In order to tackle pressing societal issues, we must reconsider how we design and inhabit our neighbourhoods. The necessity of consistently including end users or local communities is sometimes overlooked in the planning, designing, and construction processes used today. However, combining community knowledge and initiatives can result in more liveable neighbourhoods that empower citizens and represent local needs and surroundings. Furthermore, the way public areas are constructed can have a big influence on how people interact with one another, what kinds of activities happen there, and how much trust the public has in their local government and democracy as a whole. The project seeks to rethink how neighborhoods are designed and experienced by emphasizing the importance of involving local communities in the planning, design, and construction processes. By incorporating community knowledge, more livable spaces can be created that meet local needs and empower residents. Public spaces are vital in fostering social interaction, trust in government, and democratic engagement. Equipping people with the tools to actively participate in co-designing these environments can strengthen social trust, enhance a sense of belonging, and boost community involvement. The "Sustainable Public Spaces through Inclusive Community Engagement (SPICE)" project aims to develop a participatory co-creation model for shaping neighborhoods. It will explore and test innovative methods to engage communities in co-designing and maintaining public spaces across diverse European neighborhoods. By promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, leveraging digital tools, and using sustainable construction practices, the project aims to address societal challenges, promote social inclusion, support democratic participation, and align with the European Green Deal and New European Bauhaus principles.

Context: In the partner countries there are various good practices and successful results for refugee, immigrant and asylum seekers. In spite of all these good practices, most of the European countries have produced temporary policies and solutions to struggle with the problems of refugee, immigrant and asylum seekers, this projects is different from other projects because it produces permanent solutions and the project is sophisticated. It has been tested whether or not all the programs are effective on the refugee, immigrant and asylum seekers and it has been necessary to collect all these programs under one title. Based on this need the good practices in different countries are gathered a transnational project has been designed to establish a holistic program. Objectives; 1- Training for the language in order to provide the social integration of refugee, immigrant and asylum seeker children and their families. 2- Disseminating good practices towards the children among the regions. 3- Preparing a joint action plan that makes the social integration of the parents and children easier. 4- Increasing communication competence of the staff working in the partner institutions in regard to the psycho-social integration. 5- Leading the disabled refugee, immigrant and asylum seeker students to related special training schools. 6-Providing the participation of the refugee, immigrant and asylum seeker students studying in the partner schools and their families to the social activities. 7-Increasing refugee, immigrant and asylum seeker families’ competences of child education and development within the parenting education program. 8-Creating social integration center in order to provide the coordination among all refugee, immigrant and asylum seeker parents, students and staffs of the partner institutions that participate in the program. 9-Creating awareness among the locals about the problems and social integration of the refugee, immigrant and asylum seekers. 10-Providing the orientation of the students to the school.Number of partipants and profile:84 staff participated in mobilities. Project participants were educational staff, teachers, administrators, immigrant/asylum seeker families, and students. 52 staff participated in our joint staff training. Activities: - Our project regional partners and local partners have provided language education to school and asylum seekers and parents. - Workshop programs were organized in order to make good practices fit into the region. - Workshop programs were organized in order to make good practices fit into the region. - Trainings in each one day for partner institution staff- Conducting a questionnaire for the staff and evaluation of the questionnaire- Choosing of the disabled students- Leading the students to special education and vocational education and registration to related departments - Social and cultural activities for the refugee families -Trainings for the refugee families- Conducting questionnaire for the families and evaluation of the questionnaire - Performing of the procedures about opening of the social integration center -Pressing project hand book and sending them to the schools and institutions -Mentoring to the studentsMethodology: During the project, workshops, trainings, real-time observations and class practices, report preparation, research, mobility, work sharing activities were conducted to achieve the project objectives. All of these studies have been carried out by our regional partners with their local partners. The regional partners conducted quarterly project evaluation meetings.Results and impact:1- Students and parents participated in the language education program of the region where they live. The language training program continued throughout the project. Plans for language training as dissemination activities were carried out after the project.2- Good practices for children are explored and disseminated among regions3- A joint action plan was prepared based on good practices to facilitate the social integration of parents and students.4- Psycho-social integration capabilities of refugees and migrants have been increased. 5- Disabled students were directed to the relevant special education schools.6- The participation of students and their families in the social activities was provided.7- Parents' education and development skills in the parenting education program have been increased,8- A social integration center has been established to provide coordination between parents, students and staff of partner institutions.9- Communication skills of refugees and migrants working in mutual institutions or associations on psycho-social integration were increased.10- Awareness was raised about the problems and social integration of refugees and migrants among local people.11 – School teachers improved their skills in including and communicating with migrant students and their families.

