Stories and Events

Three Europe Challenge teams selected to work on #Queeringthelibrary in Berlin

How can groups and communities throughout Europe contribute to the establishment of public spaces, and participate in democratic debates? Under the title "Queering the public space – Open call for participation #queeringthelibrary", Berlin Central Public Library invited people to submit their project ideas and received many fantastic submissions. Read on to see what they are going to be working on!

Greening the city - bees in Sant Boi and the communities looking after them

Bee Alert English 1.mp4

Listen to the work of a library outside of Barcelona who are experimenting with their communities on ways of greening their city.

A day in the life of intercultural mediators at AZ Sint-Lucas in Ghent

Line and Pauline from Comon / De Krook Library spent a day in the field with the intercultural mediators at AZ Sint-Lucas in Ghent. They act as interpreters between doctor and patient for people who do not speak Dutch fluently. And they do so much more than that. Read on here

Pauline and Line, photo courtesy of COMON

Værestedet.mp4

Mathias Gregersen from Værestedet, Aarhus

Listen to Mathias Gregersen, centre manager at Værestedet - a drop-in centre nearby Aarhus DOKK 1 library - as he talks about the challenges and the solutions proposed by the community attached to the centre.

Talks at the table in the farmhouse “Lamb Club”

August 27, 2021, at 18.00 - 21.00

The event "Talks at the table in the open air" was organised by both the Europe Challenge Valmiera team and the neighborhood community, which gathers around the "Lamb Club". The local community, which gathers to share stories about their surroundings, families and history, is active group that takes part in local initiatives, help each other and share a local identity. Read more here

Asking the community
Image by Studio Edelweiss

How can we make healthcare understandable to all citizens of Ghent?

"How can we make Ghent a healthier city, with technology as part of the solution?" This question was asked to the residents and community of Ghent (BE) in spring 2021, in the framework of the Europe Challenge by Comon - a collective of scientists, technologists and creatives from the City of Ghent, imec, Ghent University and De Krook Library.

Through crowdsourcing questions on healthcare and technology initiated by Comon, the residents of Ghent came up with challenges ranging from "How can we map the health situation of a neighbourhood? to "How can we make students more aware of the signals the body gives?". Based on the votes and reactions, Comon has now selected one challenge to focus on: How can we make healthcare more understandable for everyone in our super-diverse city? Read more here

Technophobia is not for women

PhD. Saša Novak shared her personal experience with Kranj City Library : “Towards the end of primary school, I already knew that I would be a chemist. For me, librarians have played a very important role in my life, so I think that the fact that library is embarking on this project is wonderful and necessary. In 6th grade, a librarian gave me a book about Marie Curie with the title Who is this woman.

And it marked me for life. I recently found it at an antique shop. This is a very small book and not the best written. I don't know why it impressed me so much at the time, but it did. Libraries have a very big influence on people and can play important roles in people’s lives. By offering stories of successful women for children and their parents, you can make a lot of changes. "

Storytelling at Jāņparks neighbourhood

29.07.2021

On July 29th 2021, neighbourhood association “Jāņparks” and the Europe Challenge Valmiera team came together to organize an event that would bring together a local neighbourhood community through shared storytelling and improve their sense of local identity. Read more here

Meeting community members in July, 2021

Several locations in Valmiera region, Latvia

The Europe Challenge in Valmiera, Latvia is about our community in Valmiera administrative region and each individual’s significant contribution in shaping the public space. Our main event - Conversation Day - will take place in September. During the summer our two main goals are to organize the Conversation Day and to create short video clips that emphasize the topics that are important to the community in terms of participation, local heritage, identity and the role of libraries in shaping the public space. Read more here

SAMTALER PÅ KANTEN - RADIO4

A series of podcasts in April 2021 (Danish)

Four episodes of a podcast on the Danish R4ADIO, featuring members of the community at Værestedet - a drop-in center nearby the Aarhus library.

Focus group discussions in March, 2021

Valmiera, Latvia, online meetings

For the Europe Challenge in Valmiera we had decided to work on topics of local identity, participation, and building relationships between local communities. This is especially important in a time where Latvia is going through a new administrative reform, the main point being that smaller regions will now be a part of bigger ones. There are concerns about specific topics like services, finance management etc., but there is also a concern about the unity of the larger region and people working together on strategies, development and preserving local heritage. Read more here

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