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Sustrares Training Report and Materials

The SUSTRARES project, where Transition Town Witzenhausen took part as a partner, was flagged by the National Agency as a best practice, with an evaluation mark of 96%.

Here I share with you the training report, as well as videos and other links of relevant to this project, who may have follow-ups and lead to the building up of a network on skills sharing for building ecological communities.

Report Summary

The SUSTRARES project aimed at providing concrete competencies, skills and expertise to youth workers in order to act as multipliers and sustainability agents for their localities. Since mainstream and formal education are not structured to provide the skills and competencies

needed to tackle modern challenges in a crisis context, SUSTRARES aimed to create and strengthen training paths and resources based on real-life applications for resilience, sustainability and self-sufficiency. The partnership had the concrete objective of providing open knowledge and training for positive change in the personal lives of participants (regarding coverage of basic needs, entrepreneurship and employment), as a response to the multi-dimensional crises Europe is facing.


SUSTRARES main activity was a 10-day training course, which was developed with the concrete intent to encourage the active engagement of youth workers in sustainability transition initiatives, to exchange experiences concerning the promotion of local sustainability in European countries and to provide competencies and skills to youth workers to actively engage in the their local context and the employment market
SUSTRARES gave the opportunity to 36 youth workers and trainers from 6 different countries to become familiar with concepts such as sustainability, self-sufficiency, transition and resilience, at both theoretical and practical levels. In the course of 10 days, participants jointly
carried out a programme of mixed activities (participatory seminars, practical workshops, exercises, debates, role plays, simulations, outdoor activities, etc) that enhanced their skills and competencies and allowed them to experience a multicultural simulation of living in an
ecological community.


The youth worker mobility focused on non-formal experiential training (learning by doing), co-creation of DIY convivial/ frugal technologies and networking, while it provided useful skills for employability enhancement and community engagement. Topics addressed during the training course included energy autonomy using renewable sources, natural housing, waste management, food self-sufficiency, agro-ecology, health self-management, participatory decision making, and cooperative entrepreneurship.

The main activity was hosted in the premises of the STAGONES Sustainability Academy (www.stagones.org) in Vlachia Evia, which is comprised of three 1.5 acre plots and a variety of hosting and training infrastructure constructed solely with natural material. The training course hosted very experienced trainers from few of the most active sustainability transition/self-resilience collectives in Greece, namely Stagones, Nea Guinea, iliosporoi network, and UfiT, trainers from professional associations like Place Identity, We deliver taste and Perivoli Korinthou, from the international network SEYN (Sustainable Energy Youth Network), as well as trainers from the other project partners.

Further materials and links

received a 96% mark in the evaluation and our project has been flagged (proposed by the National Agency) as a best practice!

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