ESC: Heritage restoration and building activities at the Sanzay Castle

La Colporteuse is non-profit organisation based in a castle in a rural area. The organisation exist since 13 years in the field of non-formal education. It is run by a collective of 21 volunteers and a team of 7 employees reinforced by the welcoming of interns and young people in civil service. The four main motors of the association are: the right to daydream, be a place for experiments, a place open and moving towards people, be a land of cooperation. La Colprteuse is working with different targets groups from all areas, all social situations, all backgrounds, all economical realities, all ages. The organisation is working daily regarding the following goals: to foster the “live together” to encourage the pleasure in being active to welcome people as they are to share the skills and knowledge to foster autonomy to foster and enrich synergies to welcome and facilitate initiatives and experiments to give the possibility to be part of a collective project LA Colporteuse is organized in 3 main division (called "Houses"): THE “HOUSE OF WELCOMING AND LOCAL LIFE”: in charge of welcoming people from all ages; supporting them in making their ideas, projects, dreams come true; facilitating meeting and encounters, hearing and considering people needs in order to create relevant actions in all the territory; creating a local dynamic while connecting inhabitants, companies, municipality and organizations in the territory in order to federate. This house is also in charge of encouraging, supporting and promoting youngsters in their self expression and experimentation in order to find their place in the society. To achieve this we foster projects that allow citizen engagement, empowerment and accurate perspective. Finally this house is also in charge of organizing cultural events to make culture and entertainment accessible to everyone. THE “HOUSE OF LEARNING”: is running an open craft station gratifying wood working, metal processing and other kind of craft while using recyled material. They also organize workshop and participative construction works which involved groups of children, people with fewer opportunities (people with disabilities, people with mental health problem, people with social problems), international groups in rebuilding the castle in which the organization is based in order to share, learn and spend time together. This house is also in charge of developing an experimental project around ecovillage. THE “HOUSE OF BIODIVERSITY”: in charge of the sustainable management of the natural resources. For that this house is also running workshops around nature and organic life, apiary school, soap school , gastronomic workshop, pedagogical garden in order to heighten awareness about environment and ecology and many other project around nature. These 3 divisions are working together around a project of "School of ecological transition"