The project COmmunity ENgagement for Social Inclusion (COMENSI) aims to understand and face the scarce appeal of participatory processes for the most disadvantaged members of the adult population, living in disadvantaged urban areas and develop appropriate strategies & tools to counteract such issue. The project idea comes from a self-financed initiative developed by the applicant (Bond Of Union) in the district of Palermo Capo-Monte di Pietà. Started in January 2016 and still ongoing, the initiative foresees to map this neighbourhood and to collect citizens’ needs and requests in order to better define specific community engagement actions. The specific objectives of COMENSI are: - to build and test community engagement online and offline tools targeted at marginalised adults in 5 EU urban contexts; - to develop a set of innovative and transferable tools of community engagement for the professionals and other relevant stakeholders working in deprived neighbourhoods; - to explore and set up a space where disadvantaged adults can formulate their ideas about the management and regeneration of their neighbourhoods; - to improve pro-active participation of adults in disadvantaged EU urban contexts; - to improve neighbourhood management competences of adults in disadvantaged EU urban contexts; - to match and facilitate the marginalised adults expression and self diagnosis of they territory needs with their active participation in local renewal proposals and forms of community engagement; - to foster the dissemination and replication of the developed COMENSI strategy for adult participation targeting the long-term objective of building a network of adherent organisations The project is designed for two main target groups: - Disadvantaged adults (age 18-59) living in deprived neighbourhoods within the partner cities (at least 10 participants from each local context); - Adult education providers working in disadvantaged urban contexts from private and public sector (at least 5 professionals for each local context) The project COMENSI will be carried through three parallel strands of activities. First, creating a network of practitioners, researchers and civic servants holding solid experience and practical engagement in local communities to frame the challenge and share concrete experience and available resources that will be collected in a Toolkit (IO1); second, to assemble a set of digital tools in the frame of a Neighbourhood platform explicitly designed for generic and low skilled users aimed at a participatory assessment of the needs, identities and proposals of territory by its own target groups (IO2); third, to integrate the use of digital resources and social media with the definition of physical spaces acting as neighbourhood hubs (IO3). The methodology applied in the project is based on the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to facilitate the coordination of the management among the partners. All the outputs will be shared with the relevant local authorities and third sector organisations of the cities involved and will be disseminated to the adult education providers in different European countries (by using different platforms and networks such as EPALE). The expected results involve building social cohesion within 50 disadvantaged adults from 5 selected neighbourhoods while improving their neighbourhood management skills (including social, civic, digital and cultural abilities). This will be achieved by reinforcing the role of this population as resident of a specific urban area and by promoting their participation and engagement in the local communities during the project implementation. The desired impact of COMENSI at local level is mainly expected in disadvantaged neighbourhoods of partner cities, as it aims to activate new ways of interaction based on participatory methodologies between three complementary local actors: disadvantaged adult citizens – third sector organizations – public authorities. The project COMENSI has a strong international dimension as the partners will refer to the most innovative initiatives taking place in different European urban contexts and build connections with already existing networks of citizens initiatives and participatory actions.
The project COMENSI - Community Engagement for Social Inclusion - has foreseen the development of strategies and actions of community engagement in five neighbourhoods of Palermo, Berlin, Ljubljana, Lisbon and London. The project’s main objective has been the promotion of participative processes through the realisation of non formal educational activities among a target of 44 adults at risk of social exclusion and the enhance of the professional competences for 22 adult education professionals through the development of innovative learning materials and digital tools. The partnership of the project, five educational organisations with experience in participative processes and social inclusion, started the activities with the development of a toolkit on community engagement, including: - the working methodology; - a collection of methods, techniques and participative tools; - the description of the five local contexts in which the project activities have taken place. This educational resource has been tested during the realisation of a learning mobility to train the adult education professionals involved in the following project activities. After the realisation of this first output the partners have been involved in the development of a digital educational resource, the community atlas, to support the participative processes activated in the five selected neighbourhoods. The atlases allowed a spatial and a chronological visualisation of the neighbourhoods and a collection of cards representing elements of the neighbourhoods (as meeting places, stories, memories, initiatives and proposals) selected with the adults of the neighbourhoods and local stakeholders. The project allowed also the partner organisations to test the use of neighbourhood hubs, community spaces to promote the active participation of the residents. These experiences have been collected in the neighbourhood hub handbook, which includes a definition of the community spaces, examples of european experiences and indications on how to establish such spaces. The handbook also tells about the experience realised by the partners during the project implementation, and includes useful tips to promote the participation of the target of adults at risk of social exclusion (including also guidelines for communication) and stories collected during the realisation of the local activities. The project main result has been the realisation of five laboratories and activities of community engagement with 44 adults at risk of social exclusion as collections of proposals to make the neighbourhood better, informal meetings with the residents and community events. In term of results COMENSI has also promoted an innovative participatory methodology for adults at risk of social exclusion and developed new working tools as the toolkit on community engagement, the neighbourhood hub handbook and the community atlases at disposal of adults education professionals and local administrators at local, national and european level.