THE SCHOOL OF BEING MANIFESTO & FEASIBILITY STUDY
The Institution & Founding
of The School of Being
A living institution for a worried and divided society
We begin
The School of Being is a creative and community-based social, educational, and voluntary centre located in the Barcelona province, offering non-clinical support to individuals recovering from trauma, burnout, psychological distress, or social disconnection. Designed as a bridge between generations, the School brings together younger people struggling with stress, uncertainty and a loss of meaning, and elder populations seeking renewed purpose and connection. Through shared creative activities, skill-building, and mutual support, participants regain dignity, agency and belonging.
We use arts, crafts, language learning, and digital tools like AI to unlock creativity, build confidence, and re-engage participants with community life. The focus is not on diagnosis or treatment, but on participation, expression, and contribution — especially for those who feel left out by traditional systems. The School of Being offers a replicable, low-barrier model of recovery and reintegration that blends creativity, community, and contemporary tools to support healing, hope, and social cohesion.
A creative, social, and rehabilitative centre for anyone affected by trauma, burnout, or social marginalisation. It integrates artistic practice, digital empowerment, and intergenerational connection to restore belonging, autonomy, and shared purpose.
A Rehearsal for Regeneration
Reaching People Who Don’t Know They’re in Pain To make the School of Being more accessible and healing for those who want to help and those who are unaware or afraid of their own emotional wounds. Together we will use warm, human language instead of clinical or diagnostic terms. We will focus on invitation, curiosity, creativity, and contribution, not correction. We will build trust gradually through soft-entry activities and story-telling, We will emphasise energy, belonging, and shared humanity, rather than “mental health” stigma. We will ensure staff and volunteers are trained to hold space for deeper realisations that may emerge naturally through creative work or connection.
We gather not just to survive collapse,
but to prototype its opposite:
interdependence, creativity, courage, and care.
The Fàbrica Jover, Serra i Cia Restored
We arrive to a place forgotten by industry, but still rescuable – the Fàbrica Jover, Serra i Cia i Antiga Fàbrica de les Capses, a once busy and flourishing knitwear factory complex in Canet de Mar, Barcelona Province. Worthy of restoration and repurpose, and a gem of historical local commerce and provision
This is the proposed site for our school, ideal in every way, and which could organically become a living, vibrant growing campus serving and representing the community and beyond.
A creative village of studios, gardens, workshops, kitchens, libraries, archives, housing, and assembly halls.
A space not just to build skills, but to rebuild belonging.
A Constellation of Collaborators
Our doors open wide across the generations:
- Youngsters, teens, and young adults of Gen Alpha and Z, seeking meaning and existence beyond the ‘algorithms’, distractions and false promises of ‘social media’.
- Millennials and Gen Xers rethinking purpose, parenting, position and place.
- Baby Boomers and beyond, reclaiming stewardship, imagination, and kinship.
Our community includes:
- Mothers, Fathers and Families
- Professors and Educators
- Authors and Social Theorists
- Architects, Planners, and Placemakers
- Artists, Craftspeople, and Media Designers
- Ethical Publishers and Cultural Institutions
- Local Residents, Neighbours, and Elders
All engaged in co-creating an evolved and restored human future.
Learning as a Life Skill
The School of Being is a place of creative rehabilitation and meaningful reconnection. It uses the regenerating and healing power of artistic expression, skill-building, group and self therapy, and peer support to help one another to rediscover our place in the modern world.
There are only three rules – leave your demons at the gate – be yourself – and show gratitude to all.
Through programs in arts and crafts, language learning, hands-on community training (like basic first aid and public contribution skills), participants are gently encouraged to engage with life and the community – while offering something valuable individually and collaboratively.
There are workshops, tools, projects, conversations, archives, rituals, dwellings, gardens, and caregiving.
We learn by:
- Sharing skills across generations and disciplines
- Designing collaborative projects – social, spatial, cultural, ecological
- Hosting forums and think tanks on humanity’s most urgent questions
- Building temporary and long-term structures: for art, housing, ritual, and remembrance
- Engaging the local and global community as both audience and participant
A Cultural & Emotional Noah’s Ark
We are not preparing for the future. We are prototyping it.
The School of Being is an ark for ideas, techniques, and values worth carrying forward – across storms of uncertainty. It is not a utopian, nostalgic project, it’s a very relevant prototype for humane social restructuring .
This is an invitation – to rethink emotional upheaval as perspective, aging as relevance, youth as vision, and crisis as opportunity. To stop consuming culture and begin co-creating it.
It is a place where people become real citizens again.
