The 2024 edition was a 5-day practical, inspiring and engaging summer school on ‘social innovation and human centered design in the city context’. Students worked on the following challenges:
- Challenge 1 – Develop a policy for the City of Machelen around service delivery that is as inclusive as possible and takes into account what is feasible within the organization.
- Challenge 2 – The local context of Bruges and to look at how we can use leisure activities to help integrate newcomers, what support organizations need to welcome and retain this target group on a sustainable basis, how to map thresholds etc....
- Challenge 3 – Designing an accessible participation program for vulnerable newcomers in the Brussels-Capital region.
- Challenge 4 – A short to longterm explorative study for European Citizenship | How to design citizen - EU government interaction points, using a single digital gateway for specific life events.
- Challenge 5 – A short to longterm explorative study for European Citizenship | How to facilitate digital inclusion & accessibility for those who are not able to interact with the digital government (37% - due to poverty, fear, education, age, …).
- Challenge 6 – Social Innovation in Digital Spaces: Developing Solutions to Combat Online Hate Speech
- Challenge 7 – How can we use our waste streams to create new value for VELO Leuven?
- Challenge 8 – How can we (further) promote sustainable bicycle mobility in and around Leuven?
Challenges were provided by the Social Innovation Factory, Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering (The Agency for Integration), and many more.
Reactions from participants
It was a pleasant and instructive week, with a diverse group of experts who shared their insights. The guidance from the supervisors was highly beneficial. This week was a valuable addition to any course, and working with international students was a highlight.
Jesse, from Belgium