Placemaking for Active recreation approach and tools
“Placemaking for Physical Activity Kit” represents the joint energy of mixing the expertise of grassroots sport and placemaking sectors and developing a new concept of promoting physical activity and sport in urban settings with the Placemaking for Active Recreation approach and tools. The ultimate goal of the approach is to support and improve the capacities of both sectors and the result to be in improved programs and places facilitating physical activity in the urbanized areas.
Cross-border/international
Bulgaria
Malta
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Spain
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Romania
Bulgaria - Varna
Romania - Suchava
Spain - Madrid
Malta - Valleta, Gozo
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Yes
ERASMUS
Erasmus+ Sport Large collaborative partnership. The project was initiated in 2020.
No
Yes
2022-12-30
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): BG Be Active Association Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Laska Last name of representative: Nenova Gender: Female Nationality: Bulgaria Function: International relations and partnerships Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Tzar Boris III BLV, Town: Plovdiv Postal code: 4000 Country: Bulgaria Direct Tel:+359 88 852 4158 E-mail:laska.nenova@gmail.com Website:https://www.bgbeactive.org/
URL:https://twitter.com/BGBEACTIVE Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): @BGBEACTIVE #placemakingbulgaria #placemakingfordemocracy
URL:https://www.facebook.com/miastobulgaria Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #changeispossible #withoutwaste #placemakingBulgaria #бъдиактивен #безотпадъци
The link between HEPA’s promotion of physical activity and the design of built environments is that the streets and squares that make up the public realm provide a valuable platform for daily exercise. However, exercise is just one of several aspects relevant to the health of settlements. The need to rethink these environments to help us lead healthier lives began to be apparent towards the end of the 20th century, and the urgency to do so has been increasing ever since. Many high-level, international organizations (WHO, Lancet, and others) whose mission is to combat the explosion of illnesses that result from contemporary lifestyles send out consistent messages about how we can and should lead healthier lifestyles, each one focusing on the aspects of most relevance to its specific concerns. With that said, the project “Placemaking for Physical Activity Kit" managed to bring together the experience of experts in grassroots sport and placemaking sectors and developed a new concept of promoting physical activity and sport in urban settings.
As part of the project development we:
- We dug into previous works, tools, and guides and understood what was done, what worked or what did not, and created the "Heal our cities" research paper;
- We created the “Placemaking for Active Recreation Kit - containing - a research paper, а defined approach, collection of placemaking tools, policy and practical recommendations, and a free e-learning course. All of the resources are shared on an online platform and widely disseminated through the networks of Placemaking Europe and the International Sport and Culture Association;
- We piloted the adaptability and viability of the approach and tools to different settings in Bulgaria, Malta, Romania, and Spain. All four pilots produced new public spaces inviting people to be physically active in them.
Placemaking
Active Recreation
Community engagement
Networks and peer learning
Partnerships
Some of the ways to ensure sustainability in the environment sense through the project were:
- Choosing placemaking as the guiding methodology to help the creation of sustainable, resilient, public spaces suitable for physical activity that are in harmony with the environment.
- Advising pilot partners of the project in incorporating sustainable materials such as using locally-sourced and recycled materials,
- Advising pilot partners, and the wider stakeholder group to advocate their local governments the incorporation of elements of nature in public space design;
- Advising, through the policy and practical resources of the project for the design of spaces to encourage active transportation, such as walking and cycling, to reduce car dependence and emissions.
- Advising partners and users of the active recreation approach to incorporating lifecycle thinking by designing spaces with the long-term in mind, such as designing spaces that are adaptable and flexible, and incorporating sustainable maintenance and management practices.
For example: In Romania, the placemaking for active recreation approach was applied in 3 locations in 3 different cities, Suceava, Gura Humorului, and Oltenita. The spaces were sanitized, cleared of vegetation, and then transformed into dynamic areas for students and teachers with fitness and active game equipment. The transformations were made with the help of paints, brushes, wooden pallets, or used tires and led to an increase in the participation of residents in the neighborhoods.
Ultimately, the goal of placemaking is to create spaces that are enjoyable to be in and that contribute to the overall quality of life in a community. As the project followed closely the placemaking principles and a core objective were the creation and testing of a dedicated approach using placemaking to improve physical activity levels we ensured from the start that a focus of the work of all partners is fostering a sense of belonging in the involved communities.