Where the old teach the young how to survive over time.
And the young remind their elders of the joys of living now.
We Invite:
- Institutional collaborators such as Barcelona Cultura, Agenda 21 Cultura, CCCB, La Virreina, Disseny Hub, Centres Cívics, Fàbriques de Creació, and educational institutions across disciplines
- Municipal support from local councils, urban regeneration bodies, and European cultural programs
- Individual patrons, thinkers, makers, and citizens—who still believe that another way of living, understanding, and caring is not only possible, but necessary
Our Pledge
We will be locally grounded and globally connected
We will honour condition, circumstance, status, and age without stereotyping, and empower young and elder people without dismissal.
We will work slowly, kindly, deeply, and together
We will reclaim time, space, and purpose – before it is too late
“In times of collapse, it is not the powerful who lead renewal. It is those who remember how to care, to craft, and to communicate.”
Grant Friendly Feasibility Pitch
Project title options:
The School of Being
A Living Campus for Intergenerational Learning and Creative Resilience
Location Proposal:
Fàbrica Jover, Serra i Cia i Antiga Fàbrica de les Capses complex, Canet de Mar (Barcelona Province)
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A defining feature of the School of Being is its commitment to creative and community-based social, educational, and voluntary social cohesion. We recognise that young people today face increasing levels of anxiety, uncertainty, and disconnection, often lacking real-life mentorship or emotional grounding. At the same time, elder generations frequently report loneliness, invisibility, or loss of social relevance, despite carrying deep experience and resilience.
The School of Being creates intentional spaces where these generations can meet, learn, and heal together, using creative practices and technological tools that allow for mutual discovery and value exchange.
2. FEASIBLE AND COLLABORATIVE PROGRAMMES AND WORKSHOPS
Key Intergenerational Programmes: Elder-Led Story Circles – life experiences passed on through oral history, memoir, and AI-assisted storytelling
Creative Tech Pairs – youth assist elders in using AI to write, paint, organise life, or document legacy; elders provide life perspective and narrative grounding Shared Skills Projects – traditional crafts meet digital design; caregiving meets coding; old-world values meet new-world tools
Mentorship Exchanges – structured encounters where each generation offers what the other lacks: hope, stability, vision, or courage
Expected Outcomes – reduction in loneliness and helplessness among older adults
Increase in purpose, optimism, and interpersonal skills among younger participants
Emotional resilience built through cross-generational support
New community narratives forged through shared creative work
Replicable intergenerational models for other municipalities
We seek to launch a pilot phase rooted in the reactivation of the Fàbrica Jover, Serra i Cia i Antiga Fàbrica de les Capses complex in Canet de Mar, transforming the site into a public-facing hub for workshops, cultural events, micro-housing, studios, archives, and participatory think tanks.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
- Create a working model for intergenerational social sustainability, psychological wellbeing, and cooperative living within a psychologically resilient creative community.
- Provide a structured curriculum that promotes critical thinking, fosters curiosity, and accommodates complimentary aspects of existing educational standards – social psychology, human physiology, and mental and physical wellbeing.
- Design and deliver participatory, cross-disciplinary cultural programming and social engagement.
- Prototype sustainable models of housing, further education, and local economies.
- Provide cultural programming and exhibition space for community engagement while ‘up-cycling’ an abandoned factory site into a civic commons and centre for creative practice, education, and local public interest focused community programming.
- Serve as a training ground for crisis preparedness, resilience and social reinvention as apprpriate.
- Cultivate partnerships across civic, academic, and artistic institutions
- Re-establish the role of mature adults and ‘elders’ as active cultural contributors, and community anchors.
SITE ASSESSMENT
Proposed Location:
Fàbrica Jover, Serra i Cia i Antiga Fàbrica de les Capses complex, Canet de Mar (HHVJ+3C5)
Assets:
- Large, architecturally significant structure
- Proximity to Barcelona’s cultural infrastructure and transport links
- Surrounded by natural and residential areas
- Community familiarity and heritage value
Feasibility:
- Building is structurally viable for adaptive reuse
- Suitable for modular transformation into galleries, studios, kitchens, housing
- Possibility of solar retrofitting, gardens, and public outdoor programming
- Eligible for European cultural heritage and urban regeneration funding
PROGRAMMING FRAMEWORK
Permanent Core Activities:
- Creative and vocational workshops led by and for elders and youth
- Intergenerational mentorship programs
- Public exhibitions and performances
- Skill-sharing projects in food, construction, design, media, ecology
- Forums and seminars on social regeneration, ethics, technology, and aging
- Small-scale publishing, archiving, and digital storytelling initiatives
Rotational & Seasonal Programming:
- Residency cycles for local and international creatives
- Educational collaborations with universities and schools
- Festivals and community markets
- Mobile outreach projects in surrounding municipalities
GOVERNANCE & ORGANIZATION
Governance Model:
- Community-led cooperative with rotating advisory board
- Inclusive council representing elders, youth, academics, artists, and locals
- Horizontal decision-making with appointed coordinators for logistics and programs
Legal/Institutional Form:
- Non-profit cultural association, ideally a foundation status to cater for broader funding eligibility.
