The Partnership PLACES-3T is up to speed and visited Manu Village in Lyon september 29th-30th 2022. The EU-project is all about 3rd type places for Collaborative Creative Learning and Entrepreneurship. Supported by Erasmus+, the Places-3T partnership is at the verge starting with their pilot actions, which aims to further develop and make sustainable places of the “third type”, i.e. physical, virtual and/or hybrid collaborative spaces that enable social, cultural and entrepreneurial innovation.

Accompaniment Process

The Places-3t path has brought us to Manu Village in Lyon, France. During the transnational project meeting we discussed the current stage of advancement. A lot of mini-COOL examples and scenarios were displayed, such as an animation version of how to set up a places-3t. This animation will soon go live! Also the partnership thinks it will be very interesting to do short Questions & Answers videos (e.g. like Linked Learning) .

Italian Pilot-action Goals

The Italian Places-3T perspective is two-fold: Starting from existing projects and starting from the Mini-COOLs. The Italian pilot-actions are focused on setting up helpdesks to accompany actors in places evolutions, around:

1. Italian Federation Therapetic Community. Create a Support Desk: To support young people in which way they consider themselves Places-3t and how they can act as a Places-3t hub, re-entering young people in the labour market
2. Regional office of Emelia-Romagna Youth Policies: Support a youth places-3t to be a real network: Add the EU dimension
3. Supporting professionals by learning how to support Places-3t traineeships: A marketplace for good practices
4. Implementing Mini-COOLs in private spaces and creating network links among them

Spanish Pilot-actions

The Spanish perspective is focused on the Fab Lab space in Ibiza, where the young people can create objects with a computer and develop innovative ideas. the main goal is to make the Fab lab space more dynamic for young students and young entrepreneurs. The period of the action is October 2022-February 2023. The City Council will help and promote their ideas, accompanied with the professors of the Universitities of the Bealearic Islands. Five activities are implemented during the pilot actions:

1. Recruitment of the young people and stakeholders to carry out the pilot-actons
2. Through a seminar is explained what objectives are and what we want to achieve
3. Training and learning through mini cools, as a self-learning practise
4. job orientation session on entrepreneurship, with counseling sessions and assessments
5. (Preperation of the) Reports

The personal assessments could be done through practice by doing and at the same time in a class structure. This is currently the rough framework around the Fab Lab spaces.

Pilot-actions Belgium: From mini-COOL to BIG-COOL

Since March 2022 Smart decided that La Vallee will be taken out the SMART structure and becoming independent. This means that SMART will accompany La Vallee for another 3 years but will let them go after this 3 years of accompaniment. This means La Valleen neeeds to subsitute a big loss of finances. There is a two-speed

• SMART is open for ideas how to run La Vallee on short term – How will it be run on short term?
• What will be the new La Vallee structure after 3 years?

This is a very challlenging adventure. How are we going to frame the pilot-action? Foreign examples can be a best practice to improve the current business and make it a profitable independent one.

Hybridasation of a Places-3T

Another pilot-action takes place around hybridisation: The process, actors, activities and resources must be going from online to hybride. So, how to create a real-community in person as well? It’s about networking from different places. An action plan will be made on short term.

Dutch Pilot-actions

The Dutch are focussing on 2 pilot-actions

• Setting up a new Entreneurial hub in the Hague – It’s initial stage has just begun and is very depending on the back up fo the municipality of The Hague and the University Leiden (Campus The Hague)
• Fine tuning the Care hub Sittard-Geleen, a 3rd place of ‘Care and Work’ and expand it to other Dutch municipalities

French pilot-actions

The French are developing the following pilot-action activities

• AFPA Venissieux: Meeting point early Octobre 2022
• AFPA Pont de Claix, currently creating a new 3rd place
• Special Focus on migrants accompaniment is also a very interesting 3rd place
• Formalise the intention of a 3rd place in deserted village: CCC – Elected in a small village in Drome with an issue of desertification (a lot of people leave the area). This project is financed on a national/European grants to develop the village from rural deserted place into a vibrantdynamic ‘village centres. So the project aims here to create a ‘scattered’ 3rd place in the village centre: Keeping what is already existing, regrooming some elementswith local antennas with different competences. To reanimate the village centres and keep the activities going…

AFEV – Des Espaces de Vie

The aim is to connect the Priority districts with the university, the AFEV students, to create solidarity. Students are offered co-living spaces, which they also share with the local community and the students need to support the local community with projects for their local community. The 3rd places are all different because of the different regions/districts, it’s a social public service which aim is that in the future it generates money and added value to the local social eco system. The AFEV-students are given housing in co-living spaces, which als include social services for the local community. The students usually stay in the community for a short period (1-2 years) and pay lower rent, because they are part of these social projects. The universities give credits for the work the students do. So the students gain work experience, earn credits and progress in their study and the local community (the priority district) profits from the social work the students do for the local community.

