On 30/11/2020 and during the Coronavirus lockdown in Greece, the Intercultural High School of Thessaloniki organized a digital co-creation lab. Teachers, students, SIPs and community members participated with the aim to reactivate the plans of students for improving their school that were interrupted due to the previous lockdown in Spring.
Although the school is still closed, participants discussed their ideas for improving their school and raising awareness in the local community about the difficulties they face due to the lack of appropriate school infrastructures.
By implementing the 5Ws exercise of the NEMESIS resource bank, students and teachers presented their firsts thoughts about their project idea and why it is important, who will be involved and who it will affect; as well as where and when it will happen.
One of the teachers, Efi Damptsi, had invited in the co-creation lab Aris Chatzinikolaou. Aris is a SIP and he is leading the work of the Environmental Team of the university of Macedonia. Aris presented the various actions that the Environmental team of the university have done to make the inner and outer space of the university more environmentally friendly and thus inspire students about their social innovation project in their school.
Participants stressed that they need to make big efforts to improve the school as both the building and the schoolyard has many problems – both aesthetic and operational. In this process, it was evident that they will need help and support from different people in the town.
Alex Theodoridis, a SIP who is running the food waste NGO Boroume, suggested to the team to start by creating a video showing the problems in the school and students plans for improvement and share it with the local authorities and local community. In this way, students will be able to ask for the support of many different actors in their city. Alex mentioned that are many people out there who are ready to help. Teachers were very enthusiastic with this idea saying that it will be a great opportunity for making students voice heard.
Finally, participants said that their next steps are to make clear plans and as soon schools open to go into their school and create a video with all the problematic things that need improvement. In parallel, they will think about the skills they miss and the people they will need for fulfilling their goals. Aris mentioned that the environmental team of the University will be happy to help!
The co-lab meeting closed with a promise to keep the spirit up despite this extremely difficult period we are all undergoing.