CASE STUDY
Pop-Up Community projects in 6 Neighborhoods of Thessaloniki
Mapping the needs of 6 neighborhoods in Thessaloniki through an afternoon in the yard of the neighborhood’s public school in order for the residents to become “Ambassadors of their neighborhood”.
What was this?
In collaboration with Creativity Platform, we designed and implemented a well thought out interactive project that focuses on the needs of the neighborhood, using the physical space of public schools in a different way.
The project titled "An afternoon at your neighborhoods school." was implemented from June 19th till July 19th and had two phases. Mapping and promoting the main activity in the neighborhood and, of course, implementing the project in each school.
⭕ The mapping of the neighborhood was done, upon agreement with the coordinators, in the recorded area around each school, which essentially informally sets the boundaries of the neighborhood. We pinpointed and recorded the shops/organisations related to the project, which could in the future work in support of the program.
For the promotion, 100 colorful invitations were distributed in envelopes with our organisation's seal, but also the seal of the program "Open Schools in the Neighborhood", for promotional purposes.
⭕ Regarding the implementation of the project, we designed a "Community Pop-Up", i.e. a smart interactive game in the yard of each school, aiming to recognize residents' needs, but also the possibilities that each neighborhood offers. Through "Community Pop-Up" we managed to find answers to how the school yard space can be utilized for the benefit of the neighborhood.
The participating schools were:
77th Primary School of Thessaloniki
11th Primary School of Thessaloniki
55th Primary School of Thessaloniki
Intercultural School of Thessaloniki
67th Primary School of Thessaloniki
64th Primary School of Thessaloniki
500 participants
30 hours
6 schools
Methodology
The project was conducted as an "open public forum", utilizing the methods of participatory planning, and inviting active citizens of the school's wider neighborhood and future users of the yard (residents, local professionals, parents). The aim of the project was to collect data on the needs of the residents around the 6 primary schools, so that the "Open School" concept could work, offering alternative activities to children, parents and residents, and promoting collective actions by the residents of the area themselves.
We used tools like the Community Canvas framework to activate the 6 neighborhoods of Thessaloniki and capture the needs of the residents in the different areas. We designed an interactive game from 5 stations, capturing different information about the demographics of the citizens, as well as the needs of the neighborhood. Therefore, the result of the program supported the next steps for a larger project of the "Open Neighborhood Schools" program.
