RCE Hyogo-Kobe - 2023

Project to create ESD platform which the youth mainly encourages interaction among diverse people and communities
Basic Information
Title of project : 
Project to create ESD platform which the youth mainly encourages interaction among diverse people and communities
Submitting RCE: 
RCE Hyogo-Kobe
Contributing organization(s) : 
ESD platform WILL
Focal point(s) and affiliation(s)
Name: 
Satomi Goto
Organizational Affiliation: 
Doctor Course, Graduate school of Human Development Environment, Kobe University
Language of project: 
Japanese
Date of submission:
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Geographical & Education Information
Region: 
Asia-Pacific
Country: 
Japan
Location(s): 
Hyogo Prefecture
Address of focal point institution for project: 
3-111 Tsurukabuto, Nada-ku, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture 657-0011
Human Community Creation Research Center(HC center)
Target Audience:
Socioeconomic and environmental characteristics of the area : 
Kobe was developed as an international trading port.
It is a city where diverse foreign cultures still coexist today. Facing Mt. Rokko and Mt. Maya to the north and the Seto Inland Sea to the south, the city is rich in nature and colorful expressions. In addition, although the area was severely damaged in the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, volunteers became active in the process of reconstruction, and today the area is active in a wide variety of civic activities in such areas as disaster prevention, welfare, cross-cultural understanding, the environment, and community development.
Description of sustainable development challenge(s) in the area the project addresses: 
Kobe is promoting ESD focusing on volunteerism. We are challenging to create a framework for volunteer activities among young people. In addition, we are developing activities to work together to solve local and global issues while building relationships with practitioners and organizations that promote ESD, and seeking recognition and understanding of ESD among the general public.
Contents
Status: 
Ongoing
Period: 
April, 2019
Rationale: 
In order to achieve a sustainable society, it is necessary to create places and ways where the experiences, knowledge, individuality and values of all people can be brought together to think and work together.
We create activities around the question of what kind of encounters and connections are necessary for people with specialists who are pursuing expertise in a particular area to respect each other and collaborate together, and for stakeholders with somewhat conflicting interests to understand each other's positions and history and to bring together various perspectives to create actions to solve problems.
We also implement our projects based on the idea that it is important to seek ways of encountering and connecting with diverse people and fields through the creation of a space in which the independence and ownership for ESD promotion can emerge in interaction with others, and where these can intersect while influencing each other.
Objectives: 
We have conducted our own projects with goals to create mutual independence while meeting and connecting people from different backgrounds through the development and implementation of workshops that take into account place, time, people, purpose and environment. By going out to various volunteer activities, we aim to transcend professional fields and touch on diverse issues in society.
Through joint work with others in work camps and workshops, we go for creating a place where people can come into contact with diverse values, observe our own lifestyles, and build connections with the aim of creating a sustainable society that values all of life.
Activities and/or practices employed: 
We have developed various projects on the basis of the following three main projects.
(i) Since 2007, we have conducted a volunteer work camp at the National Sanatorium Oku Komyoen in Nagashima, Setouchi City, Okayama Prefecture. While confronting the diversity of life, we have worked to create a sustainable island on Nagashima, where a sanatorium for leprosy is located, based on the principle of 'from an island of isolation and discrimination to that of encounter and exchange'.
(ii) We have Volunteer activities for reconstruction in Akasaki Town, Ofunato City, Iwate Prefecture, which was affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. We have held a reconstruction market and supported youth to create a sustainable town working with the residents.
(iii) Through the use of the ESD study tour programme run by RCE Hyogo-Kobe, we have also created opportunities for sharing the insights gained in diverse areas by inviting each other to go out to various volunteer activities that are being developed for the realisation of ESD and SD.
In this way, they go out to various ESD-related fields, and through encounters with others, they are seeking diverse ways of encountering and connecting with each other while reconsidering the relationship between fields and between themselves and social issues.
Size of academic audience: 
WILL members (who participate in WILL events usually and share information of social practice for other members): 75 , WILL users (who get information and participate occasionally):155 (at 30/01/2023)
Results: 
We have tried developing the method to promote ESD. We value inclusiveness; we act with diverse people regardless barriers, ages and status. We aim to promote ESD gradually by making a platform to share opportunity and information about sustainable development. For the above reason, our results couldn’t easily be shown by some data or figures. However, we think it is important that our grass rooted project bear fruit slowly. We act for society not only by practical approach. We learn by cooperative activity and become aware of conflicts and complexity for some fields or participants. We think this activity will promote ESD gradually.
Lessons learned: 
We organize workshops and events cooperating with high schools, universities and local ESD practitioners. It is our factor in success. However, it is difficult to preserve diversity of learnings because of polarizing senses of ownership between participants and organizers.
We must recruit young people (under 20 years old), Middle Ages as members. Also, we need to stabilize organizers; we aim to be a corporation.
Key messages: 
We make platform organized by youth in order to promote ESD. We make opportunities.

Pictures:

File Name Caption for picture Photo Credit
Image icon 051B7231-2E6B-405F-A345-8D7EFA806E04.jpeg (77.25 KB) RCE conference for practioners in Japan in 2019 ESD platform WILL
Image icon 8133E6C5-6AC0-48E5-A42F-CC6D455B4F16.jpeg (151.66 KB) We support making cities and human settlements with sustainability in Akasaki, Iwate (where seriously damaged by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake) ESD platform WILL
Image icon C7EEDB9B-8ABB-4320-AA5D-4B07C019C165.jpeg (248.06 KB) We develop the spot called “Tsudoino-Hiroba (a spot to gather with diversity)” in order to promote ESD in National Sanatorium Oku-Komyoen ESD platform WILL
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
(https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs) and other themes of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)
SDG 2 - End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture 
Indirect
SDG 3 - Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages 
Indirect
SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all 
Direct
SDG 9 - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation 
Indirect
SDG 10 - Reduce inequality within and among countries 
Indirect
SDG 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable 
Direct
SDG 12 - Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns 
Indirect
SDG 13 - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts 
Indirect
SDG 14 - Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development 
Indirect
SDG 15 - Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss 
Indirect
SDG 17 - Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development 
Direct
Theme
Disaster Risk Reduction 
Direct
Traditional Knowledge  
Direct
Agriculture 
Direct
Curriculum Development 
Indirect
Plants & Animals 
Direct
Waste 
Direct
ESD for 2030-Priority Action Areas
Priority Action Area 2 - Transforming learning and training environments 
state: 
Direct
Priority Action Area 3 - Developing capacities of educators and trainers 
state: 
Direct
Priority Action Area 4 - Mobilizing youth 
state: 
Direct
Priority Action Area 5 - Accelerating sustainable solutions at local level 
state: 
Indirect
Update: 
No
I acknowledge the above: 
Yes