Kreativni placemaking - put prema aktivnom europskom građanstvu

Creating a space for young people in which they can express themselves creatively and strengthen their capacities for responsible participation in the community is an important element of the development of the individual itself, as well as the foundation of a democratic society. But this process becomes unfeasible when the element of young people as active and responsible citizens is missing and when the local self-government leaves out young people as equal participants from the entire process. In order to be actively involved in the development of the community, they need to be given knowledge, information and skills to strengthen their self-confidence, develop critical thinking and, take an equal position in society. What is the most important moment for the project is precisely the expressed need of the young people themselves to be actively involved in the processes of advocating the creation of content for future youth programs in public spaces that are unused or partially used. We have united all expressed needs of young people through the creation of unique educational work methods and the development of online tool for the creative design of public spaces for youth content, which is available for free use.

With this project, we wanted to develop international cooperation between three partner organizations that share common values ​​in the inclusion of young people in the processes of participation in decision-making in local environments by working on advocacy and putting into operation the public spaces of cultural heritage that abound in all three countries by applying and developing the methodology " placemaking" (designing public spaces for youth activities). Spaces of cultural heritage are a common European value, as are active young citizens, and by connecting these two dimensions and creating a new multidisciplinary educational interactive tool: LOCUS: creative placemaking toolbox, our goal was to contribute to organizational strengthening, strengthening of people who work with young people, the young people themselves , and finally the community in which we operate. Mutual exchange of experience and practices, mutual learning and sharing of common values ​​in the field of placemaking enabled the ultimate goal of raising awareness of the importance of active civic participation among young people.

We implemented four main project activities: Transnational partnership meetings; International training; Development of the "Placemaking Tolbox" tool and Multiplying events at the national/local level

Exchanged knowledge, experience and common values ​​in the field of creating public spaces for youth content with the dimension of cultural heritage between partner organizations; Developed educational methodology for creating public spaces for young people through an online tool: LOCUS: Creative placemaking toolbox; Drafted policy recommendations by all three organizations for the creation of public spaces for youth activities and delivered to local governments; Ensured exchange of knowledge among persons who work with young people about common European values ​​of creating active citizenship. Other results of the activity are: Three transnational partner meetings were held in all three partner countries; Agreed creation of all informative, educational, evaluation and promotional activities; Developed project monitoring plan and schedule, developed project evaluation; Developed international training curriculum; Developed online tool - LOCUS: Creative placemaking toolbox; Organized and conducted three national dissemination events (Karlovac, Tampere, Nicosia); A new social educational methodology was presented.