Clean & Green Action at the Canal zone

Inspired by the actions we did with Uniamoci Onlu in Palermo, and after showing them to our team members and youngsters, we decided to use the same methodology to clean and green an area in Brussels that has been a place of waste for several years.

By the identification of some key figures in the neighborhood, amongst which an active member of the community and a retired gardener, we were able to set-up angreen & clean action plan for this neigborhood. We made several site visits and conducted several talks with the residents to identify the key problems and come up with several solutions to create a better, greener and more connecting public space that can be used to play, relax and interact.

Apart from cleaning up, we also planted grass and trees and even created some small playful interventions. In the process we also engaged the local community, with the help of the local key persons, e.g. the local youngsters helped the retired gardener and local residents helped out with the planting of the trees.

All in all it was an amazing intervention which created a great atmosphere and re-created an urban wasteland into a green place of encounter and interaction.

City expedition in Palermo

Our Italian group has created his own “City expedition”, an activity made by Urban Foxes and adapted by Uniamoci Onlus in an easy to read and to understand language. It was a special occasion for all of us to do a Palermo tour through games and group tasks in a context full of inclusion: our group was formed by people with disabilities, children from the Slovenian school “Scuola elementare Dante Alighieri”, our partner in EDUCOM project, and local volunteers. It was a tour guided by 5 missions. Every mission was for small groups and the main topic was the city environment. We went to three very important points in Palermo: the first of all the Massimo theatre. There we met and took photos of clean and beautiful things we saw, dirty things and things we found normal. Many young people have photographed the theatre, trees and electric scooters: this has certainly shown that nature, art and attention to the environment are always the most popular things. Then, as detectives, we looked for plastic on the floor. It was less easy than expected, because we were in the historic center of Palermo. The second place of action was Piazza Pretoria, here we took selfies and were amazed at how clean it was! We compiled a test to evaluate the cleanliness of the city and both the Uniamoci Onlus group and the Slovenian group found this square very clean and beautiful. After a long walk, in which we ate something typical from Sicily (another mission of the city expedition), we went to the third point of our Expedition: the cathedral. Here the main task was to blindfold someone in every small group, to make a video and to ask some questions about the noise, the smell and the mood they were feeling in that time. The group was excited for this activity and it was interesting how everyone smells food scent in the air!

Our final mission was to remember the second place we were in the morning and to play a game named Paradise or Hell in which we had to imagine how to make better this place and how to make it worst. We imagined to destroy the fountain of Piazza Pretoria with awful graffiti and a lot of garbage. It was difficult to find something to make this place better because they found it perfect but they discuss about improving cleanliness and to add some colour, plants and flowers next to this place. And we took just advantages from all these games and we visited the Cathedral. It was a good way to end our workshops about monuments in Palermo. During these months, we have read a lot of monuments in Palermo in easy to understand language. For this reason, everyone was excited to see what they learned and to explain to the Slovenian group what they were seeing.“City expedition” was a good way to discover our city and to reflect about important topics like environment and street cleaning, through group building games and outdoor activities.

SEED-BOMBING in Palermo

During the staff training event in Palermo, Urban foxes inspired our Italian group to make new green actions. Initially the idea was to spread seeds in abandoned flowerbeds in the city, but then we found online the launch of “seedbombs”, a green war against pollution, and we decided to realize it. Seedbombs, are a funny and practical way to grow. They can be thrown anywhere, walking or from a bike, and they have an high probability of germination. This allows you to transform any grey area into a green area. This type of activity is part of the "urban and green guerrilla", a new pacifist form of ecological activism. But what exactly do they consist of? Nothing could be simpler: a ball of clay mixed with a good soil, full of seeds of native plants, which do not require too much care and are very resistant. By combining clay, soil, water and seeds and drying them in the sun, it is possible to create these little “green bombs” and throw them around the city.

We created our seed-bombs with our group of users with disabilities and then we threw them in the school yard of a local high-school. A fynny and useful experience!