When local authority and schools work hand in hand
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31 August 2022While the municipality of Pella (EL) was about to design and implement the small scale actions of the project: UrbSecurity (planning safer cities) from the URBACTIII program, the technicians figured out that it became clear was a need to shift the social behavior and raise public awareness towards the wise use of public spaces and the quality of the citizens and pedestrians everyday life.
Taking into account our previous experience in the context of an Erasmus + project which was related to the process of integrating the youth to the change of narratives about discrimination we reached the conclusion that we were ready to go a step further.
The participation of the school community in this European project is considered very crucial since it is a way to prepare the next generation and at the same time approach the whole community, like teachers, parents, relatives etc. In this way the students would have the chance to see their own city from a different perspective, become more responsible and suggest possible solutions in order to create a more sustainable city. The youth can affect the adults by setting the example and shift the citizens’, shop owners’ and public authority’s social behavior.
The cooperation between the municipality and the local schools had a great result since the teachers worked as leaders of their school team. Apart from raising public awareness the students had the chance to improve their life skills such as working in teams, using contemporary technology and learn many foreign languages during the preparation of their presentations with innovative ideas.
Approaching the end of our project we organized a dedicated day in order to give the opportunity to the schools which participated in our project to present their action to the public. In this way they would share their experience and communicate it to the whole city.
So on Friday 6th May 2022 we held an event in the park of St. George where the students of 8 schools from secondary education of our city presented the actions they were inspired and implemented, coordinated by some of their teachers.
The students’ creations included: transactional opinion map, videos which pinpoint places which need improvement, infographics, animations, paintings, interviews, illustrated stories and articles. The objective of these creations was to raise public awareness and gain the engagement of the local authorities and all stakeholders in an attempt of self – assessment and improvement of the quality in the citizens’ everyday life.
As a result, we have come closer to the local citizens, building a relationship of trust and cooperation, so we would definitely suggest other European cities can follow the example, approaching issues that demand participative methods and aim at the citizens’ integration.
Through this approach we came once again to the realization that students as the next generation of citizens are ready and willing to set the example and create positive changes.
Anastasia Cherkeletzi
Submitted by Patricia Moital on