Policy Statement
Multi-Stakeholder Approach Strengthening Participation
Before moving on to the design phase, we determine the local needs, expectations and suggestions for the program in the search meetings we organize with regional interlocutors in order to get to know the area, make preliminary measurements and strengthen local participation in decision-making mechanisms. While determining the participants and partners with whom we will act together, we cooperate with opinion leaders and civil initiatives that have their finger on the pulse of the field, as well as non-governmental organizations that are familiar with local dynamics. While developing the activities that will take place in the program together with our participants and partners, we create interaction environments that allow citizens from all walks of life and gender to have a say in the design process and to express their opinions freely in order to create public consensus.
While the design process is based on the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2020 Rome Charter, as well as the strategy documents produced by local governments on participation in urban life, social inclusion, gender equality, equal access to opportunities, protection of ecological and cultural heritage and making cultural potential visible, the actions we take are in the areas listed above. We intend to create a road map with a collective manner in order to determine the essential steps to be taken to increase our contribution to the development of the city in this context.
Multi-Stakeholder Approach Strengthening Participation
While designing realistic, sustainable programs that can address urban and regional sensitivities and current cultural needs, we prioritize moving events outside the center if possible, provided that we stay away from the obsession of creating a brand city based on maximalist commercial practices. In line with this perspective, which is based on site specificity and definitely includes disciplinary diversity, we aim to turn the countryside into a permanent cultural place, while inviting the audience to explore different parts of the city, follow less-known routes, and go beyond the drawn borders.
Based on our belief that public spaces where citizens spend time together develop the culture of common life and social reconciliation; the events we organize include neighborhood parks, marketplaces, squares, historical streets, memory arteries and similar public spaces as we prefer to use places such as coffee houses, village squares and historical sites in rural areas.
Visible Results with Sustainable Documentation Practices
At the end of the implementation phase, we always leave behind a bilingual documentary video and a publication. These outputs, which bring together the results obtained through the stages of the process, provide visibility to the cumulative experience, change created in the space, and methods used, and guide how the model followed can be adapted and transferred to another locale.
