Citizen Workshop – Green Plac Grunwaldzki OD NOWA

Citizen Workshop – Green Plac Grunwaldzki OD NOWA is a two-year project financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway from the EEA Grants under Active Citizens Programme – Regional Fund. Its main goal is to increase the community's participation in the Plac Grunwaldzki housing estate in Wrocław in shaping the appearance and functionality of their immediate surroundings by educating a group of local leaders active in the areas of ecology and sustainable development.

photo: Marcin Szczygieł

The project is an extension of the Ładne Historie Foundation's activities under the Plac Grunwaldzki OD NOWA brand – a series of long-term projects and activities implemented by the foundation's team in Wrocław's Grunwald district. This estate is a unique area in Wrocław – we have identified many unmet social needs, among which a key one for us is the activation of the local community and the development of a group of local leaders (people for whom the quality of life in the estate is a high priority and who want to engage in processes related to improving it). We have built a program of activities addressed to this group around a universal and extremely important theme for us – ecology and combating climate change. "Civic Workshop – Green Plac Grunwaldzki OD NOWA" is an educational and participatory program involving residents. Under the guidance of invited experts, they will map the public space of the estate, focusing on issues related to the city's ecology (including green and blue infrastructure, public transport, urban greenery and wildlife, as well as the river and riverside areas) and the needs in this regard that exist in the immediate area. Based on the collected data, a group of future leaders will prepare and consult with their neighbors on project proposals that address the identified needs in the local community. The selected project will then be submitted to the Wrocław Participatory Budget, creating it from scratch and implementing the campaign independently.

photo: Marcin Szczygieł

The project's intended outcomes primarily include education and knowledge transfer about the Plac Grunwaldzki estate and its infrastructure needs, the status of the city's natural environment, and the tools necessary for urban remediation. The project's expertise is essential for developing a professional project for the Wrocław Participatory Budget and implementing its promotional campaign. However, the results of the workshop are not just raw numbers – such as 44 educational events, one project for the WBO, or a campaign implemented jointly with project participants – but above all, they encompass social change, which we aim to achieve through the involvement of representatives of the local community in the area where we operate. By "change," we primarily mean motivating residents of Grunwaldzki Square to actively participate in the participatory mechanisms offered by the Wrocław Municipality, co-deciding on the shape and future of their neighborhood, and, above all, strengthening relationships within the local community, to which, through the implementation of this project, we are giving agency and decision-making power over the public space of their neighborhood.

photo: Marcin Szczygieł

Citizen Workshop – Green Plac Grunwaldzki OD NOWA is a project that we are implementing in five stages:

 

  • STAGE I – Completed (November 2021-May 2022) – we initiate the activities of the leadership workshop and map the resources, needs and priorities related to green projects in the Grunwaldzki Square area.

 

  • STAGE II – completed (June 2022-January 2023) – at this stage, we focus primarily on consulting the results of the local diagnosis and mapping together with the residents of the estate, and as a result of the consultations, we create a project for the WBO.

 

  • STAGE III – Completed (February 2023-July 2023) – we dedicated this stage to creating a promotional campaign from scratch for the project we created. However, before we create the campaign, we need to raise our level of competence in the field of promotion and building narratives in social campaigns.

 

  • STAGE IV – Completed (August 2023-September 2023) – at this stage, we are investing all our local strength and resources into promoting the project we have prepared and encouraging the residents of Wrocław to vote for it.

 

  • STAGE V – completed (September 2023) – this stage is primarily a comprehensive evaluation of the task.
photo: Marcin Szczygieł

From the beginning of this project, we were involved in organizing and running the project office, promotion and PR, as well as initiating and running a leadership workshop, within which students from universities located in the estate – together with people from the local community – took part in a series of fourteen educational meetings and workshops, as well as mining walks with the participation of experts with experience in areas related to sustainable development in urban public spaces.

Thank you Association of Polish Architects in Wrocław for supporting our project!

 

photo: Marta Sobala

Activities implemented in the first stage of the project:

 

  1. inaugural lecture on urban participatory mechanisms related to green and blue infrastructure by Artur Celiński (DNA Miasta) combined with an information meeting (15/12) – the event was open and organized using Zoom;
  2. the educational walk „Architecture, history and potential” was developed and led by Ewa Pluta from the Wrocław City Museum and the ART Transparent Foundation (22/01);
  3. the mining workshop "Mapping group potentials" (23/02) is an event developed and led by Kamila Kamińska-Sztark (Association for Critical Education) and Marcin Rosiński (Fundacja Ładne Historie);
  4. On March 5th, a meeting entitled "Social Diagnosis of Grunwaldzki Square Users" was held. The moderator (Hanna Achremowicz from the Critical Education Association) introduced the group to mind maps;
  5. „Foodshift, cultivation and circulation of food in the city” – this event took place on March 16, developed and led by Marta Sylla from the Institute of Spatial Management of the University of Life Sciences;
  6. „Forecasts, instruments, perspectives in the city’s green activities” – this event took place on March 25 and was developed and led by Grzegorz Synowiec – head of the Department of Environmental and Climate Management at the Wrocław City Hall;
  7. On March 30, the "Walk and cycle walk using the city infrastructure" took place – this event was developed and led by Anna Szmigiel-Franz and Daniel Chojnacki from the Office for Sustainable Mobility of the Wrocław City Hall and Aleksandra Zienkiewicz from the Municipal Greenery Board;
  8. „Odra, Oława, Grunwald” – this walk was developed and led on April 9 by Krzysztof Zaremba from ODRA Centrum;
  9. „What is this WBO all about?” – this meeting took place on April 14, prepared and led by Joanna Klima – leader of WBO and president of Serco Szczepina, and Beata Baranowska from Akcja Miasto;
  10. the "Usability Design" meeting took place on May 11, and was prepared and led by Tomasz Szeligowski from SWPS;
  11. On May 14th, we carried out "How do you use the Plac Grunwaldzki estate?" – a field study (mobile research points within the estate), during which we used the mind mapping methodology to collect information from the local community;
  12. On May 18th, a meeting entitled „Pop-up social architecture” was held, prepared and led by Menthol Architects;
  13. On May 27, the first workshop prepared and led by Małgorzata Iwańska and Justyna Bogusławska took place – „UX Research – Creating Personas”;
  14. On May 28, the second workshop prepared and led by Małgorzata Iwańska and Justyna Bogusławska took place – „UX Research – Creating User Paths”.

