EDE - Avnø Højskole, Denmark
Overview
Type: Face to Face
Start Date: August 9th 2026
End Date: October 31st 2026
Website: https://avno.org/education/community-education/
Contact: kristiane@avno.org
Certified by:
Hosted by:
Why this course?
Interested in building sustainable communities?
Wanting to live and design regeneratively?
Longing for social skills to navigate conflict?
Education is one of the most powerful pathways to success, supporting you and your group in building a conscious community that fosters joy, resilience, and regeneration.
What is this certified education about?
You will learn to design a successful community or business by using the sustainability wheel as a guiding framework.
You will explore how to create positive change in your (dream) community across social, cultural, ecological, and economic dimensions – while simultaneously enriching your own life.
A life-changing course for those who want to live in an ecovillage or ecocommunity or work in a community-oriented green project/business based on authentic relationships, shared values and permaculture design.
What will you learn?
- Ability to engage actively in community life
- Skills to design community and green projects
- Knowledge to live in and build community
- Increased self-confidence, mindfulness, self-management, teamwork and leadership skills
- A network of like-minded friends from around the world
- An experience of living in an international community
- Better physical and mental health from nutritious meals, supportive environment and amazing nature around
The venue
The emerging ecovillage Avnø Oasis is a vibrant space of enlightenment, community, transformation and change-making. No one will leave from there untouched. The same counts for an EDE. No wonder, that the combination of an EDE and Avnø Oasis is a perfect match!
Avnø Højskole, one of the first projects of Avnø Oasis offers a global learning space in an inspiring environment. Avnø Oasis is in the process of establishing a co-housing community, a health sanctuary and other green socio-economic enterprises. We aim to turn it into one of the most inspiring green hot spots in the world.
The venue is rather big, with enough space for students to both have privacy and also get the sense of community. Besides the classrooms and the well-equipped auditorium, you find facilities like a gym hall, a fitness center, a library, a music room and even a sewing and a painting room. Avnø is situated near the sea in beautiful natural surroundings with a public nature center just a short walk away. At the site, a permaculture garden is being established and the forest is just next to the main building, offering outdoor ‘classroom’ options.
During your stay you will have rich opportunity to
- Experience the creation of a living community with all its challenges and opportunities. A learning experience that is not possible in an established community.
- Become involved in designing and implementing green projects.
- Meet people from all over the world, who seek a higher quality of life and want to contribute to a better world.
As a student, you may be involved in group decisions, daily-life chores, cultural activities and entrepreneurship. A process that challenges and stimulates your willpower and develops your ability to actively participate in any type of community.
We look forward to having you here, exploring and developing this 3-months-long EDE adventure with us!
If you can’t join the full EDE, it is possible to join selected parts. Contact us for more information.
How to run an EDE?
Several of our EDE graduates have carried on organising EDE programmes in their local areas, and you are warmly encouraged to do so after completing your course.
The recommended time frame of an EDE is four weeks, however this is not fixed and varies with each individual programme.
The material can be condensed into smaller workshops, spread out over a longer period, or distributed in blocks at different times and locations.