On the 10th of October 2023, the JUSTNature project joined the discussions on Citizen Science, Co-design Tools for Cities, and Multi-Stakeholder Engagement at European week of Regions and Cities 2023 in Brussels.
Why co-creation processes are important is fairly accepted in academia and among community engagement consultants. Even among local governments, these processes are becoming a reality thanks to pilot projects. But how can we make citizen engagement processes go from experimental to regular practice in municipalities?
That's one of the aspects discussed by Sonja Gantioler, the JUSTNature project manager, and fellow panelists Thomas Osdoba, Ana Belen Cristobal, and Dr. Daniela Melandri. With the aim of putting theory into practice, participants at the event could get a taste of the toolkits, apps, and solutions developed within the projects.
JUSTNature presented the Ecological (Space) Justice Strategic planning toolkit, consisting of:
- a map of the city/area that is being worked upon
- set of tokens representing justices and injustices
- set of tokens representing possible nature-based solutions to implements
- set of tokens representing group inclusiveness
- inspiration cards and a booklet providing guidance
The toolkit is still in the prototype phase and will be further developed in the next months with the feedback gathered during the pilot cities implementation. However, if the 140 participants' questions are to be taken as an indication, we can definitely affirm that other cities are interested in applying co-creation processes.
