The Community Foundation The Nou undertakes its first activities that answer to varied of his aims, framed in two horizons:
And they are comprised in the following fields, that are essencial for The Nou:
-
The education like way of social transformation, “PLANT FUTUR”.
-
A culture of roots and at the same time creative and innovative, tied to the environment, “ENCOUNTERS WITH THE COUNTRYSIDE”.
-
Share thought, build messages, “RURALIA. Magazine of the rural valencian world”.
To carry out these and other activities, The Nou is based especially in the voluntary work of the members of his patronage, patronage of honour, the community council and other collaborators.
It also has the economic collaboration of the Spanish Association of Foundations, the Program of University Extension of Jaume I University of Castelló and the Caixa Popular.
For what do we need your help? To cover the basic costs of technical management and organisation that volunteering can't make, that is detailed in the section List of needs.
The first actions to be taken are:
-
Plant Future.
The first Seed the Future awards will be directed towards rural primary, secondary, vocational and high school students, teachers and educational communities. These awards aim to promote reflection on rural life models, their problems, alternatives, and future. They also encourage students to consider the opportunity to develop their life and professional trajectories in the territory where they were born and to be aware of that possibility. We already have the support of Caixa Popular for the co-financing part of the awards.
-
Encounters with the Countryside.
"We only want what we know, we only care for what we want to protect."
Get to know our rural landscapes from a geographical, cultural and also spiritual point of view. Promote their conservation through reflection and the exchange of ideas about the accelerated changes caused by major impacts such as solar farms and their power lines. For this purpose, we will have experienced hikers, geographers, and landscape interpretation guides for the groups participating in this activity. We aim for an exchange of knowledge, proposals, and motivations between people from different towns and regions. There will be three itineraries/encounters in spring and another three in autumn during this period.
-
Ruralia: magazine of the rural valencian world.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of this journal. With this monographic issue, we aim to assess the changes that have occurred in rural areas over the past 25 years and the prospects for the future. To achieve this, we aim for the texts to have good literary quality, prioritize unexpected approaches and turn traditional perspectives upside down through surprise, irony, and other resources to clearly present the contradictions, demands, complaints, proposals, proclamations, and bets that Ruralia presents for the Valencian rural world. The University Extension Program of the University Jaume I collaborates with La Nou in editing and publishing this journal.
What are our objectives with these actions?
- Encourage the participation of children and young people in rural communities' future.
- Promote the conservation of natural environments through knowledge and enjoyment, creating emotional connections with landscapes, the best way to care for and protect them.
- Generate processes of listening, dialogue, and proposals for the current moment and future of the rural environment.
- Analyze, together with scholars in the fields of ethnology, agroecology, or culture, the value of traditional rural societies' knowledge for adapting to the consequences of climate change.
- Increase awareness of the foundation's objectives in the rural community: administrations, associative entities, social agents, and the general population.
With the action Plant Future we want to get:
-
Direct Impact: More than 200 girls, boys, young, his families and 20 teachers who are sensitized about the values and models that do that the villages provide them quality of life, social cohesion and resilience.
-
Indirect impact: Sensitization of the educational communities of the rural valencian world to the aim of the action through its diffusion and also the diffusion of the results obtained through of our web and nets.
With the action Encounters with the Countryside we want to get:
-
Direct Impact: The exchange of knowledges, proposals and motivations among 150 people, 50 by itinerary or meeting.
-
Indirect impact: Sensitization of the valencian society about the value the protection of the rural material and immaterial heritage through the diffusion of the activities and its results: conclusions, videos, photos… in our web and social nets.
With the action Ruralia: magazine of the rural valencian world we want to get:
-
Direct Impact: Analysis of the rural valencian world by 60 expert people and critical thoughts about it by the 1.000 people that will receive the magazine in paper.
-
Indirect impact: Knowledge done by the civil society about the situation and future of the rural valencian world through the ON-LINE publication of open access of our magazine in our web.
*
The Fundació Comunitària La Nou is an initiative promoted by Mas de Noguera. It is a cooperative that was founded forty-two years ago, located between the Alto Palancia and Alto Mijares regions. Throughout these years, its main activities have been environmental education, agriculture, rural development, and rural tourism. Since its beginnings, it has promoted and/or participated in social initiatives and organizations such as the Rural Alternative Movement, the Coordinator of Organic Agriculture, the Pedagogical Renewal Movement, the Rural Platform and the Valencian Society of Environmental Education. It has also promoted cooperation projects such as the European Rural Information Center Association, Savia Rural: Population Settlement, Agrocultur, Seminar on Organic Agriculture, and Ruralia: Magazine of Valencia's Rural World.
As a community foundation, in order to encourage participation in its organization, in addition to the board of trustees and an honorary board of trustees, its statutes include a Community Council. It is made up of people from different rural regions, members of associations linked to the rural environment, or people with knowledge about La Nou's purposes. Its function is to collaborate and advise on various activities, as well as propose and participate in the development of the foundation's action plan.
The team behind the activities for which funding is being requested is led by the following individuals:
Marcelino Herrero Salvador: Former coordinator of Mas de Noguera for over 20 years, President of the European Rural Information Center Association and coordinator of various rural and environmental cooperation projects. He is currently the President of La Nou.
Carles Rodrigo Alonso: Geographer, member of various rural organizations, highly knowledgeable about the Valencian rural environment. He has published several books on towns in the Serrania and other regions, as well as on ethnology. He is currently the Vice President of the Fundació La Nou.
Javier Ferrer Riquelme: Social worker and university professor in projects, communication, and social research. Researcher in migration and local development. He has participated in several international cooperation projects in Latin America and Africa. He is currently the Secretary of La Nou.
Eva González Vargas: Intercultural mediator and workshop teacher in rural inland regions, volunteer teacher in restorative justice and community engagement. She is currently a technician at La Nou.
Each of the described actions, for which help is being requested, has a working team composed of members of the Honorary Board of Trustees and Community Council, coordinated by one of them. It should be noted that professionals from different fields are involved, providing a global perspective: teaching, agriculture, sociology, geography, biology, social workers, and culture.
To these groups, volunteers collaborate on some of the necessary tasks for their operation. All the people mentioned, from members of the board to volunteers, offer their time and knowledge voluntarily and selflessly.
The diverse backgrounds of the people involved in the actions facilitates their promotion in their rural communities of residence/work/investigation to encourage participation throughout the rural territory of the Valencian Community. Additionally, we will visit rural social agents and convene and/or participate with people, initiatives, and entities from rural regions in inter-regional meetings.
Channel 
