Improving our Local Environment: A Year of Environmental Interventions in Lagadikia

As part of the Erasmus+ project “young people from different backgrounds working together at a community level to build an inclusive and supportive Europe”, last year we organised a series of workshops around the topic of “Environment”. The workshops aimed to bring different groups together to implement positive changes in their shared local environment, open spaces for discussion, and raise awareness around the importance of caring for nature and local spaces.

With the support of our partner organisation, InCommOn – a civil non-profit organisation promoting sustainable and participatory urban development based in Thessaloniki – we brought together young people living in both Lagadikia village and Lagadikia camp to discuss issues around sustainability, environment, and changes they would like to see to local green public spaces.

We held two group events at a green space in the centre of Lagadikia village. The first event allowed participants to get to know each other and create a collage about themselves, the life in the village and their desires to make green and circular changes to their local environment, using recyclable materials, markers and materials found in the village. This was followed by an initial discussion on environmental changes participants would like to see in the village. The second event was a participatory picnic and socialising, followed by individual and group brainstorming of changes and meaningful interventions to take place in the village. The event was closed by the collective sharing of ideas and the splitting of participants into working groups: bench-building, open sports activities in green spaces, repairing the football field. Following the group events, each working group regularly met to plan and implement their initiatives.

Nearly a year on, we are excited to share the project results, which include new benches and structures in public spaces, a well-maintained football field, as well as regular community-led sports activities.

Thank you to our partners and everyone that participated and supported this project. We are very happy to have assisted these initiatives that help to improve our local environment, build bridges between different groups, and support our visitors to feel welcome in their new place of living.