ESC: Ateneu Rural Cal Cisteller : voluntariado para un desarrollo rural sostenible

Associació GENS is a non-profit organization based in the rural area of Font-Rubí, in the province of Barcelona. It was created in 2019 with the aim to face, in an holistic way, the ecological, economical and social challenges of our time, with a very clear focus on sustainability and local community empowerment. We’re inspired by concepts such as sustainability, community, research, integrity and excellence. The mission of our organization is to lead and promote change towards new paradigms that are respectful to life in all its forms. To that end, we promote networking, communities and meeting points, we launch educational and informative actions, we design tools for development, we engage in social justice activities and we investigate and experiment low-tech archetypes. Our goals include: 1. Building alliances with society, public and private organizations to promote disruptive and multidisciplinary initiatives for sustainability. 2. Conducting replicable and open access research and experimentation in subjects such as: land stewardship, communities, green building, permaculture and chosen asceticism. 3. Promoting critical thinking on human condition, relationships and needs. 4. Protecting nature and cultural heritage. 5. Promoting individual empowerment. 6. Provide people with support, advice, social integration opportunities, skills and knowledge. Our activity includes: 1. Developing learning and research experiences in subjects such as: degrowth, capitalism, green building, basketry, carpentry, etc. 2. Sharing and disseminating alternative and sustainable lifestyles through seminars, visits and workshops. 3. Lobbying for nature conservancy and sustainable management. 4. Protecting nature and cultural heritage through land stewardship projects involving volunteering. We work for: 1. Socially vulnerable people. 2. Local people. 3. People commited to sustainability and nature conservancy. 4. Society, public and private organizations. GENS is a member of Xarxa per la Conservació de la Natura ("Nature Conservancy Network") which promotes and advises land stewardship projects, mainly in Catalonia. The participants of our volunteering program will be able to develop competences and knowledge in nature, TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowlege) and sustainability related subjects. We’ll design, together with the volunteers, a complementary educational plan (in the case of need, through new technologies). We’ll count with the participation of experts and we’ll visit initiatives of interest that are currently working in our territory. Volunteers will have the opportunity to lead practicable and relevant projects with a clear impact for the community.