This learning journey was created for those that are seeking to marry purpose with livelihood.

We realized that change makers and their projects need further support to sustain momentum and motivation in order to create new social enterprises or to become entrepreneurs within the organisations they already belong to. As we start putting into practice the inspiration and skills gained, we inevitably run into the resistance of systems to change. We need to deepen our understanding about the process of change over time, and learn how to be personally resilient within it, becoming able to embrace challenges and failures alongside the successes.We need to learn to build and sustain teams, and to continue to adapt what we are doing to meet the ever-changing demands and needs of our environments.

As partners in the SIRCle Project, we were happy to find others who had also recognised this need to move from a focus on content to include more of a focus on process, and who had established modular learning journeys for participants over a period of time. The diversity of partner organisations (they include a university, 2 social enterprises, a cooperative, and several charities/NGOs with consultative status to the UN and EU), and their shared interest in community-led approaches to sustainable development, offered a good base for an exciting journey of co-creation.

Existing sustainability trainings, such as Transition Training, a 2-week Permaculture Design training, or a one-month Ecovillage Design Education, are usually focused on generating community projects, rather than social enterprises. The new Evoneers’ Journey curriculum is built on three such journeys of change, the Transition to Resilience Training, the Pioneers of Change Training and the Oasis Game. The use of rich on- and off-line learning environments, action learning sets, peer support and mentoring create a strong framework of support. In addition, the SIRCle Project was born out of the recognition that, while existing sustainability and resilience trainings support individuals and communities to develop excellent practices for deepening their environmental, social and cultural bases, there is a need particularly to strengthen the economic dimension.