On Friday, 28 November 2025, the staff of the Ajdovščina Adult Education Center attended the conference Discovering the Power of Nature – Participatory Environmental Education for Sustainability: Opportunities, Challenges and Practices, organised by the Slovenian Institute for Adult Education in Ljubljana. The conference brought together numerous experts and adult education practitioners and provided an opportunity to reflect on how participatory approaches, community-based learning in public spaces, and the development of green competences contribute to sustainable change in society. The focus was on practical experiences, the challenges faced by educators, and the role of local environments in encouraging sustainable habits and values.
At the conference, we presented a contribution entitled An Inclusive Thematic Trail as a Strategy for Learning in Public Open Space, in which we demonstrated how we developed digital thematic trails in the Vipava Valley within the project BEroots – Between Rivers and Lagoons: Artistic Routes. The BEroots project is co-funded by the European Union under the VI-A Interreg Italy–Slovenia Programme. We presented the process of creating the trails, their key thematic highlights, and the importance of public open space as an open and accessible learning environment where cultural and natural heritage, local stories, and contemporary learning approaches intersect. We also emphasised that the digital format of the trails in the Actionbound app enables greater accessibility and flexible adaptation of content for different user groups.
Participating in the conference was an important opportunity to present our work and exchange experiences with other organisations developing learning practices for sustainability. Our contribution confirmed that, through innovative learning approaches in public spaces and intergenerational community events, we can make a concrete contribution to the development of green competences, the growth of tourism, and sustainable change in the local environment.
