Hosting Tandem Europe’s Interim Meeting in Messolonghi focused on the empowerment of the local civil society actors in their activities and work with the local community.
Why Messolonghi: Tandem Europe III thematic focus is on urban and rural regeneration, most of this round participants work with small or focused target group communities.
Messolonghi is a vibrant city, with a historic and environmental interest, in the periphery of Greece that has a very active community of civil society actors.
Hosting a 4 day international meeting in Messolonghi was an opportunity to empower local groups such as “Messolonghi by Locals” and “Saltsinistas” and connect them to an international group of cultural and social managers that work on the same or similar thematics.
6 local collaborations
34 participants
Meeting’s focus:
_Explore social innovation, cross-sectoral collaborations and rural regeneration within the relevant context of Messolonghi. _Deepen understanding of a small scale community where local community takes the lead and creates a new narrative for the city. _Organize shared activities and dinners with the local community in order to work and be together with the participants of the meeting and overcoming the barrier of language. _Empower local initiatives to continue their work and get inspired through their interaction with active citizens from all over Europe that work in a similar field. Point out and realize similarities and differences with other European small scale cities.
Background: The Interim Meeting is one of the 4 program meetings (Partners Forum, Kick-off, Interim, Final) of Tandem Europe. COMM’ON, in the last few years, has been working, in other projects and programs, with initiatives, stakeholders and groups of Messolonghi and we were very happy when we got informed that “Saltsinistas”, a local group would be part of Tandem’s Europe round III. Saltsinistas partnered up with MELLEM (Skopje, North Macedonia) for the project “S.O.F.T. SPACE (Sustainable Open Free Tandem) Space”.
Results: - Collaboration with the educational and cultural community center “Eleutheroi Poliorkimenoi” to host the meeting in their community space. - Collaborate with the local fishermen association of Pelada to introduce the history of the lagoon area, the traditional fishing technique and local cuisine. - Collaborate with “Messolonghi by locals” and “Saltsinistas” to organize: a. a bike tour of the lagoon and a bird watching session to introduce the history and the environ- mental importance of the area. b. a joint, small scale, renovation activity and fest for Tandem participants & local community in the small square that is located outside the Messolonghi by locals Hub in the center of the city.
Impact:
"Investing in the local community to create engagement and opportunities for the future“
Local host Alexandros Panagiotopoulos (Messolonghi by Locals) sits with Marou Chatzopoulou, co-founder of COMM'ON, to answer questions about Tandem’s Europe Interim meeting that took place in Messolonghi, eager to share the impact on the local community that wants to build new cross-border relations and develop a new brand scheme for the city.
Interview about the impact of the meeting read more here...
When: 31.10 - 04.11.2019
Local Collaborations: Cultópia (production) / Messolonghi by locals (local production)
The meeting was part of Tandem Europe round III
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