Our project aims to rehabilitate abandoned areas by involving local actors to take ownership of the area and create social links through innovative methods of non-formal education and citizen participation. We believe that giving a second life to these areas, by developing economic and/or cultural activities, contributes to upgrade our territory by directly involving the inhabitants. Within the partner local communities, there are many abandoned public spaces, especially in popular neighborhoods. Restoring life to these places in the communities helps to improve the well-being of the inhabitants, to feel integrated into their community and to create new opportunities for the development of the territory. Our project is focused on the development of social enterprises that aim to combine economic efficiency and social impact in order to better exploit abandoned public spaces. In order to develop concrete methods for the involvement and effective engagement of citizens in the development of their community, we wish to develop this strategic partnership project involving 4 European partners from France, Romania, Italy and Greece. We will involve 5 participants per partner country, educators/facilitators and territorial agents from the local communities concerned who will be trained to actively contribute. They will mentor 40 adults beneficiaries, including some with fewer opportunities, in their training and in the setting up of local initiatives for entrepreneurship, by experimenting with the pedagogical tools created. Our objectives are to: - Enable adult educators and territorial staff from various European countries to exchange experiences and best practices, and to develop skills on how to mobilize the citizens of their communities in a process of positive change of the territory. - Develop innovative educational methods that encourage commitment to active citizenship and social entrepreneurship for the benefit of local communities by focusing on an efficient development of abandoned public spaces. - Raise awareness and mobilize local authorities and policy makers to increase their interaction with citizens and to involve them more in a participatory development process for the benefit of the community. - Elaborate innovative initiatives for the management, development and exploitation of abandoned public spaces, taken by partners and local actors at large-scale, as good practices for local, sustainable, participatory and inclusive development. To meet these objectives we wish to implement the following activities: 1- A kick-off meeting in France to determine the roles, modalities and methods of implementation of the project. 2- Preparation and launch of a research survey aimed at detecting abandoned public spaces and proposals from local citizens for the development and exploitation of these spaces in the communities of the partner countries. 3- Training in Romania for 20 adults educators/facilitators and/or territorial agents to acquire technical and pedagogical skills to support a group of citizens for the development of certain abandoned areas. 4- Creation of interactive E-tutorials videos to support and develop stakeholder inspiration when planning and developing public spaces. 5- Creation of a technical & pedagogical guide, complementary to the videos, on methods to involve citizens in the organization and management of abandoned public spaces. 6- Creation of interactive online trainings to support adults who want to invest as social entrepreneurs in the development and sustainable use of abandoned public spaces. 7- Training in Italy for the same 20 participants to become E-tutors to accompany citizens wishing to invest in the sustainable exploitation of abandoned public spaces as social entrepreneurs. 8- Mid-term evaluation meeting in Italy which will allow the partners to present the results obtained so far according to the set timetable and to adjust the monitoring and implementation methods if necessary. 9- Taking local initiatives: development of abandoned areas in close cooperation with local authorities. 10- Creation of a map that locates and gives a visual overview of the public spaces restored and the initiatives implemented by the beneficiaries of this project. 11- Creation of a resource book that presents the process, results and impacts of public spaces that will have been developed. 12- Dissemination event to be organized by each partner at the local level to promote areas restored by the beneficiaries and to disseminate the results of the project. 13- Evaluation meeting in Greece, which will end with a cooperation plan designed between partners to ensure the sustainability of the project.
Our objectives were: - To enable a group of adult educators and local government officials from 4 European countries to exchange experiences and good practice, and to develop skills on how to engage citizens in their communities in a process of positive territorial change. - To develop innovative educational methods that encourage active citizenship and social entrepreneurship for the benefit of local communities, focusing on the methodical and effective development of abandoned public spaces and involving local authorities in partner communities. - To mobilize the actors of the partner communities for a local and sustainable development by using the abandoned places as a tool for rehabilitation favorable to social link. - To raise awareness to local authorities and political decision-makers to increase their interaction with citizens and to involve them more in a participatory development process. - To bring out innovative initiatives of management, development and exploitation of abandoned public spaces that will be taken by the partners on a large scale as good practices of local, participatory and inclusive development.
The idea for the project stems from an initiative we set up by organizing theater and laughter workshops in public spaces in three neighborhoods of Saint-Etienne. The aim was to promote the well-being of the citizens of these neighborhoods. These workshops aroused the interest of the target audience and contributed to the improvement of their well-being and their ability to express themselves. Through this initiative we were also able to revive abandoned public places. In the local partner communities, there were several unused and abandoned public spaces. On the other hand, the inhabitants of these neighborhoods wanted to contribute to social change and to the development of public spaces in their community. Our project focused on the development of social enterprises to combine economic efficiency and social impact to better exploit abandoned public spaces. We wanted to respond to the need to give a second life to wastelands by developing economic and/or cultural activity to enhance our territory by directly involving the inhabitants, while developing concrete methods to effectively engage them in favor of their territory.