As the new year begins, the UP2YOU Erasmus+ Project continues to move forward, with new important steps.
UP2YOU is an Erasmus+ funded project aiming at bridging the gap between academic knowledge and on-field expertise, for the purpose of fostering broader local collaborations and cooperating more effectively on the common challenges of our times.
The hackathon represented a milestone in the progress of the project, bringing together students, educators, CSO professionals, and stakeholders from five different countries to embark on a collaborative journey in Cyprus. From November 26–28, 2024, the participants co-designed the Community Balance Scorecard (CBS), a tool for measuring and enhancing community welfare and development. They also co-created key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress across various dimensions, such as environmental health, social inclusion, and education accessibility.
A new video is now out, showing the key points of the Hackathon in Cyprus. Watch it to discover the highlights of this inspiring journey and see how cooperation fuels change!
As ALDA, during the Hackathon, we held a webinar about the Living Community Labs (LCL) – a nexus of learning, networking and experimentation that fosters the cooperation between high-level education institutions, CSOs, local authorities and territorial stakeholders on the localisation of the SDGs. A Living Community Lab can at the same time be a virtual platform for training and sharing views, and a real-life community, working on pilot actions at local level.
This first in-presence webinar was meant for the stakeholders to identify the needs of their local communities and the challenges they face. Since the LCL will be implemented in the 5 selected countries, they need to reflect the local context, therefore this first step is of great importance.
What are the next steps for the creation of the LCLs?
- Local co-design of the concrete functions and priorities of the LCLs, also through the sustain of the Community Balance Scorecard, the tool that was co-created during the Hackathon in Cyprus;
- Implementation of the LCLs through a pilot action collaboratively decided by the participants to the co-design phase;
- Re-discussion of the LCLs idea on the basis of the pilot experiments, and adjustments in order to become a sustainable and replicable model.
The future of the project is UP2YOU!
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