Scintilla / Spark Group

AT A GLANCE

The so named Gruppo Scintilla (Spark Group) is a participatory process involving inhabitants of a neighbourhood of Vicenza (IT) in the decision-making process regarding its future. The project is focused in a highly multi-ethnic neighbourhood located close to the Central Station, facing serious issues related to social integration and illegal trafficking. The start a participatory process is to co-design a shared vision of the future of the neighbourhood, involving citizens in the co-designing process, and implementing activities in the area.

OBJECTIVES

The participatory process is aimed to redevelop an underserved and vulnerable neighbourhood of Vicenza. On the one hand a set of public consultations were implemented with the aim of defining the problems, collecting proposals towards a possible solution and developing citizens’ sense of ownership and responsibility towards the problem.

On the other hand, several local initiatives were organised to improve the life of people living in the neighbourhood in the short-term and create a sense of community (events for children, inter-generational parties involving local businesses, theatre courses, participatory budgeting initiatives, etc.).

The process has brought out the difficulties of the neighbourhood (safety, traffic and urban decay) but also the great opportunities (place of life and passage, multi-ethnicity, urban context, food district and places of excellence) and proposes to guide the destiny of this neighbourhood towards the following direction: the use of a positive slogan: “The Place To Be“, to reverse the negative meaning referring to the neighbourhood in a positive perspective.

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