Οhi Pezoume// Athens, Greece (Leader)
Ohi Pezoume Performing Arts Non-Profit Company was founded in 2004 and has as a main aim the design and implementation of community, educational and artistic projects.
We combine techniques of dialogue, participatory research and collaborative activities in delivering educational tools and programs, artistic practices and games on groups and communities and we often work in public space.
These processes, named “UrbanDig Projects”, are appropriate for where bridges of communication and synergy are needed between very different people and actors, where all the stories and views of a community on a subject are sought and where (collective) activation is desired. When implemented in neighborhoods, our processes usually create an open pool of diverse data, producing outputs, strategies and tools in the areas of tourism, culture, education, urban co-creation and other cross-sectoral outputs.
The members of the group come from various places of art, education and science, while during our bigger scale community projects, a broader volunteer community is created towards collective research, artistic interventions and community actions.
Relevant projects include producing and piloting a community engagement strategy for the awarded Open Schools Program of Athens’ Municipality, as also working with the Resilient City Office of Athens Municipality (a member of the 100 Resilient Cities Network) and producing a bottom-up study of the resilience of Omonia square in Athens. We have also collaborated with the office on the development strategy for making the Lycabettus urban forest more resilient, while the EU study on audience development (2017) included our work into the context of innovative approaches & methods. Other related distinctions include: 1st prize in AltoFest, a community & artistic festival in Napoli, 1st prize in TEDxAthens Challenge forinnovation in education (2011), winner in ACEA Eco-Art International Contest (2010).
Our company continuously produces engaging events in the city, each time adapted in the characteristics of each specific working area: from participatory neighborhood processes to site-specific performances and from public artistic workshops to playful decision-making mechanisms and alternative tours (live and digital).
STIPO// Rotterdam, the Netherlands
“STIPO offers an open window to a better city.”
STIPO is a multi-disciplinary office for urban development, based in Rotterdam and Athens and active all over the world. We work on the city at eye level and placemaking, the city of tomorrow, area development and co-creation in strategy and vision. As a public developer we start initiatives to bring new ideas from strategy to action. As the living environment cannot be captured in one single discipline we have created a team covering urban planning and management, urban psychology, political science, urban anthropology, urban geography, and cultural management.
STIPO has been operating for over 25 years on creating better cities, together and by the community. We have experience in participatory projects in the urban context and speak the language of both the community on the one hand, and the developers and governments on the other. We work on creating better cities and we do this together with initiators, residents, entrepreneurs, owners, investors, government authorities and other knowledge partners. We combine doing and thinking, theory, practice, implementation and strategy, lived and planned city, bottom-up and top-down. Therefore, we call our approach middle-up-down, building bridges and opportunities for common ownership among different stakeholders. It is in this very combination that the basis for long-term quality lies.
STIPO brings to the program skills and knowledge around urban sustainability, placemaking, place-led development and inclusive cities, integrating them into the coordination of the participatory design and piloting phase of the tools as well as the dissemination phase of the HADRiAN program. We seek to spread the knowledge and experience we gather by connecting it with knowledge platforms like universities, primary and secondary schools with lectures, workshops and books. We challenge the next generation to join us in creating better places and in connecting with the local identity and heritage together. We have developed relevant methodologies, like the Time Machine and the City at Eye Level for Kids, and we coordinate the dissemination of other placemakers’ tools throughout Europe in the Placemaking Europe network.
Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci// Palermo, Italy
CENTRO PER LO SVILUPPO CREATIVO “DANILO DOLCI” is a non-profit organisation located in Palermo, born in 1958 from the experience and work of Danilo Dolci, a social activist, sociologist, nonviolent and innovative educator. Following his path, CSC works at local, European and international levels, focusing on two main pillars:
Local Development, starting from the needs of the community and paying special attention to the most disadvantaged target groups;
Creativity, promoting innovation in education and using new methodologies to empower young, adults and professionals.
Particularly, the work of the Centre is based on the Reciprocal Maieutic Approach, a methodology of research and self-analysis useful to develop creativity, communication, cooperation and active participation.
CSC has a long- lasting experience in projects and initiatives on the following topics:
– Education;
– Social inclusion & Active citizenship;
– Empowerment of youth;
– Entrepreneurship & Mobility.
12th Junior High School of Acharnes // Athens, Greece
The 12th Junior High School of Acharnes (Gymnasium Acharnon) is a public school with about 240 students and 25 teachers located in the Olympic Village on the outskirts of Mount Parnitha. It was built for the 2004 Olympic Games as a press center, but was later donated to the local community and today functions as a school. Our students come from all over the Attica region and despite the coexistence problems presented at the beginning, today there is total cohesion and cooperation at local and national level.
As the recent financial crisis has hit many local families and in order to combat any form of violence and student exclusion, our teachers are trying to find innovative learning methods and develop partnerships with the local community. To do so, our school has been organizing a variety of cultural and environmental programs at local and European level for many years. As a reward to our efforts, we have been honored with a number of prizes, such as being an eTwinning school and we are the only Gymnasium in Greece with a Robotics’ Lab.
From 2018, our goal is to promote the cultural heritage of our neighborhood, through focusing on the Hadrian Aqueduct, a Roman monument, only 150 meters away from our school. That is why we have taken a number of actions. In October 2018, in collaboration with various public bodies, we organized a workshop to inform the local community and the Municipalities of Acharnes and Metamorfosis, about the importance of this monument in modern Greece. This year, we continue the effort. We are part of a network of schools – called “Adopting an ancient monument” – adopting the Hadrian Aqueduct. Through this network, we are able to collaborate with other schools as well as private institutions; Greek and European, to be acquainted with similar cultural monuments and environments and to exchange knowledge, methods and tools that will help our students get to know their cultural heritage. In addition, our students have the opportunity to think, collaborate and find solutions that will promote and preserve their cultural heritage.
