The Urban GoodCamp project brings communities together to create greater impact

Snapshots of the community events held in different partner cities


By:  Catherine Hayward (UIIN)

​Stakeholder consultation is key throughout the Urban GoodCamp project lifespan. Thus, the project envisions the undertaking of at least four events where urban stakeholders are engaged to provide feedback, insights, and advice around the development and implementation of the project bootcamps.

Consultation Events 

The initial Consultation Events have already taken place across six partner cities (Amsterdam, Helsinki, Ljubljana, Madrid, Paris & Venice), and this kick-started a collaboration between the community of stakeholders and the UCAMP consortium. Insights were gained into the urban challenges that stakeholders found most pressing, and these challenges were integrated into the learning framework and toolkit of the UCAMP bootcamps, allowing students the opportunity to apply their new knowledge to real issues.

Community Building Events

Considering the valuable input gained from stakeholders that was used in the development of the bootcamps, the next step was to obtain feedback from the communities on the bootcamp toolkit and content. Therefore, the partners once again have brought together their urban stakeholders to discuss the outline of the bootcamp, in a so-called Community Building Events. These events not only  aim to obtain feedback, but also focus on how to better create connections between stakeholders themselves (i.e., how can they work together to solve urban challenges?), as well as developing linkages between the stakeholders and the project consortium for the creation of greater impact.

Looking Forward in our Communities

So far, more than 100 urban stakeholders have taken part in our Community Building Events, and these stakeholders and members of the UCAMP consortium have committed to working together for their goals. For example, the University of Ca’ Foscari and its Venetian stakeholders aim to test possible ways to aggregate the different initiatives already operating in the city, to work towards making Venice a resident- and tourist-friendly city. This process will also allow Ca’ Foscari to test if the university can really become a platform to facilitate co-design processes with local stakeholders, through the creation of an effective innovative learning environment.

Another UCAMP consortium member, Institut Mines-Télécom Business School, has plans to work together with a company that was part of their stakeholder community, to reach more participants for the bootcamp and co-deliver the programme.

Following up on this first Community Building Event, the next step will be for the urban stakeholder groups to provide their suggestions for improvements on the implementation of the bootcamps, so that the toolkit can be updated for future users. There will also be opportunities to further strengthen the alliance between the communities and the UCAMP consortium through innovation tours, additional events and an intercommunity webinar. The second Community Building Event will take place in the first quarter of 2023.