden, planting trees and hedges and establishing the nature classroom and recording studio.
The next gathering of the programme partners is scheduled to be held in Poland in June 2010.
About the Schools for Sustainable Development Programme
The Schools for Sustainable Development Programme aims to promote education for sustainable development and to encourage local community environmental action. It gives people the opportunity to participate in specific events and make improvements in the neighbourhoods. The programme is already active in the Czech Republic, Poland and the United Kingdom.
