About.

Overview and objectives

The LISTEN project advances the adoption of inclusive and innovative approaches by small community organisations to ensure the meaningful engagement of underprivileged or marginalized groups in social initiatives that will have a real impact on the community members’ needs.

Objectives:

Bridging evidence-based participatory and community-centred research, knowledge, and best practices with meaningful field activities on the ground.

Engaging civil society actors and small organisations in active consultation with community members to co-design activities that respond to the real needs of the most vulnerable.

Advancing capacity building for small community organisations and civil society actors to apply a bottom-up approach, through interactive workshops, hands-on training sessions, art-based interventions, and innovative learning-by-doing practices.

Enhancing the participation and engagement of community members that are marginalised or at risk of social exclusion, ensuring that activities on the ground are relevant, meaningful, innovative, and impactful.

Encouraging the exchange of tools and best practices within the EU civil society sector through hands-on knowledge-exchange opportunities, campaigns, and events.

Providing evidence-based policy recommendations to opinion leaders and policymakers across the EU, on bottom-up approaches.

The project focuses on four geographic areas in the four partner
countries:

Central Macedonia, Greece

Municipality of Topolovgrad, Bulgaria

Verona, Italy

Municipality of Faro, Portugal

All the focus areas comprise both urban and rural populations that share strong community-oriented values while remaining isolated, without opportunities for interconnecting collaborations, and where the existing civic participation and engagement practices may not be inclusive or relevant to their needs.

Guided by up-to-date, evidence- and community-based, bottom-up
methodologies for civic engagement, the project shall:

Co-design a research and intervention agenda with the local community organisations that will inform the project’s mapping and capacity-building activities.

Conduct a thorough and systematic participatory research, actively involving local community organisations in identifying and assessing the existing gaps, challenges, and opportunities in their efforts to respond to community members’ needs.

Develop and deliver an interactive capacity-building programme on participatory work and creative community engagement methodologies for small community organisations

Leverage the enhanced knowledge by co-designing a location-specific activities plan in the four focus areas and a cross-national virtual exhibition of diverse creative arts- based community engagement and civic participation projects.

Organise a roundtable of policymakers, civil society representatives, local and regional stakeholders, and researchers to jointly devise a roadmap towards participatory and community-led community engagement, based on the project’s findings.

Related Projects:

Explore other initiatives and projects that share our commitment to fostering social inclusion and community engagement. The Related Projects section highlights collaborations and partnerships with organizations across Europe and beyond that are working towards similar goals. Discover how these initiatives complement the work of the LISTEN project and collectively contribute to building stronger, more inclusive communities. Stay connected with these projects to learn about their approaches, achievements, and opportunities for involvement.