"The motivation leading to the development of SparkSEEDs proposal results from previous contacts and work groups established among the organisations involved (schools, municipality, youth organisations, public-private network and public bodies) where it became clear the urgent need to change and to entail innovation in the educational process, being intended the update from current educational model to a more modern, capable of preparing youth for the present and for the future, empowering them to overcome the most pressing challenges of society, and being this innovation supported and amplified by National and European recommendations and policy trends. SparkSEEDs project aimed to build and develop a community based non-formal educational ecosystem with the aim to promote and support the regular offer of extra-school high quality and enriching activities, dedicated to and participated by youth, by capitalising important endogenous resources (human, intergenerational, cultural, natural, material, traditional, among other) in a crossed approach between youth main interests & needs and the most actual societal challenges. Powered by a network of public and private entities and civil society representatives, established beyond project partnership, a concrete “learning community” (SparkCOMMUNITY) was then created, competent for embracing a proposal for social transformation, and qualified for supporting the acquisition by youth of critical skills linked to the school, but going beyond its limits, thus involving the entire community in the formation of their individuals. Under the “umbrella” of the SparkCOMMUNITY a set of results, subsidiary & complementary, were achieved and contributed jointly, among other, for project global aims: > SparkYWorkers: A Capacity Building Programme (Trainings and Job Shadowing) for Youth Workers (facilitators, volunteers and NEETs) from the community & from its organisations, aiming to purposefully increase and adjust youth work skills and quality, thus giving capacity to assist regular & consistent non-formal learnings & activities for youth, and also to transfer societal fundamental values to young people, thus preventing the main phenomena actually affecting young people (school absence & unsuccess, bullying & any kind of violence, non-healthy behaviours, lack of participation & initiative, etc.); > SparkCLUBs: constituting the practical activities addressed to youth, the SparkCLUBs provided high-quality extra-school and free time activities for the integrated learnings of young people. The activities include as well the development of a SparkCAMP, a comprehensive Summer-Camp (programme of enriching activities for occupation of free time during school vacation times), facilitating an additional important result: safe & quality alternative/solution for families and educators for the ""positive"" occupation of the free time of their youngsters; > SparkSEEDing: A Dissemination Pack (as dissemination is one of the main pillars of the project), was developed in straight alignement with national, European and global trends on education. Besides, due to the pilot nature of the project and being project’s rationale strongly representative of the needs of many other educational ecosystems and communities all over Europe, a solid dissemination dimension was then fully justified by its usefulness and pertinence. SparkSEEDs partners enthusiastically believe that project proposal has the power to change positively the educational systems and issues addressed. This motivating idea was the compelling force behind all of SparkSEEDs products and results. With this in mind, and with the intention of supporting communities, its organisations and youth workers in their process of sparking the education of Youth, project should become a free and global interdisciplinary community based educational model, accessible for all. Along 24 months, a partnership composed by public and private institutions from Portugal, Italy and Poland, were responsible to address project objectives through the implementation of a sequent and interconnected plan of activities (SparkCOMMUNITY, SparkLABs, SparkCLUBs, SparkYWorkers Capacity Building Programme – 2 transnational trainings, 3 Job Shadowing actions, 5 Transnational Meetings, a set of Multiplier events, among other) could involve and benefit directly more than 400 youngsters (>180 with less opportunities) and more than 300 youth workers and educational staff. Indirect beneficiaries, namely through dissemination phase, communication measures and web based tools, a much larger number was achieved."