To present the work on this objective here is the feedback of the Maltese partner - "In addition to some aesthetical aspects and innovative ideas, safety and accessibility may have played important roles in making the placemaking interventions more attractive to the least active. Structured Spaces such as sports clubs may be off-putting for some and often children and young people are less motivated to participate in physical activity. Therefore, the aim of the interventions was to remove barriers that stop people from engaging in Physical Activity and create vibrant and active spaces close to home or in schools where children and young people spend most of their time. Besides, the space is free to use and available 24/7"
In the project, with community-based participation at its center, an effective placemaking process optimizes the local community's assets, inspirations, and potential, and it results in the co-creation of high-quality public spaces that contribute to people's health, happiness, and well-being. It is a crucial and deeply-valued process to motivate intimate connections between people and the places in which we live our lives. Through the project, we showed people just how powerful their collective vision can be, that they can make a change, and importantly, that their identities can be represented in the environment around them democratically. The learnings of the pilot project, including on the topic of inclusion and accessibility were collected in the policy and practical recommendations - https://park.bgbeactive.org/policy-recommendations/.
And again to visualize this point we again share the feedback of one of our partners from Romania
"Our permanent intervention on public spaces led to an increase in the participation of those in the neighborhoods. In the beginning, there were a number of people of different ages reluctant to the transformations proposed by us. Then, seeing the dynamics of the activities freely expressed by the participants, they decided to involve them as well. The barriers were of medium level and mainly involved elements of bureaucracy and the signing of papers regarding the respect we must have for public space. But these were not major impediments in the smooth running of the activities."
The "planning for people" approach, also known as placemaking, is a bottom-up approach to planning that prioritizes the needs, talents and ideas of local communities. This approach is in contrast to the traditional "project-oriented" approach, which is top-down and often ignores the concerns of local residents. The methodology of placemaking used in this project is based on civic engagement, which means that citizens are involved in the planning process as major stakeholders. The civic engagement process generated new ideas for interventions and invited people to reflect on their surrounding areas in order to plan for more physical activity. These interventions will serve as guidelines for other organizations on a local and national level on how to implement the toolbox, ensuring that the project's impact can be replicated in other cities.
To illustrate the implementation of that objective we share the feedback of our Bulgarian partner.
"Our main goal was to create a working model for the local reality of Varna, Bulgaria on how to transform a neglected public space into a better place for physical activity by actively involving the local community and engaging them in a long-term perspective with the specific place development. As a grassroots organization trying to adapt and apply placemaking in Bulgaria since 2018, we could say that this is the most successful intervention we have had up to now fully covering all placemaking stages. During the interventions we had a high number of participation of local community representatives in all online and offline communication processes - in online communication and discussions we always have more than 30 people engaged; during the interventions in the park we had more than 50 people active at once; and we have a local community Facebook group with more than 150 community members."
In the design and implementation of the project, different stakeholders at various levels were engaged. At the local and national level, implementing partners were chosen due to their large experience in community work and their previous European project experience while operating in community urban settings in their countries. These partners (Suchava Sport for all, Romania; MOVE Malta, DES, Spain; Power Jump, Bulgaria) had built up expertise in the promotion of physical activity through cultural, educational or environmental interventions. Their engagement allowed for the testing of a new toolbox developed by the project consortium. While testing the approach and toolbox the pilot partners also involved and engaged their local stakeholders - be it local communities, municipalities, school boards, church boards and government.
At the European level, the involved project’s pan-European partners - International Sport and culture association and Placemaking Europe have the expertise in facilitating cross-border and cross-sector partnerships, specialist knowledge of physical activity and urban policies in different European contexts, and broad-reaching dissemination channels. They have a large network of organizational members worldwide that operate in community sport settings and had had success in advocating for changes in sport and physical activity policy at an EU level. Their engagement provided the project with a broader reach and networking opportunities to advocate for changes in policy.
The added value of the engagement of these different stakeholders was the low-cost solution to contributing to healthy lifestyles in Europe by better integrating stakeholders in placemaking for physical activity and the ability to demonstrate how links could be strengthened between community sports organizations and urban organizations through holistic approach and take this model of collaboration forward to policymakers through the partners’ recommendations.
The project brought together experts from various disciplines and knowledge fields, including urban planning, community sport, public health, physical activity promotion, and design. The project team was composed of experts in specific fields who provided an overview of relevant topics and developed the framework for the online course and policy recommendations. Additionally, the team included experts with rich practical experience on the national level in delivering a variety of programs and activities for their target groups, providing more and better opportunities for physical activity and sport. The partnership included experts from Northern and Western Europe and pilot organizations from Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in order to address the needs of different groups in various urban settings where physical activity can be practiced and to create a vision of the concept adaptable to national contexts in Europe.
In order to ensure a smooth implementation and facilitate frequent interaction on the project activities, BGBA, as the coordinating organization created a system making sure relations between the partners as well as between partners and external stakeholders are sound and positive, and addressing misunderstandings, change of situations, was prioritized as part of the ongoing project coordination. The consortium had a system of frequent feedback and evaluation sessions.
