Environmental education for disadvantageous people

Environmental and ecological education of people with disabilities, low-income families, children and elderly in the town of Pazmand

Description

Pazmand is a town southwest of Budapest, Hungary's capital. It is a special and innovative city in the sense that it deals with and keeps their citizen's happiness as their first and foremost task. 

Pazmand is a unique town because of its ability to self-organize - in 2015 it applied and won the OGP Award with its "Glass pocket" program, showing that is possible to run a town and city council with transparency and without corruption. 

In Pazmand, the locals are trusting and actively participating in decision making regarding their own well-being: the communication between the town leadership and the locals, making them very engaged and committed to the city's general development. The town's have been trying to research and follow the example set by Bhutan, presumably leading to a healthy, happy, and harmonious living together. Bhutan used 33 indicators for happiness across 9 fields: education, health, ecological diversity, governing, time management, cultural diversity, community life, psychological well-being, quality of life. Solving the problem not only will help 2200 locals, but developing the right methodology will help scale and replicate the happiness for many, even internationally.  

Target

The target community is mostly people with a disadvantage: disabled locals, low-income families, elderly people and children. Location is Pazmand, a town 40km southwest of Budapest, Hungary's capital. It is a special and innovative city in the sense that it deals with and keeps their citizen's happiness as their first and foremost task.

Competencies

The town has already a good network of trusted people in every local smaller community, so they immediately know if someone is in trouble or needs help. This social networks and the educational, life coaching replaces many of the financial supports usually given by city councils. Besides this invaluable network, the city council has resources and many departments.

Pazmand has also won the 1st place in the Energy Saving Competition among European Towns    in 2017. This is a huge achievement that needs to be developed further. 

Innovation

The council has achieved great results already, but what is missing is general method/model or know-how, that would include an educational material and life balancing guide with special focus on the impact our everyday lives makes on the ecology/environment around us and elsewhere.  

Commitment

The city council is committed to make its citizen's lives better and to lead by example. We offer our material and immaterial resources, including experts in PR, city management, and many other fields, who can provide support for target groups and projects. We can also provide infrastructural background, we can help with data collection and information sharing - the city has a widely read webpage and other infocommunication channels. We can also provide support and help organize events or other subtasks related to a solution.    

Compliance

The challenge is 100% in compliance with ethical standards.