Local engagement
Successful transformations start with involvement and a mandate from the local neighborhoods we work in. We look beyond the traditional formal meetings and hearings to spark genuine local pride and ownership of the artworks created in their communities.
urban art
as a transformation tool
Opening dialogue and finding common ground through art
Street art and murals are the product of their urban setting and can be a self-discovery tool to urban identity. Art is an inclusive form of expression allowing all participants to find common ground. Using art as a catalyst for meaningful dialogue breaks down barriers and opens up the way people perceive urban challenges.
Fostering local ownership
Urban art fosters local stewardship and usage of shared space. An initiative's positive impact will increase when locals are included in the various stages of planning, execution and maintenance. Recruiting neighborhood ambassadors to care for these new spaces is vital. For example, letting school-kids visit and reflect on their diverse local hangouts and everyday passages will anchor the transformation. Hiring at-risk youth to help cover up vandalism or including the local homeowner association in the decision making process are two more ways to foster local ownership.
Gathering informal AND direct feedback from users
Gathering feedback is important for providing the local perspectives. These perspectives can help identify opportunities, problems and areas that need renewed focus. For the duration of the initative, this feedback maintains its importance, helping to keep in check and balance your goals, ambitions and progress. As a creative form of communication, art can be used to gather feedback from the users.
Empowering diverse social groups
Prioritizing public art can lead to increased levels of community engagement and social cohesion. Projects that feature urban art also show that it can function as a powerful catalyst for improved mental and physical health. Whether involving these groups as participants in the process or as the artists themselves, their empowerment strengthens, as well as their feeling of belonging to a community.
If you can’t relate to the locals perspectives- no matter if its positive or skeptic - there’s a very big risk they will loose respect for the project and the work the municipality is doing.
— NICKY PETERSEN, PLANNER AT GREVE MUNICIPALITY
OUR SERVICES
reach out - reflect - cooperate - teach
Street Studies is a strong advocate of meaningful local engagement in planning and executing urban change. Through our work, we seek to raise the knowledge and capacity to engage in the communities we work with. More importantly, we want to enable people to effectively participate in planning activities on an ongoing basis; not just the activity at hand.
As an independent not-for-profit organization, we have found time and time again that communities are willing to engage with us. As part of our process, we encourage active collaboration between the various stakeholders and community groups, thereby building better relationships for future engagement. While being impartial, we support individuals and communities to express their own views effectively. We believe in a sweet spot where users' own perspectives meet professional expertise and facilitation to qualify their wants.
We are available to support your project on local engagement on all or specific stages.
OUR LOCAL ENGAGEMENT SERVICES INCLUDE
Local engagement strategy development
Feedback and dialogue activities
Capacity training
Consensus building workshops
Youth engagement programs
Educational materials and activities
Awareness-raising support
Below are 3 case examples, where you can see the potential projects to use urban arts and local engagement to involve stakeholders in a shared movement towards positive urban change.
1 | Feedback, Local Commitment & Workshops
We will be your change agents for the process, and provide the local feedback necessary for thorough local involvement. Inventive and authentic workshops will often lead to these best solutions, combining bottom-up with top-down in the most meaningful way.
During this feedback and workshops we touch upon the following themes:
Immersion in the area by being physically present, gathering informal feedback
Informal conversations about both sensitive and non-sensitive elements through a citizen (locals) to citizen (us as an NGO) approach
Deep democratic values meeting expertise in the search for great local solutions
Distribution of mandates to the relevant stakeholders and find win-win solutions
Exploration and expansion beyond the basic and often obvious solutions, through diverse lenses and perspectives
Case Example: Greve Safer Tunnels 2018, greve municipality
2 | Teaching Materials
Most cities and towns have youth councils and clubs to represent the needs and interests of youth. While providing necessary platforms, we have found that schools in general are the best place to deliver a message to kids with different backgrounds and in different social groups. Schools are a great place for raising awareness in a representative way.
We create, provide and execute teaching materials with a focus on local engagement, urban art and social cohesion. We help the students build ownership as they become directly engaged in the creative change process of their neighborhood. For example, we will send them out to explore the area surrounding the school to find the “cool” spots and the spots they feel need improvement. This is followed by a discussion and then they are sent out to take action on a mini-scale.
During this process, photos and videos from the creative transformations are discussed in the classrooms. They map the photos, make small videos and use photos of neglected tunnels to come up with new ideas. This combines their relevant subjects with meaningful IT and social science.
Making the teaching materials mandatory for a specific grade (example 7th grade) will provide a solid and long-term impact: a project legacy ignited by the new murals in the neighborhood.
Case Example: Greve Safer Tunnels 2018, greve municipality
3 | Local Project Initiators
We specialize in courses and projects under the overarching theme of “ Project-Makers”. We want to equip the youth with the right tools and the necessary inspiration to create their own projects. As we teach a broader group of students and other young people about opportunities to take initiative, a natural reaction is for individuals to get inspired. They feel the entrepreneurial fire, wanting to grow as a project initiator and have a space to explore their ideas.
The courses provide:
project training
working with actual initiatives
learning about fundraising
managing timelines and budgets
raising momentum on social media
evaluating social responsibility
building value for stakeholders
Entrepreneurship and project coordination doesn’t have labs, it unfolds everywhere and results in the buzz and life you see sprouting in local neighborhoods.
A key focus will be on working with actual initiatives and real life situations. These are core skills for any entrepreneur, business owner, project manager and any member of the civic society: local associations, non-profits etc.
Case Example: H3 & JB10
Transforming public spaces and tunnels is our specialty.
If you have a project in mind, don't hesitate to contact us!
our services are 100% based on NON-PROFIT PRINCIPLES
Meaning we:
work actively and passionately with UN’s SDGs
reinvest our net income from new projects within our mission statement,
consume according to a strict spending-policy,
engage in research to increase our overall understanding of and benefit to society and public spaces
And much more.
