Description

Vila is a project for a school, which is developing a pedagogical model and an innovative curriculum aiming to contribute to a sustainable and collaborative society. The goal is to provide an educational experience in which children and young people can live creative, committed, and participatory lives and be critically aware of themselves and the world, in a happy and free manner.

Since 2020, Vila has had a class of elementary school children experiencing learning in an urban community in Lisbon with community gardens, agro-forestry, a park, a room, and in public neighbourhood rooms. In order for Vila to be a school, it is required to have a licensed building. 

To finance this project, the promoter intends to raise €500.000 through several campaigns with Goparity. 

The funds raised through the first four campaigns (Vila - Sustainable School I, II, III and IV) were used to purchase the building to open a sustainable school of reference, to purchase additional land next to it, to start the licensing process, to rehabilitate green outdoor spaces, to build an open-space infrastructure to be placed in the gardens for older children, and to invest in water, energy and sanitation systems 

At this stage, the priority is to conclude the rehabilitation work on the gardens, so that the children can use the garden and its supporting infrastructure starting September. Furthermore, to get the licensing so that Vila can open as a school in the year next academic year, allowing the schooling covered to increase up to the 2nd cycle.

In addition to the property acquired for the school, the promoter managed to lease a neighbouring abandoned plot of land on a long-term basis and is in the process of rehabilitating the entire 2300m2 of gardens. Decades-accumulated garbage was removed, including the wreckage of precarious abandoned buildings, and work is underway to create an Agroforestry area with fruit trees and the installation of vegetable gardens, which involve moving and retaining land, with the creation of boundaries safely.

The funds raised through this fifth campaign will be used to:

• Installation of wooden fences to secure spaces and contain land in the 2300m2 garden, so that they can be used by children from September onwards;
• Support space in the garden for the group of younger children;
• Next phase for licensing the building as a school: is the delivery of the architecture and specialities projects for the headquarters building

The space will provide full schooling for the children already enrolled in the project and welcome many more, including those on the waiting list. Vila aims to cover all education cycles, from kindergarten to high school.

Environmental sustainability, emotions and interpersonal relationships, human rights, gender equality, arts and crafts, multiculturalism, and learning through community projects of social and ecological innovation are curricular pillars to be developed by a multidisciplinary team, gathering as key references practices from Open Learning school, Waldorf pedagogy, Social-Emotional and Ethical Curriculum (SEE Learning), and Green School.

The Impact

Direct

• Promotion of environmental responsibility: the school implements environmentally responsible practices such as eco-friendly materials, composting, dry toilets, green roofs, water reuse systems, and the use of renewable energy.

• Contribution to the decarbonization of Portugal, avoiding CO2 emissions: the energy production for own consumption will reduce energy costs, enabling the school to improve its services for the community, and directing resources to its core activity. The decentralized energy production through renewable sources, close to the consumption site, helps to avoid distribution costs, making this a more competitive option than reverting to the national grid. Furthermore, the decreased dependency of the organization on the national grid, makes it less vulnerable to price fluctuations and fiscal charges.

Indirect

• Building of an accessible and inclusive school: 500m2 of a building will be renewed to receive the school facilities, with pre-school, 1st, and 2nd cycles. Furthermore, there is potential to expand to the 3rd cycle and secondary education.

• Access to quality education, collaborative and for sustainability: 150 (first phase up to 2nd cycle) to 300 children and young people (with 3rd cycle and secondary) with access to a pedagogical model focused on project-based learning, with Waldorf and social-emotional and ethical practices, and of social-ecological innovation, with the main pillars of gender equality and human rights, multiculturalism, participation, and community. Also, 14 teachers periodically participate in training in social-emotional curriculum, non-violent communication, practices for Learning Communities, Waldorf pedagogy, gender equality, and human rights.
• Promotion of equal education: focus on the promotion of Gender Equality as a pillar of pedagogy, and on equality in the choice of professions, areas of interest, life projects, and sports.
• Promotion of community empowerment and resilience activities: a community of 3000 people in one school cycle is impacted through extracurricular programs in community gardens and agroforestry. The school curriculum strengthens values of collaboration and sustainability.
• Promotion of entrepreneurship and social innovation: the school as a Hub for social and ecological impact projects for real learning contexts.
• Job creation: 6 new full-time jobs will be created with the expansion of the school structure, among them head and assistant teachers, and complementary functions to the operation of the school.

Impact Indicators

6

jobs created

Contribution to the Sustainable
Development Goals

Sustainable Development Goals

Financial viability

Download Key Investment Information Sheet

Guarantees

Mortgage of the property.

The Promoter

About VILA SUSTENTÁVEL - EDUCAÇÃO PARA A LIBERDADE, LDA

Vila represents the will to create a sustainable school, in Lisbon, for all education levels (up until the University level), an innovative offer that does not yet exist in the city.

A project that brings together education for a sustainable and collaborative society with the development of the several dimensions of the human being. This school stands out for:

• Have emotional education as one of its pedagogical pillars; 
• Give meaning to all learning in a real context, 
• Adjust to the characteristics and motivations of each child and each life project. 
• Have ecological sustainability and collaborative practices present in its operation and learning
• Promote education for gender equality and be inclusive

The project mirrors the interest and deepening of alternative pedagogies and the aspiration to bring together their best proposals in a complementary way with an innovative curriculum. Behind Vila is extensive research of the best practices in the 50 most innovative schools in the world and the experience of collaborative management of a Waldorf educational project for early childhood as a motor for bringing together families and part of Vila's team. 

There are also a set of local partners who have allowed Vila to grow as a community educational project integrated into an urban neighborhood, who have strengthened its multidisciplinary team, and who have provided a practical experience (from the pedagogical proposal) to the children who go to Vila. Always with the support and enthusiasm of several families that make up the pioneering community of this sustainable school.

To be a student in Vila there will be available scholarships and the possibility of exchanges between families and schools for the diversification and democratization of access.

The team

Maria Nolasco

Partner, Co-Founder and Board Member

With 17 years of experience in the management of social and ecological entrepreneurship projects and Research for Social Innovation funded by the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon City Council, and the Portuguese Institute for Development, Specialization in Cooperation and Development and Postgraduate Degrees in Organizational Sociology (FSCH -UNL) and International Relations (ISCSP-UL) training in Learning Communities at Ecohabitare. Currently attending a postgraduate degree in School Administration (UFP), Maria is also a founder and director of the Waldorf educational project Casa da Estrela since 2017.

Joana Carvalho

Curriculum Development and Teacher Training

PhD in Educational Psychology in the development and implementation of mindfulness-based approaches in educational contexts. Member of the Mindfulness for Teachers program, the Hawn Foundation UK, the MindUp Program, and the Paws b. program.

Sara Nolasco

Partner, Co-founder and Head of Communication

Partner, Co-founder, and Head of Communication, Art Director, Advertising and Communication Creative with an extensive curriculum in this area, since 2015 involved in education projects. Sara has participated in EcoHabitar's Learning Communities and also integrates the direction of the educational project Waldorf Casa da Estrela.

Elena Garcia Martin

Partner, Infrastructure, Space and Logistics

Interior designer with her own interior architecture, decoration, and real estate marketing studio: "Your Home Lab" is also involved in educational and sustainable projects, since the birth of her two children, having this area as her main interest and concern.

Tânia Ganito

Curriculum Development

Degree and Master in Anthropology (ISCSP-UTL) PhD in Cultural Studies (FCH-UCP) Researcher at the Center for Communication and Cultural Studies (FCH-UCP), founder of the Waldorf Casa da Estrela educational project.

Business Model

Updates