Have you ever seen 180 children, 20 teachers, 2 architects and an educator, equipped with varnish, paintbrushes and planks of wood, ready to transform the public spaces of their city together with local communities?

This is the COM.bus Project! Our mission is to make public spaces more suitable for the needs of kids and their families, and we ask for your help in order to do it.

ABC of the COM.bus project

COM.bus project aims to put in contact citizens and public administration, improving the efficiency and the effectiveness of urban and social policies, towards a higher degree of social inclusion. Kids become the tool through which doing research: they are protagonist of this study, as well as their families and communities. COM.bus project works for the realization in May 2015 of nine temporary “urban tests” located in nine public spaces both in urban and rural areas of the city of Ferrara (ITALY).

Starting from September 2013, during 18 months, we involved 186 children and around 300 parents: furthermore, with the help of 20 teachers of primary school and the Municipality of Ferrara, we learned where to intervene and which strategies and actions to put in practice in order to improve nine struggling spaces.

At work!

Now it’s time to fulfill the nine urban tests! Wood, paint, tapes, mesh and even more: kids, their families, their community networks and us, we will all get our hands dirty to finalize this on – field two years research. We’ll do it also to prove that, in order to make our cities more liveable, we just need to tune in with the real necessities of citizens.

Behind the scenes

Serena, Elena and Giovanni are the people behind the scenes (but actually operative on stage!).

Serena, architect and research coordinator: she tunes in, develops ideas, organizes and composes the project pattern. Kind of an urban involvement Penelope.

Elena, educator and artist: she uses her artistic and musical inspiration to work with the kids and, a little naïve as well, she interprets their drawings, feelings and thoughts converting them into projects and actions.

Giovanni, architect with a communication passion and project creator: by using his undeniable talent in public speaking, he deals with administrators, politicians and sponsors to convince them of the value of our project.

Your contribution

Do you want to contribute to capillary urban actions with a high social impact? Do you want to feel part of a process of change that makes public spaces more liveable, attractive and inclusive through children?

Change doesn’t wait! Your support will cover the material costs of public furniture production, parks and street refurbishment, community facilities, public campaigns about environmental awareness and much more.

Do you want to know more about the project?

http://www.urbancenterferrara.it/pratiche-organizzate/com-bus/