On the 4th and 5th of June, all the Speak Up partners had the pleasure to be invited to Boulogne-sur-Mer in France for our second partner meeting. We were welcomed by Yacine Diallo Gaujot and her colleagues from Bellidée. This is a non-profit organization that manages three community centers, a childcare service and community café.
How do French communicty centers operate?
The group visited three different Neighborhood Houses in order to explain how French community centers operate within neighborhoods. It was a very inspiring visit because we got to see how community centers provide services that improve the daily life of all people in the neighborhood, from toddlers to the elderly people. This is a system that is rather unique in Europe and provided the group with interesting insights on how to improve social cohesion in communities. If you want to read more on this topic, you can read this article. Moreover, local speakers informed us about democracy in community centers and how inhabitants participation has a vital role in health projects and policy in France.
What activities do partners undertake?
The second partner meeting went on were the kick-off meeting in Groningen in November stopped. The kick-off was about getting to know each other and what it entails to be partner in a European project. However, this second meeting had a program with presentations on the activities that all partners have been doing the past 6 months. For instance, Skive introduced the group to their Climate Village concept, which focuses on addressing the green transition in a community setting. The City of Malmö also puts on emphasis on advancing their commitment to citizen engagement in light of the green transition. They do so by testing and developing various dialogue processes that enables people to participate in the climate transition, including a climate deliberation (Klimatrådslag). Next that, both Mechelen and the Province of Drenthe organized Citizens’ Assemblies, while Groningen intends to organize one. The Province of Drenthe held a citizens’ assembly on housing with 150 selected citizens representing their population, while Mechelen held a citizens’ assembly to experiment with ‘’the voice of nature’’ in order to create more sustainable guidelines in urban planning.
Moreover, partners gave more insight into the activities they are planning to undertake during the upcoming three years. Adding to this, all the partners have mapped their activities in an interactive workshop, hence creating a nice overview of all the activities that are part of the project. By doing so, all partners generated a clearer image of each other's work, thus creating a fertile breeding ground for more inspiration and international collaborations!
Project management presentations
During the two days a communication workshop was held by Otto Thors, in which he pointed how to best disseminate Speak Up's results to internal and external stakeholders. Femke Boersma, project consultant from the Joint Secretariat of the North Sea Region programme gave a presentation on how best to do the progress and finance reporting for the Speak Up project.
Overall, it was a very inspiring meeting with a wonderful organization by Bellidée. The project will now move into the phase were partners are able to find each other and know how they can contribute to one another's activities. We are keen to see how this will play out in the upcoming months!
