In 2020 OCC! expanded its scope and encouraged students to explore local initiatives in their city, resulting in entries from various locations. OCC! also wished to create a space for imaginative exploration of the future, and we asked students how would the place you live look like in year 2200, culminating in entries from across the world, allowing our imaginations to broaden of what futures we hope or fear for. Here below you find all the entries that are from Trani, Italy.
Who are the promoters? “Legambiente Puglia”, “Legambiente Trani”, “Boaonda”,” Il Colore degli Anni” NGOs, kitchen high school “IISS Aldo Moro Trani”, “Baldassarre” junior high school,”Questa Città” and “Campo dei Miracoli” social cooperatives, Municipality of Trani, BAT mental health center, financed by “Con il Sud/ Con i Bambini” Foundation within the fund for contrasting youth educational disadvantage
Who are the beneficiaries? Students at risk of dropping out of a hospitality school in the suburbs of Trani, students and disadvantaged individuals (including unemployed and users of the local Mental Health Center), citizens
How does this initiative engage with climate? Does it tackle mitigation, adaptation, both or other dimensions of climate change?
With the creation of social and educational gardens and the enhancement and reopening of a garden in the center of the cemented city, the project intervenes both on the area of climate change awareness and by forming adaptive and resilient communities. It is also concerned with providing space for active citizenship, including those disadvantaged by economic conditions, mental hardship, and residence in deprived and suburban areas, aiming for climate justice in the community.
What are the main objectives? What are the main values?
According to interviews given by the promoters, the main objectives of the project are to contrast food waste and youth educational poverty by creating a laboratory experience of the agri-food and tourism in a circular economy.
The creation of a social garden, an eco-bar, and a social restaurant represents an inclusive and collaborative learning experimentation, where institutions, associations, third sector, and families can operate in synergy.
The group also reflected on the reuse of school spaces as spaces for urban, environmental, and social regeneration and the long-term environmental sustainability of the choices.
What is the timeline? Are there already visible effects? Scuola Corsara is a project that started in 2018 and was active until 2022. However, the activities did not end with the end of the funding. To this day, an aquaponics and agroecology workshop open to citizens has been added to the greenhouses and social garden. In addition, the eco-bar in the regenerated garden is still fully active and has contracts with about 8 young users of the mental health center. In addition, students from the high school are engaged in school-to-work activities both at the café and with activities of salvaging leftover food, processing in school laboratories and food distribution to the disadvantaged by bikes. In addition, a local Solidarity Purchasing Group is being activated. It has also paved the way for School funding and co-design tables for climate adaptation in the city (funded through the EU National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP)).
Who are the actors involved? What is their background? A highlight of the project was the close interaction between public entities (municipality and schools), foundations such as Fondazione Con il Sud, and social cooperatives and third sector entities. In particular, the hotel institute provided part of the project spaces as well as the opportunity to involve students and fragile individuals in the activities. The social cooperatives were involved in the job placement of users, as well as in skills and psychological support. Third-sector entities, with strong experience in environmental, climate justice and inequalities contrast (Legambiente, BoaOnda, Il Colore degli Anni), involved citizens and families in the creation and care of the social gardens and greenhouses, as well as in the conception of events and initiatives for the enhancement of the urban garden and the territory.
Which limits does it encounter? ∙ Are any shortcomings or critical points visible? What other problematic issues can arise from its implementation? Limitations were found especially in the initial period, in the inclusion of co-design and networking methodologies within established institutional and inidividualistic dynamics.
In addition, the involvement of fragile subjects necessitated significant training for professors, students and those involved.
The reopening of the urban garden presented difficulties related to the timing of public processes and the initial publicity and awareness of citizens in the revaluation of a new place.
How would it be potentially replicable in other settings?
The project is replicable in Trani or other cities by enhancing other suburban schools as social gardens and community and gathering spaces. As of today, however, the project is well known and continuously expanding, including through the future creation of an additional urban garden on the outskirts of the city and an additional eco-bar at the local community library.
Is this initiative conducive to broader changes (law, institutional arrangements, long term sustainability or community preparedness, etc.)? If yes, which? Yes, this project contributes to building a community aware of climate change and social inequalities and training future citizens in inclusiveness and sustainability, as well as providing work experience to fragile individuals further expendable outside the project.
Figure 1. Caffè Corsaro (Pirate bar) by Gianluca Ricco, with permission to use
Figure 2. School social garden by Legambiente Trani, with permission to use
Figure 3. Excess food recovered and processed in school laboratories by Legambiente Trani, with permission to use
Figure 4. School social gardenbroad bean harvesting by Legambiente Trani, with permission to use
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