Activities implemented in the second stage of the project:

 

  1. On June 4th it took place consultation meeting with residents during a neighborhood picnic as part of the Plac Grunwaldzki Estate Festival;
  2. On June 8th, it took place educational walk „Nature in the City”, developed and led by Małgorzata Piszczek;
  3. On June 24, June 30, July 1 and July 2 took place four working sessions led by mentors from the PROLOG studio;
  4. September was devoted to honing skills and tools related to the public consultation process – two workshop meetings (14/09 and 23/09) and consultation walk with residents Grunwald (16/09) was prepared and led by Barbara Celebucka (House of Peace Foundation and Other Center);
  5. 5.10 Renata Piwko-Wolny and Izabela Folga-Łozińska (leaders of the Wrocław WBO associated with the Swojczyce housing estate) led workshop meeting around the tasks of people involved in the promotion of WBO in local communities, and on 6.10 in turn led mining walk around WBO;
  6. On October 19, the working group initiated as part of the task met with experts, representatives of the City Hall and the Plac Grunwaldzki Estate Council in order to presentation and consultation the ideological concept of the project for the reconstruction of the intersection of Ładna, Grunwaldzka, Benedyktyńska and Górnickiego streets;
  7. On October 24 and 25, they took place two working meetings around the functional plan of the above-mentioned intersection with Menthol Architects;
  8. November 9th took place working session with the Student Scientific Club Habitat NOW, on November 19, students of the above-mentioned student club met with the local working group on on-site inspection;
  9. On November 21st, Katarzyna Bochenek from the "Światowid" Creative Activities Centre led a workshop for the residents of the estate workshop „"Climate ABC";
  10. On December 21st another one took place working session with the Habitat NOW Student Scientific Club;
  11. On January 11 and 18, further meetings were held working sessions regarding the Wrocław Citizens' Budget;
  12. On January 25th it took place educational meeting around the "Wild Wrocław" campaign, developed and led by Weronika Mazurek.

Activities implemented in the third stage of the project:

 

  1. February 15th took place workshop „Review of social campaigns and WBO campaigns”, led by Marcin Rosiński.
  2. March 1st took place workshop „Analysis of the register of housing estate media and generating ideas for the Green Grunwald Square campaign”, led by Marcin Rosiński.
  3. On March 15 and 29, they took place two research meetings (focus groups) with WBO practitioners and representatives of the local community, led by Małgorzata Iwańska and Justyna Bogusławska.
  4. On April 19 and 25, they took place two strategic workshops, led by Magda Tyrka – these were meetings concerning the analysis of research conducted so far and a meeting concerning campaign planning and dedicated tools.
  5. On May 10 and 11, they took place two communication workshops, led by Marta Mońko – they concern the language, tone and voice of the campaign around WBO.
  6. June 3rd during the neighborhood picnic that we organized during the Plac Grunwaldzki Estate Festival at the information point we presented the first visualizations of the solutions proposed in project no. 200, which was prepared by the team Habitat NOW Student Science Club.
  7. On May 24 and June 14, they took place two creative workshops (consisting of ideation, generation, and prototyping), led by Magda Tyrka. The result of these two meetings is the brief for this year's WBO campaign.
  8. On July 5 and 22, the following took place: two creative meetings, during which the first projects for this year's campaign were created.

 

Activities implemented in the fourth stage of the project:

The "Renewal at Grunwald" promotional campaign was implemented at two levels – the neighborhood level and the citywide level. It focused on two projects submitted under the WBO 2023: project no. 200, "Renewal at Ładnej and Miła Streets," and project no. 204, "Renewal at Pasteur Street.".

 

The key message of the citywide campaign was to draw the attention of Wrocław residents to the unique nature of this year's campaign – the know-how and methodology developed as part of this project, the mapping and local diagnosis process of the Plac Grunwaldzki estate, and the involvement of experts from various sectors. Another important element of the project's narrative was the involvement of students from Wrocław universities, who typically do not engage in neighborhood activities.

 

At the local level, a key assumption was the inclusion of local heroes and heroines—individuals recognized and respected in the local community. Residents involved in preparing the WBO projects themselves played a crucial role here, including a local architect, a social committee leader, and even a local community leader.

 

As part of the campaign, we focused on:

 

  • media dispatch and PR activities,
  • maximizing the use of the Foundation's promotional channels,
  • outdoor campaign (including purchasing advertising space on advertising pillars, engaging service establishments in displaying posters and leaflets, involving schools and small businesses in the promotion of WBO)
  • cooperation within local partnerships – including schools, the Estate Council, and the local shopping mall,
  • the involvement of volunteers – including both students and residents of the estate – in the distribution of information materials,
  • advertising on social media.
photo: Marcin Szczygieł

„Civic Workshop – Green Plac Grunwaldzki OD NOWA” is a project financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway from the EEA Grants under the Active Citizens Programme – Regional Fund.