Think Global, Act Local
Hosted by Western Sydney University, RCE Greater Western Sydney (RCE-GWS) is endorsed by the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, with a focus on Education for Sustainable Development and the SDGs. Our partners, who include the region’s educational institutions, organisations, businesses, community groups and local government, work together on tackling our region’s sustainability challenges. We are 1 of 5 Australian RCEs and 1 of 165 RCEs globally recognised and have strong links with the Asia-Pacific.
Our RCE network has been established since late 2011 and since then we have had collectively coordinated a wide range of sustainability programs and initiatives such as school outreach like the Youth Eco Summit (opens in a new window), PowerFUL Youth Ambassadors (PDF, 8394.28 KB) (opens in a new window) and Schools for Sustainability, international mobility study tours programs, work integrated learning placements connecting Western students with community groups and local councils, community events and programs such as Pollinator Week, Love Food Hate Waste(opens in a new window), Wetlands for the West, KoalaFest, and Citzen Science Symposium, as well as research projects and partnerships such as the Cumberland Stepping Stones (PDF, 2714.71 KB) (opens in a new window), Our Place Our Voice (opens in a new window) and Dreaming on the Riverfarm (opens in a new window).
In 2018, Western Sydney hosted the 11th Asia-Pacific RCE Regional Meeting (opens in a new window) and international symposium: ‘Mainstreaming the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Education and Impact’. Opened by the Vice-Chancellor and attended by 91 local and international participants, the 3-day event focused on Education for Sustainable Development and implementing of the SDGs.
Our Vision
RCE-GWS has set out to establish a model of how the linked challenges of social, economic and environmental sustainability can be addressed through an integrated process of collaboration between the multiple partners. With a renewed focus on Education for Sustaibable Development and the SDGs, our key areas of impact (2019 - 2021) for the network are:
- Urban Heat and Climate Change (SDG 7, 11 and 13)
- Food Justice and Sustainable and Local Agriculture (SDG 2 and 12)
- Urban Biodiversity, Ripirian Health and River Swimmability (SDG 14 and 15)
RCE SDG Youth Challenge
Young people are bombarded with messages about their future and challenged to make positive change, yet are not often given the chance to constructively do so at a meaningful local level. The RCE SDG Youth Challenge (opens in a new window), ‘Youth for the Goals’, is an international youth-led project-based initiative that connects youth leaders working in their own communities to a larger global platform that includes mentoring support and peer validation.
The Challenge was developed and driven through the global Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE) network by the Asia Pacific youth leaders - Ms Brittany Hardiman, Western Sydney University (RCE Greater Western Sydney and Ms Emmy Yuniarti Rusadi, Universitas of Gadjah Mada (RCE Yogyakarta), Indonesia. The aim of the initiative was to engage and empower local youth leaders by giving them the opportunity to have a voice and implement their own place- based projects on issues that mattered to them. Each project was shaped by its youth leader and/or youth team to address the needs of their communities in line with the Challenge SDG theme. Using a peer–peer learning model, young people drove change from a grassroots level incorporating Education for Sustainable Development principles.
The Challenge engaged with just over 17,500 people, majority of which are youth, through face to face touchpoints (workshops, clean-up events, documentary screenings, volunteering, etc.) across 39 youth-led projects in 9 countries. Three of these projects were led by Western Sydney University: the Plastic Lid Project, Learning from Indigenous Environmental Champions in Vanuatu and Freedom in Education Packs for rural India.
The project was a finalist in the international 2019 Okayama ESD Awards and the national 2019 Green Gown Awards Australasia. It was recongised as a Flagship Initaitve in 2018 by the RCE Global Service Centre.
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