1st General Senior High School of Metamorfosi// Athens, Greece
The 1st General Senior High School of Metamorfosi is located in the Municipality of Metamorfosi, in Attica. It is possibly the school with the largest number of students not only in Attica but also in South Greece. Our school doesn’t only boast a large number of successful university candidates, but it also seeks to follow new teaching methods in parallel with the curriculum, to apply innovative activities which enable students to be self-motivated and to raise awareness towards various social, political and environmental issues.
After their timetable, the students participate in Cultural Environmental and other Programs. Our school has done Twinning with the greek-speaking school “Eukleides” of Bova Marina and it has visited the greek-speaking villages of South Italy within the Cultural Program “Tour in Magna Grecia” (2013) and “Magna Grecia” (2017). For three years, the Mathematic Club has offered an interdisciplinary approach between Maths, Art and Philosophy aiming to fight ‘mathematicophobia’. Over the last four years the school also took part in the Model United Nations (MUN) simulation offering the chance to the participants to develop and exercise their abilities in rhetoric art and diplomacy.
The school has also a big tradition in Environmental Education Programs and has won the Award for Environmental Awareness from the Association for the Viable Development of Cities several times. The environmental school group of 2015-16 “Migration over the Aegean Sea – Humanity Endangered” won the first prize in the 1st European Competition of S.A.M.E. WORLD – Sustainability -Awareness – Motivation – Environment in Global Education. The environmental school group has so far participated in two student conferences, it has co-created an informal network in the quest of the “Buried and hidden treasures of cities” together with the school-groups from three different schools and it has strived for the integration of the city of Metamorfosi in the “Network of Cities with a River”.
All the above mentioned prove that the target and the vision of the management and the teaching staff is a school open in society which won’t only communicate knowledge, but it will also cultivate the values of democracy, active citizenship, social awareness and creativity.
8th Junior – Senior High School in Chalandri// Athens, Greece
8th Junior – Senior High School in Chalandri is a public school of General Education with 385 students aged 12 to 18. Students attend junior and senior high school. Forty six (46) teachers are employed and teach different subjects according to the curriculum. It is situated in the municipality of Chalandri, a suburb of Athens very close to mountain Penteli. It is quite new, as it was founded in 2009.
Our goal, as teachers, is to motivate our students to deal with current issues concerning science, diplomacy and environment. We urge them to participate and distinguish themselves in competitions in mathematics, physics, biology, environmental issues as well as poetry – and they have achieved great distinctions. Scientists such as Stamatios Krimizis, Greek – American scientist in space exploration and Th. Tasios, civil engineer – philosopher, have given lectures in our school, giving our students the chance to gain knowledge from outstanding personalities who excel in Greece and abroad. Moreover, through certain activities performed by specialists, we aim to introduce our students in a world where diversity, equality, acceptance and respect prevail (Labyrinth of Senses, Myrtillo Café). In addition, one of our students has been given a commendation in a Pan-Hellenic Competition of Historical Documentary for her short film “W.A.S.P” (Women Air Service Pilots), while a students’ team has participated in MEDCIS scientific gaming, a European Environmental Research Programme, organized by USalento and HCMR and has received a Special Award in Senior Category which was awarded in the premises of the University in Salento (Italy, September 2018). Some of our students have also participated in the Model United Nations conference (simulation of the work of United Nations where our students act as diplomats). The previous year, a team of 47 students and four teachers visited the premises of CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics).
Last but not least, at the end of each year, we present to the local community theatrical plays or films either written by our teachers or authentic ones, adjusted to the level of our students. We also develop social charity work and we help people with financial difficulties in our municipality.
Directorate of Secondary Education of Eastern Attica (DSEEA-Gr)// Athens, Greece
Directorate of Secondary Education of Eastern Attica (DSEEA-Gr) (Diefthinsi Defterovathmias Ekpedefsis Anatolikis Attikis”) and particularly its “Department of Culture” is very experienced in supporting teachers to coordinate projects within schools (in cooperation with municipalities and associations), in organizing training courses and in implementing international projects, such as Videomouseia and Erasmus+ Project Youthdocs.
It has also developed many networks among teachers for sharing ideas regarding the following issues: Dance and Theater in Education, Literature, Cinema and making videos, Photography, Museums and Education, Creating music, as also Environment, Oral History, Refugees Issues, Newspaper in the school and in the classroom. It offers many –relevant to the aforementioned- seminars for teachers, who, afterwards, transfer this experience to their students and supports about 600 school programs, which take place after the end of the curriculum, during the week.
To support these programs, DSEEA-Gr collaborates with Hellenic Theater/Drama and Education Network, Karpos Center of Education and Intercultural Communication, University of Peloponnese/Theater Studies, Museums and other Organizations.
There are about 150 schools in the Directorate of Eastern Attica – most of them public, but also some private. Every year, DSEEA-Gr organizes festivals for students and their teachers in May (end of the school year) with many participants in a variety of issues.
HADriAN Community
ASSOCIATE SCHOOLS
Junior High School of Metamorfosi-Herakleion// Athens, Greece
1st Junior High School of Vrilissia// Athens, Greece
2nd Junior High School of Chaidari// Athens, Greece
2nd Junior High School of Chalandri// Athens, Greece
7th Junior High School of Acharnes// Athens, Greece
11th Junior High School of Acharnes// Athens, Greece
1st General Senior High School of Psychiko// Athens, Greece
2nd General Senior High School of Metamorfosi// Athens, Greece