PLACE OUT! European Dialogue-Building for increasing youth protagonism in non-urban areas is the new Erasmus+ project won by our Europe Lab which draws on the expertise and experience of LAMA and 9 other partners to structure a European-level capacity-building process for young people and institutions on the theme of space management by youth organisations in marginal areas.
Place Out! acts both at local and European level, directly addressing youth organisations, local institutions and citizenship.
The 4 non-urban territories involved in the project are:
- the province of Badajoz, in Extremadura (Spain);
- the Chalkidiki area, in the province of Thessaloniki (Greece);
- the Mugello valley, in the Tuscany region (Italy);
- the Gabrovo province, in the Gabrovo region (Bulgaria).
THE PROJECT
The central idea is to apply the conceptual framework of Urban Regeneration – widely discussed and used as a tool in cities and urban contexts – to abandoned, underused or ‘forgotten’ places in European non-urban territories. The creation of conditions for the rise of new economic, social or public activities within these spaces is an excellent tool for the implementation of policies that positively increase youth protagonism and leadership in territories.
In the course of the project, relevant information necessary to enable the implementation of regeneration actions will be mapped: context analyses, needs assessments and mapping of spaces with high regeneration potential will be carried out in order to create knowledge accessible to all through the digital tools of the project.
Two parallel capacity-building processes for youth organisations and local institutions will then be implemented in each of the four territories, with the aim of increasing the competences of the territories’ key targets from the point of view of associative strengthening, the ability to apply co-design processes, the ability to involve young people in the realisation of their activities or in the implementation of policies, and to apply and design spaces for regeneration.
The final part consists of a round table between youth organisations and local institutions and a trans-European deliberative process for the creation of a European Charter for youth-led territorial regeneration, enabling them to engage in dialogue with institutions in the context of concrete problem-solving of the youth situation at European level.
OUR ROLE
LAMA coordinates the project partnership, ensuring the quality of the implementation of activities on the territories as well as the dialogue at transnational level. LAMA is also in charge of monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the activities.
PLACE OUT! is in continuity with ongoing and planned projects in the field of territorial regeneration, starting from the experience of Spazi ai Giovani in Mugello, in which the theme of dialogue between young people and democratic institutions on the management of spaces and EUREKA, a training course with an interdisciplinary vocation, dedicated to the figure of the European urban regenerator and born from the co-design work between universities, cultural enterprises, social enterprises and European public administrations, was central.