- Eligible for Agenda 21, EU Creative Europe, and Barcelona Cultura frameworks
Key Roles:
- Executive director (vision + strategic partnerships)
- Community engagement coordinator
- Artistic and program director
- Site manager and restoration liaison
- Academic/cultural research coordinator
PARTNERSHIPS & STAKEHOLDER NETWORK
Institutional Partners (Targeted):
- Barcelona Cultura
- CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona)
- Agenda 21 for Culture
- La Virreina Centre de la Imatge
- Disseny Hub Barcelona
- Fàbriques de Creació
- Centre d’Art Santa Mònica
- Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera
Academic & Cultural Collaborators:
- Universitat de Barcelona (Sociology, Urbanism, Fine Arts)
- EINA, ELISAVA, IED
- Escola Massana
- Escola d’Art i Superior de Disseny de Vic
- European cultural networks (ENCC, Tandem Europe)
Community & Local Engagement:
- Canet de Mar residents and municipal council
- Senior centres and youth collectives
- Local artists and historical societies
Funding Model
Phase 1: Seed Funding & Feasibility (Year 1)
- Local municipal support
- Cultural seed funds (e.g. Institut Ramon Llull, Barcelona Activa)
- Private philanthropy and elder-led investment groups
Phase 2: Restoration + Program Launch (Years 2–3)
- European urban regeneration and heritage funds
- Agenda 21 and UNESCO Culture 2030 support
- Creative Europe co-financing
- Crowdfunding, co-op shares, and hybrid social investment schemes
Phase 3: Sustainability (Year 4+)
- Resident and visiting program fees
- Commissions and publishing revenue
- EU resilience initiatives, public-private co-ventures
- Educational partnerships and creative grants
Impact & Legacy
Short-Term:
- Reactivation of a dormant space
- Revival of community life and creative economy in Canet de Mar
- A prototype for similar initiatives across Catalonia and Europe
Long-Term:
- New frameworks for aging and intergenerational collaboration
- Resilient community infrastructure for times of systemic instability
- A publicly visible, culturally significant think-lab and living model of post-industrial reuse and ethical coexistence
Grant Application Format (with Technological Integration)
Project Title: Escola de Ser / School of Being
Legal Form: [To be confirmed]
Location: Barcelona Province
Executive Summary
The School of Being is an inclusive and forward-thinking recovery centre for adults impacted by trauma, psychological distress, burnout, or social exclusion. We combine creative expression, community connection, and digital empowerment — including therapeutic and practical uses of AI tools — to support autonomy, confidence, and social reintegration.
Program Highlights
- Creative Recovery
- Arts & crafts workshops
- Guided journaling and storytelling
- AI-assisted poetry, writing, visual art
- Digital Confidence & Technology
- AI tools for personal organization and time management
- Website building and digital portfolios
- Trauma-informed digital literacy
- Social & Linguistic Integration
- Language exchange (Catalan, Spanish, English)
- Communication and public expression skills
- Intercultural dialogue circles
- Community Reconnection
- Civic responsibility training (CPR, first aid)
- Volunteering and public contribution
- Community events and digital showcases
Target Groups
- Adults with trauma-related psychological challenges
- Burned-out professionals (teachers, carers, healthcare workers)
- Migrants and culturally diverse communities in Barcelona
- Those excluded from digital or social participation
Goals
- Facilitate emotional healing through arts and storytelling
- Build confidence with AI tools for mental clarity and planning
- Promote active, supported social reintegration
- Create a replicable model of non-clinical recovery
Funding Request Seeking €800.000 to support:
- Facilitators, artists, and digital mentors
- Tools, supplies, licenses
- Space and accessibility upgrades
- Online modules and outreach
- Evaluation and sustainability planning
Alignment with Regional/EU Initiatives
- Pla Integral de Salut Mental i Addiccions de Catalunya
- Pla Estratègic de Cultura de Catalunya 2021–2030
- EU New European Bauhaus
- Digital Europe Programme
- Ajuntament de Barcelona third-sector innovation initiatives
Impact & Evaluation
- Creative and digital skill development
- Tangible self-expression and trauma processing
- Reduced isolation, improved social function
- Open-source replication potential
III. Extracted Principles
- Dignity through doing, not diagnosing
- Peer-based recovery, not professional gatekeeping
- Healing as an ongoing, creative process
- AI as a bridge — not a replacement — for human expression
- A return to community through contribution, not correction
IV. Tone and Language
- Warm, human, invitational
- Directly addresses those in crisis or transition
- Multilingual, multicultural, inclusive
- De-medicalised, empowering, generative
V. WordPress Web Copy (Draft)
About Page:
The School of Being is a place to recover, create, and reconnect — with your self, your community, and the world. We support adults navigating trauma, burnout, or isolation through a gentle program of arts, language, digital empowerment, and mutual support.