The Placemaking for active recreation approach and tools created as a result of the research and development process of the partners, provided tools and techniques for urban stakeholders to affect city planning agendas in their localities. By reframing urban environments and encouraging unintentional physical activity, it brought attention to decaying or abandoned areas and improved the quality of urban spaces through a holistic concept of urban space. This reframing of urban areas for more physical activity positively affected the physical and mental health of local community members. The new approach is inherently scalable and replicable. No placemaking intervention could be carried out without the involvement of citizens, the major stakeholders of the city, and without consideration of public opinion. The pilots of the approach and tools in four countries provoked placemaking for physical activity interventions in each implementing city. These interventions were designed to show local people how urban spaces could be reshaped to provoke unintentional physical activity and frame active environments. Partners determined the specifics of each intervention based on the national context to provide a higher reach. Civic engagement generated new ideas on how to conduct interventions and invited people to reflect on their surrounding areas in order to plan for more physical activity. These interventions presented guidelines for other organizations on local and national levels on how to implement the toolbox. The exploitation of the concept on local and national levels created new partnerships and collaborations on the European level to exchange knowledge and experience. The already global reach of two networks of ISCA and Placemaking Europe ensured that the impact of this project was felt much further afield than in each of the national case situations.
The project takes a novel approach to addressing the relationship between urban spaces and physical activity by linking grassroots urban designers, known as placemakers, with grassroots sports organizations. The goal is to develop a common solutions package that supports and improves the capacities of both sectors, resulting in improved programs and places that facilitate physical activity in urban areas. One key innovation of the project is the use of placemaking as a tool to increase physical activity. Placemaking is an iterative, strategic process that challenges traditional top-down approaches in order to co-create thriving, long-lasting places. It includes both economic and social perspectives to ensure high quality of life in the spaces it creates. Additionally, the project's use of placemaking as a tool for grassroots sports organizations is an innovative methodology that has not been widely adopted in this field before. The growing global movement of placemaking and the success of placemaking networks and events around the world demonstrate the potential for this approach to bring about positive change in communities.
The methodology used in the project is based on the understanding of the relationship between levels of physical activity and the physical environment in cities. The project focuses on utilizing the Placemaking process, which has been subject to many different studies. Placemaking is a strategy for co-creation, focusing on economic and social well-being, and quality of life. It considers that the human need for prosperity, sociability and security is indispensable and necessary to counter alienation. Placemaking is a collaborative process in which people come together to create vital public spaces that bring health, happiness and social connection to their communities. It looks at familiar places through new lenses and can reveal new possibilities for parks, neighbourhoods, streets, downtowns, waterfronts, plazas, markets, public buildings and other shared places. It is not limited to constructing buildings, designing plazas or developing retail projects, but focuses on serving people as a vital community resource in which function always trumps form. This approach allows all people of all ages, abilities, and socio-economic background to not only access and enjoy a place but also play a key role in its identity, creation, and maintenance. As both an overarching idea and a hands-on approach for improving a neighborhood, city, or region, placemaking inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community. Encouraging more physical activity through city-making requires that such efforts are part of, or aligned with, the city's strategic political priorities.
All of the developed during the project are available for any organization that wants to promote physical activity in urban settings, The resources:
- research paper
- approach and case studies
- toolbox
-policy recommendations
- e- learning course
can be found on the project's website - https://park.bgbeactive.org/approach/.
Additionally, an online course was made available on ISCA's platform for anyone interested in the agenda, providing guidelines on how to practically integrate placemaking in physical activity promotion or how to use physical activity for urban space renovation. Through the project, we also developed a network of physical activity and urban stakeholders that could continue to collaborate and advocate for policy changes after the EU grant had been used up.
The rapid increase in sedentary behaviors is resulting in a negative impact on health and wellness. According to a report by The Lancet, in high-income countries, time spent in cars, watching television, and other forms of screen use account for up to 85% of adults' non-occupational sitting time. This trend is also prevalent in low and middle-income countries as they shift towards manufacturing and service economies with increased use of labor-saving devices and more motorized forms of transport. The World Health Organization's Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018-2030 also recognizes the importance of addressing this issue, stating that regular physical activity is proven to help prevent and treat non-communicable diseases, as well as improve mental health, quality of life, and well-being. Through research, we know that the city environments are crucial in determining our physical activity habits, as they can either encourage or discourage physical activity. With that said, based on the understanding that streets and squares that make up the public realm provide a valuable platform for daily exercise, and the project provides, easily localized, resources and tools to the grassroots sport sector and urban design sector to rethink these environments to help individuals lead healthier lives. On the other hand, the placemaking for active recreation approach is allowing grassroots activists, in their own context, to turn the process around by tapping into the needs, talents, and ideas of the local communities. Apart from combining best practices of using placemaking for physical activity promotion, the project also focused on the needs of the cities and community sport and placemaking stakeholders and has a strong link with real-life city challenges and barriers.
