The Consortium

 

Estel (ESTRATEGIES SOCIALS PER AL TERRITORI I ELSESPAIS LLIURES ESTEL, SCCL) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Sabadell, Spain. Since 2014, Estel has worked on improving people’s lives in their habitat: the villages, cities, and other territories where they reside. Estel comprises four professionals (architects and urbanists) and working partners. The NGO cooperate with citizens and administrations to improve their municipalities, contributing the organisation's knowledge and experience in design, management, and planning.
In short, Estel collaborates in transforming squares, streets, parks, and neighborhoods into places where everyone can enjoy the city equally, regardless of age, gender, origin, or capacities. Estel works mostly for the public interest, collaborating with many municipalities in Spain, and works as a bridge between citizens, local associations, and administration, creating a “dialogue of knowledge” between stakeholders for inclusive decision-making.

Urbana is a Civil Non-Profit Partnership consisting of architects, social scientists, and educators, founded in 2019 in Athens, Greece. Urbana's mission is to guarantee the right to the city for all. They aim to empower people from diverse backgrounds and identities, especially vulnerable and/or marginalized social groups, to take action and express their needs and desires in the city. Inclusion, participation, and gender equality are their central values. The organisation's activities include awareness-raising actions, designing and implementing educational programs at schools, workshops,seminars, and training activities. On top of that, Urbana performs lectures, presentations, and exhibitions, along with urban analysis from a gender perspective, with the participation of the communities themselves. Urbana also designs and assists participatory planning games with children, youth, and adults, aiming to bring them in contact with participatory urbanplanning tools and methodologies in a fun, creative, and attractive way.

Culture Goes Europe e.V. (CGE) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Erfurt, founded in 2005 and run by migrant-background professionals. Within the framework of non-formal education, CGE empowers participants and communities as active agents in their learning journey. 

CGE has been working on developing teaching materials and implementing and evaluating pilot testing, as well as conducting research for several different European Projects (Erasmus+, Interreg, Horizon 2020, CERV), working with many partners from all around Europe. The range of activities of the organization includes promoting educational development and creative thinking, employability, participation, and an ICT mindset among youngsters and adults. CGE firmly believes that young people need a space where they can engage and interact among different groups, hence the need for diversity and inclusion in city planning and placemaking. Self-empowerment is such an essential factor in people’s lives that it can prevent radicalization and help mitigate gaps between other [groups of] people on a grass-roots level.

Urban Foxes was founded in 2014 as a non-profit and strives for healthy, sustainable, inclusive and co-created cities. Urban Foxes believes that young people should be included (more) in decision-making processes that affect them. And are convinced that non-formal education has the power to not only inform young people on sustainabilty and urban matters, but also to include them in the larger scheme of the citymaking process. These two aforementioned reasons have become the Urban Foxes’ driving forces to become experts in the field of urban youth participation, urban human rights, public space, youth activism and sustainability education. Youth work plays an important role in Urban Foxes' mission as one can not start soon enough to involve young people in their local communities and in the matters of city making (policy, informing about urban issues). Young people are not only the future but they can be important actors for social change today.