The purpose of our actions was the activation and participation of the citizens of Thessaloniki in environmental awareness actions. In a prolonged health crisis, where the concept of citizen participation was limited and the spectrum of the environmental crisis was more visible than ever, we designed actions that resulted in the following: Citizens' mental health that emerged after the necessary social distancing they experienced as well as the activation of citizens regarding the protection of the environment. The actions offered multiple benefits to the beneficiaries to improve their quality of life in an urban center and are distinguished in three scales.
Community Scale
Over the last four years, new environmental movements have emerged at the pan-European level, proposing collective demands for enhanced global sustainability, calling on governments (at all scales: local, national, federal, etc.) to take immediate action to tackling climate change and mitigating the effects of anthropogenic factors. In Thessaloniki, a city with extremely high needs for greenery (2.7 sq.m. of green space per inhabitant) and minimal mobilization of local institutions for the above framework, since 2019, similar cinematic-initiative efforts have appeared, without however to propose different characteristics of organization and / or support of their members from the existing traditional movements in Greece. In 2020 the environmental organization Mamagea (then still as an initiative "Commons in Residency"), wanting to start a debate on the alternative operation of these movements, created the Green Community, approaching new organizational forms compared to the usual structure of bottom-up movements , introducing in its operation and structure methodological tools that focus on the education and the emotional empowerment of the people that make it up, in order to strengthen the collective cooperation between its members. The first method applied is the Non Directivite Intervenante (NDI). It is a pedagogical process of group animation, counseling and psychotherapy, which as a whole is a philosophy of life and is based on the power of experiences, emotions and desires, as well as respect for the autonomy and freedom of every individual regardless of age, gender, personal and social characteristics and peculiarities, in relationships of communication, personal involvement, meeting and mutual influence. It is a method of development and enrichment of the psychic world in all areas and supports the importance of the psychological factor in relation to the social, for the formation and functioning of both. Throughout the year, the Community numbered more than 60 members who participated weekly in participatory, cultural, environmental and social activities. The triptych "NDI Animation - Environmental Education - Actions in Public Space" was the basis of its first period of operation. Indicatively, 19 sessions of psychosocial support were held for its members, 11 open environmental seminars and 7 project-actions in the public space (including the award-winning project in national and Balkan competition entitled "Green School Days / WONDER Schools", tree planting, cleaning etc.).
The Community consists of members of different ages, genders, interests and professional directions such as: engineering, environmental sciences, arts and culture, pedagogy, etc. It still operates as a green "accelerator" (incubator) for the production and support of innovative ideas and projects, aimed at improving the quality of life in the city, strengthening participatory governance, the concept of urban commons (environmental and social resources), active citizenship, the cultivation of an environmentally friendly culture and the enhancement of environmental experiential education. In November 2020, in the context of the second quarantine imposed in Greece due to the covid-19 pandemic and the desire of the members of the Green Community for action, the dentri project was "born". This project is a bottom-up awareness campaign to enhance urban green, which proposes the concept of open data, participatory governance and urban design by and for citizens with the aim of improving the relationship between citizens and local government. with green urban issues.
Neighborhood Scale
During the period June-September, initially two participatory workshops "Place Game" were organized on 5 and 12 June 2021, and then a neighborhood celebration in Navarino Square on 17 September. The workshops were based on the philosophy of placemaking and the methodology adopted by Project for Public Spaces [PPS] - a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to creating and maintaining public spaces around which communities are built. These workshops aimed to activate residents, agencies and businesses in the area to jointly assess the current situation of the Square and to extract proposals in the short and long term for the transformation and upgrading of its public space. A total of 26 people participated, including representatives of the Municipality, local bodies and organizations, residents, shopkeepers, students. The participants, after first evaluating the public space of the Square, through special questionnaires, interviews and empirical observations, submitted a variety of ideas regarding the improvement of its image. The data of the laboratories were used for the creation of a study which was donated to the Municipality of Thessaloniki in order to integrate its results in the forthcoming renovation of the wider neighborhood that is being prepared within the framework of the "Open Trade Center" for Navarinou Square.
What is placemaking?
Placemaking is a multifaceted approach to the design, layout and management of public space. It is essentially a co-creation process that focuses on the human experience and how people use it. By putting the community at the center of urban planning, it seeks to understand its wants and needs, in order to propose effective solutions to the problems it faces. As a philosophy it aims to inspire people to collectively redefine the public spaces they use on a daily basis. It creates new uses to enhance the pedestrian-scale urban experience and new habits for the residents of a neighborhood. It is based on the "Lighter, Faster, Cheaper" approach (Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper). In other words, through economic, human-centered and short-term interventions "facilitates the creative patterns of use of public space, paying particular attention to the natural, cultural and social identities that define a place, supporting its ongoing development" (Project for Public Spaces, 2016 : 2). Thus, utilizing the already existing assets of a place, the inspiration and potential of the local community, invites to a variety of creative actions. Another key element of placemaking is that it seeks to bring members of a community in contact with so-called "experts", such as architects, town planners, artists, educators, policymakers and members of local government. The ultimate goal is to create hubs of economic, social, cultural and environmental activity and inclusion communities. Finally, placemaking can play an important role in reducing the economic and social impact of the economic, environmental and health crisis, contributing to the creation of sustainable and green cities, with quality public spaces that promote the health, happiness and well-being of all people.
City Scale
The dentri project is one of the two projects designed and implemented by the members of the Green Community under the guidance of the Environmental Organization Mamagea. Its creation emerged through participatory design workshops in November 2020, during the second quarantine (covid-19) in Greece. It is an environmental awareness action to enhance urban greenery in Thessaloniki. It is a collective project of mobilizing citizens with the ultimate goal of strengthening urban greenery, through the mapping of empty tree trunks and the planting of new trees.
To serve this purpose, the Green Community created an "analogous process" (see below), a questionnaire to record empty logs, for the co-configuration of a map (via my Google Maps) within the administrative boundaries of the Municipality of Thessaloniki. The cartographic work depicts "green" data (cut trees and empty tree-lined trees), recorded by the citizens (photos, location, tree-lining status characteristics and space environments). Through active participation the city was mapped, specified its need for greenery and strengthened the request for planting new trees in collaboration with citizens of the Municipality of Thessaloniki.
Such cooperation obviously involves difficulties, but at the same time offers dozens of positive elements, such as the improvement of the citizens' relationship with the Local Government (confidence building), is a means of political expression (according to the Aristotelian approach, see "Politics") and its improvement. quality of life in the city as the voluntary activity is enhanced and consequently the well-being in a modern urban environment.
Mamagea comes to meet the need, especially in the (post) covid era, for redefinition and reuse of public open spaces, for the implementation and combination of bioclimatic interventions and participatory planning and for the environmental education of the citizens. The dentri project wants to raise awareness and mobilize the citizen about the green, and at the same time to create places and memories, a heritage of significant value, both for the environment and for the culture of the city.
The fact that new technologies were used (eg electronic platforms) in combination with the fact that the actions must be implemented in the physical space and not entirely online was one of the special features of the actions and which were considered innovative by themselves. residents.
