looking up project

LOOKING UP – A training path from experiences of local development towards European Social Solidarity Economy strategies – is a project under the Erasmus+ programme that aims to give relevance to the economic, social, cultural and capability heritage of the networks and territorial organizations of Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) in the framework of the European strategy of participatory and multi-level local development.

Duration of the project: April 2024 – September 2025

This project is addressed to activists, volunteers, workers of small organisations working in community places, organisations, associations, cooperatives, and Local Action Groups… to all the experiences of Social Solidarity Economy, rooted in rural or urban areas, that are promoting involvement, active participation and civic engagement of citizens and communities: they can show more directly the transformative impact of actions in the daily lives of people and territories and activate a cultural change that has a positive social and economic impact.

• Improving skills, awareness, civic engagement of small organisations in the framework of ecological transition and Social Solidarity Economy (SSE)
• Increasing the awareness of small organisations about local and EU level strategies and policies guiding development actions, enhancing their capacity to look up and know what happens around them for a bottom-up participation and an improved effectiveness in their own contexts
• Strengthening transnational networks among organisations working in similar fields, enhancing common approach, and implementing the cooperation in future project

We want to co-design a training path in a peer-to-peer logic in order to guarantee the active role of the target group: the participants will be able to know similar experiences in other EU countries, looking at them as good practices, but also as case studies to be analysed in order to really gather strengths/weaknesses. Sharing a common theoretical basis could also leas to future EU projects, strengthening the possibility of these small organisations to work in international networks.

• A co-designed workshop in Florence (June 2024)
• 9 online sessions (between October 2024 – May 2025):
  • 3 sessions about local participatory development and ecological transition,
  • 3 sessions about urban-rural relations through food and its supply chains,
  • 3 sessions about networking and the development of solidarity and community economies in urban and rural areas
• A capitalisation workshop in Timisoara (June 2025)
• A final webinar with RIPESS EUROPE (September 2025)

Looking Up Booklet

Looking Up Tuesdays program

In collaboration with