Education for an Eco-Neighbourhood: Cultivating Personal and Community Empowerment
The purpose of the following information is to develop a process for implementation of an education plan for an eco-neighbourhood, and then to apply these principles to our concept plan through education and skill building within the community. An eco-neighbourhood requires community building, skill and training development, social networking, individual and community self-confidence, and local initiative to be created in order to function effectively.  Each of these requirements can be facilitated by an education process tailored specifically for the community in question.   We must consider several variables when designing our education process: why we need education, who the target audience is, and what information we need to transmit. We must then determine appropriate information delivery strategies, and consider three different levels to eco-neighbourhood education:  the sales pitch and persuasion, achieving individual empowerment, and facilitating community barn-raising. Approaches we use to present different messages will reflect our strategies of information delivery.  The three levels to education, namely the sales pitch and persuasion, achieving individual empowerment, and facilitating community barn-raising, have appropriate media through which to transfer information.  We will consider a variety of educational techniques and determine the strengths and weaknesses of each. Our case study, the concept plan for an eco-neighbourhood in Bridgeland, will be the starting point in designing an educational framework for the project.  Each of the above criteria will be considered when creating our approach. Finally, we must critically examine the process we have designed and analyze its strengths and weaknesses.  Next Page