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The second local path

Co-design of the local action plans through citizens consultations and participatory methodologies

Compare the challenges to find shared solutions and common resources

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World Café as a participatory methodology to collect the inputs for co-designing the local action plans

Co-designz the local strategies through the World Café methodology part 1

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Co-design the local strategies through the World Café methodology part 2

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table 1

table 1

How can we improve dialogue and exchange among us (SPUR partners) to share our good practices and experiences on participatory process?

table 2

table 2

What factors and dynamics can be leverage factors, incentives to mobilise citizens on the theme of revitalization and social cohesion?

table 3

table 3

How to activate the necessary resources for participatory processes and social recovery (stakeholders, funding, etc.)?

Practical exercise during the event in Milan

The partners have been asked to participate in a World Café session in 3 rounds, contributing to the discussion around 3 tables, facilitated by ALDA.

A glance at the results

A glance at the results

Starting from the needs assessment, each partner organised with its local community a co-design path in order to collectively draft the action plans for the revitalisation of the neighborhoods and urban areas where the project SPUR is implemented. Each one adopted the participatory methodologies and approaches that were the most fit to the context: mostly variants of the World Café methodology, but also Open Space Technology, Focus groups and so on.

A glance at the results

A total number of
380 people
took part in the co-design initiatives
From differentbackgroundandsocial conditions
Of different ages, but mostly people aged
over 60 years
marking adifficultyin reaching the youth at this stage
Of different ages, but mostly people aged
over 60 years
marking adifficultyin reaching the youth at this stage
210
participants were
210
participants werewomenwhile
159
wheremen
From
8 different countries

A glance at the results

Pilot actions have been planned by identifying a set of activities to strengthen the social cohesion and support the social “rehab” of the most vulnerable categories (i.e. social initiatives, cultural events, etc.), by identifying the resources that can be mobilised (municipality spaces, volunteers‘ action, crowdfunding, etc.) and that are needed for the implementation of the actions.

ALDA as the Lead Partner has provided an Action Plan as well as a guide for the brainstorming to guide the partners in the planning phase and the designing phase of local actions.

The brainstorming has been supported by a Miro shared board, created by ALDA as a supporting material for partners. This has been made available and accessible to the whole consortium so to favour the exchange and inspiration for the local processes.

On the basis of the feedback collected during the consultative phase, the consortium has redacted a local action plan for each country involved in the project. It’s time to see how the co-design turned into concrete actions!

IMPLEMENTED BY

Key elements

  • Clarify very well the goal, in order to best plan it and have the right people around the table
  • Create a warm atmosphere: a nice, bright location, plants, coffee (of course!) and biscuits on the tables, maybe some lounge music, will do the job!
  • Raise questions that matter! Take the chance to dig into the topic and open different possible perspectives participants can explore the issue from.
  • Encourage the contribution of everybody: there are no wrong answers. Ensure to have appropriate café leaders, who ensure everybody can talk and create a smooth atmosphere.
  • Connect the diverse perspectives. The cross – pollination is key to see the topic from new points of view that can help the overall vision and solution. A proper debriefing in plenary has to happen after the rounds in the tables, so as to connect the various topics and go back to a collective vision.

An overview on World Café

The International Event in Milan was also the opportunity for the SPUR partners to strengthen their expertise on participatory methodologies and approaches, that would have been helpful for the next step of the project, namely the engagement of local communities in the action plans co-design.
Thus, a collective training was held regarding the World Café methodology.
Other methodologies have also been addressed through the use of digital tools and materials from the Council of Europe.

How the World Café works

  1. Place 3+ tables in the room, with 8-10 chairs for each table. Each table is coordinated by a cafè leader, whose role is to introduce the topic of the table and moderate the discussion. The cafè leader remains at the table for the whole duration of the exercise, takes notes of the inputs given by the participants and makes sure everybody has the time to talk;
  2. Participants seat around each table (8-10 per table) and start the discussion about the topic of that table;
  3. Participants have 10 minutes (time can change based on the n. of people and tables). When time is up, each person stands up and choose to move to another table, for 10 more minutes;
  4. After 10 more minutes participants move again to another table and the respective topic, and so on until all the participants complete the tour of the 4 tables (4 rounds, in this case).

The International event in Milan

In order to compare all the information collected, and to share ideas and experiences, the SPUR consortium partners met in Milan at the end of October 2024 for the Second International Event of the project.

Here they discussed the common challenges that the needs analysis in the diverse contexts had shown. It was also the opportunity to set the ground for the next steps: the co-design of the local action plans, where participants from the local communities have been asked to define together a plan of actions to revitalise their neighborhoods.

During the 2 days in Milan, participatory principles and methodologies have been shared among the consortium through both training and practical exercises, and good practices have been heard from local and international organisations, such as the Milanese Committees Coordination and Metropolis– the global network of cities and metropolitan areas.