Involving citizens in the development and planning of multimodal city quarters is crucial for achieving a high level of well-being in a city. In the cities.multimodal project the partner cities are testing different kinds of citizen involvement methods targeting a wide range of citizens.
The city of Tartu (EE) has partnered up with the local M.Reinik School (grades 1-9) and three local stakeholders for organising a Mobility Project Management course for 8th graders of the M. Reinik School. The purpose of the project course is to attract 8th graders into thinking independently about mobility problems in the school and the surrounding area. The course programme began in October 2019 and will continue during the school year.
The course programme consists of four classes each lasting 90 minutes. The 8th graders were given an assignment related to mobility that they need to prepare and execute individually during the school year. The students could choose the framework for their assignments themselves resulting in different art and research projects as well as the organizing of events, all related to mobility.
The theme of the first class dealt with mobility in everyday life; how mobility impacts the students and the people around them and what impact mobility can have on the environment. The second class was about the four basic steps of project management. How to set goals, how to plan for resources, how to execute and how to measure the results.
The third class was organized with mobility experts from the Tartu City Government. Prior to the class the students were given the assignment to refine their ideas, during the class they received feedback from the mobility experts. The experts provided feedback on the scope of the project, the possible impact, feasibility and pointed to issues that needed refinement.
The fourth class was a final presentation of the students’ mobility projects. Projects were given 3 minutes for presentation followed by questions. The projects were evaluated by a panel of five experts from the Tartu City Government and the Institute of Baltic Studies. In the end eight projects were presented and four projects were evaluated as feasible and good enough for implementation.
The projects are the organizing of a car free day, a walking bus, drawing and video competition and a bike and spare part fare. The purpose of the drawing and video competition is about raising awareness about fun, difficult and weird situations related to commuting to school.
The project course is funded partially by cities.multimodal and partially by the City of Tartu.
For more information, please contact Sini Lamoureux, sini.lamoureux@turku.fi