Programs Page:
- Arts & Crafts for emotional regulation and expression
- Journaling, storytelling, and AI-assisted creativity
- Digital tools for personal planning and portfolio building
- Language and communication groups
- Civic engagement and public contribution training
Get Involved Page:
- Join as a participant
- Volunteer as a peer or mentor
- Support the project as a partner or donor
AI Tools for Recovery (Future Section):
Examples of how AI is used:
- Daily journaling prompts for mental clarity
- AI-generated images to support narrative therapy
- Personalized planners for managing recovery goals
- Creative writing support for memory and confidence building
Psychosocial Learning & Healing
Psychosocial learning and healing refers to the process of supporting individuals’ well-being by addressing both their psychological and social needs, particularly in the context of challenging or traumatic experiences. It involves fostering resilience, promoting positive coping mechanisms, and facilitating recovery from adversity. This approach recognizes that psychological and social factors are interconnected and influence overall health and functioning.
Key aspects of psychosocial learning and healing include:
- Psychosocial Support (PSS):
This involves providing individuals with the emotional, social, and practical support they need to cope with difficult situations and build resilience. - Holistic Approach:
PSS recognizes that individuals are complex beings with interconnected psychological, social, and physical needs. - Promoting Resilience:
PSS aims to help individuals and communities develop the capacity to bounce back from adversity and adapt to challenging circumstances. - Focus on Social Context:
PSS acknowledges the importance of social relationships, cultural factors, and community support in the healing process. - Various Interventions:
PSS can be delivered through various methods, including individual therapy, group activities, community-based programs, and educational initiatives. - Examples of PSS Activities:
Arts and crafts, drama, storytelling, sports, games, music, and awareness campaigns can all be used as part of PSS. - Emphasis on Healing:
PSS recognizes that healing is a process that involves both psychological and social dimensions, and it aims to help individuals move towards wholeness and well-being.
In essence, psychosocial learning and healing emphasizes the interconnectedness of psychological and social factors in promoting well-being and resilience, particularly in the face of adversity.
Crisis Skills
Crisis skills are techniques used to navigate difficult situations, especially those involving intense emotions or high stress. These skills help individuals cope with challenging moments, tolerate pain, and manage reactions effectively without making the situation worse. They are crucial for maintaining well-being during crises and preventing further escalation.
Key Crisis Skills:
- STOP: This skill involves pausing before reacting, taking a step back, observing the situation, and then proceeding mindfully.
- Distress Tolerance: These skills help individuals cope with painful emotions and situations when immediate solutions are not available.
- Self-Soothe: This involves engaging in activities that bring comfort and pleasure, utilizing the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch).
- IMPROVE the Moment: This skill focuses on making the most of the current situation, even if it’s challenging.
- Communication: Effectively conveying thoughts and feelings, and actively listening to others.
- Adaptability: Adjusting to changing circumstances and finding creative solutions.
- Emotional Intelligence: Understanding and managing one’s own emotions and recognizing the emotions of others.
- Crisis Response Planning: Developing strategies to anticipate and address potential crises.
- Collaboration: Working with others to find solutions and support.
- Decision-Making: Evaluating options and making choices that align with goals and values.
Why are crisis skills important?
- Coping with Painful Emotions:Crisis skills help individuals tolerate painful emotions without making the situation worse.
- Preventing Escalation:They prevent impulsive reactions that can worsen the crisis.
- Promoting Well-being:Crisis survival skills help maintain overall well-being during difficult times.
- Effective Problem Solving:They enable individuals to approach challenges with a clearer mind and make better decisions.
- Building Resilience:Practicing crisis skills helps individuals become more resilient in the face of future challenges.