Goals

Problem statement:

The village of Utra, Samegrelo, faces a problem with resources. About 43% of the population lives in poverty. There are also 350 IDP families from Abkhazia. These factors make it difficult to create a vibrant community.

Although these problems don’t have easy fixes, we think that one way of solving this will be creating a public space, so the village can come together and support each other.

We week the following changes:

1) A safe, creative and ecologically designed outdoor meeting space with a playground for the community created by the inhabitants.

2) Community empowerment through the process of creating the park: teamwork, negotiations, fundraising, design, etc.

3) A secure space for children to play and improve their social and physical skills.

4)Active parenthood, where parents can play together with their children and network with other parents

5) Inspiration for neighbouring rural communities to take their own initiatives.

Proposed Solution:

The community (parents, children, neighbours) will create an outdoor meeting space with a playground for the whole community including children . All community members, no matter of age or background, will co-design the space contributing with their ideas and work and feeling responsibility for the place at every stage of its creation and then maintenance.

We were lent by the local administration 400 square meters, with the possibility to expand for our space.

The stages of creation include:

1) Design : joint brainstorming on ideas with the whole community. We have contacted two professionals who build ecological community playgrounds in Poland and Germany and they offered free-of-charge consultations.

2) Creation: we want to start in the beginning of July to built the very place using existing materials and resources: tires, old constructions, people's time and ideas and additional materials raised from other sources.

3) Shared experience: we will use the created space everyday for socializing, playing, being together, sharing new ideas and planning their implementation. The community proposes additional activities around the meetings place, such as Megrelian singing, experiment-based physics lessons for children, firecamps, interactive lessons for small children.

Sustainability:

Because this idea is a grassroots initiative, we believe our community will be invested in keeping the clean and in good repair. We hope that our community will take pride in having a beautiful space.

This project helps to organise further the everyday maintenance of the place.

The community is willing to share its experience and know-how and support others in implementation of similar grass-root level actions. This is how the idea will be kept alive and spread.

Equal gender opportunity:

This space will be built and used by everyone, men and women alike.