The students have freedom and are self-organised, they decide what they want to initiate for the local community. The 15 priority districts usually have a population with a migrant background. Through a natural process the co-living spaces involve the local population. This is also known as Solidarity Kaps: The activities are a.o: Supporting services for mental health, sustainabilliyty services (community gardens), supporting isolated old people, waste management solutions, introducing priority district youth to university life and introducing students to street life, etc…

Currently the perspective of the 3rd places (the so-called Solidarity Kaps) are two-fold:

• 3rd places in the university, to open the university for the priority districts
• 3rd places in the priority district, to open the district for the university

The Partnership PLACES-3T comes to Holland on April 28th-29th 2022. The EU-project is all about 3rd type places for Collaborative Creative Learning and Entrepreneurship. Supported by Erasmus+, the Places-3T aims to develop and make sustainable places of the “third type”, i.e. physical, virtual and/or hybrid collaborative spaces that enable social, cultural and entrepreneurial innovation.

Dutch Foundation hosts at Area071

The Dutch Foundation of Innovation Welfare 2 Work (DFW2W) host the Places-3T partnership at Area071, In Leiderdorp, Zuid-Holland. Area071 is an excellent 3rd Place, a Dutch entrepreneurial hub full of potential, start-ups and young entrepreneurs. On the agenda a presentation by Bart Hoenen on the 28th, accompanied by a tour. On the 29th we will also attend the Comon Market of young marketeers and entrepreneurs offering their services to businesses in the region Leiden/Leiderdorp (the 071-region).

Dutch Places-3T Agenda

Rapidly evolving economic and social structures and conditions lead to imagine new places where people are able to work, learn, create value, in eco-systems that are more compatible with their own flourishing, happiness, well-being and with the preservation of our planet. 3rd Type Places are typically places that enable, foster, sustain such initiatives. Such places already exist, other are developed on project basis. They may take a large variety of size, form, status, etc. They gather different types of actors, with different kind of objectives, and different way of functioning. The Learning Mobilities and study vists in Bologna and Reggio Emilia showed us the Happy Places3T in Italy.

Learning Mobilities Reggio Emilia

The Places3T learning mobilities are taking place on October 4th, 5th and 6th 2021 in Reggio emilia and Bologna. In the spirit of European Projects Erasmus+, a ‘Learning Mobility’is a “training week” for people belonging to partners’ staff. In the Places-3T project, mobilities are designed to have an overview of the situation in another territory and work together to enhance the ability of the participants to better manage and animate third places.

The main objectives of the first learning mobility are mainly:

• to gain knowledge about the Places-3T project, its goals and and its value creation process;
• to gain knowledge about third places animation;
• to develop their abilities in animating and developing a Places-3T
• to update their professional profiles on the Professional Social Network;

The partnership did a few study visits in Bologna and Reggio Emilia. We visited three ‘Places3T’. For sure, BiciBox, nearby the Railway station of Reggio Emilia was one of the most interesting Places3T. At first glance it looks like a bicycle repair shop, but ‘building relationships’ is a more accurate product of the ‘box’. The free library, coffee/meeting place and products they sell (bags, bicycles, etc.) are making networking and active citizenship more easy and natural. The box is the place for meet and greet and’the bike is connecting people’.

Happy Place

On the location of ONLUS we had a few discussions, e.g.: What would be the definition of Places3T? If you look at for instance at the box, you see it should be a happy place, with potential were you want to work and meet people to network and do business with… When people see the potential of the place were you are working, doing a business and can feel the vibe, chemistry and success then it is a places3T. How to create a smooth functioning network and accessibele for everyone who wants to find out whats/he loves to do and do what s/he loves to do and then create and develop as a person and its’product…

Andrea Ascari, director of ONLUS added that the four priorities of the Erasmus+ network also seem very relevant for Places3T:

• Inclusion
• Digital transformation
• Environment and fighting against climate change
• Active citizenship

When you look at the Bici Box three of the four are incorporated (except digital transformation – although the free library can be digitalised as well).

Study Visit Bologna

On the study visit on Tuesday 5th we met with the regional staff on youth policies of the municipality of Bologna and went to Eta Beta. Eta Beta is a social enterprise, youth center and 3rd place in one, combining all elements of social entrepreneurship (hospitality, vegetarian/vegan food, gardens, woodcrafting, etc.

Exploring more about the framework of Places 3T?

It’s clear for the partnership that a good practise in a certain place cannnot be copied and pasted to another place in another country, 1-on-1. It’s important to look at your target audiences. Different activities are more suitable for different target groups and sometimes creating a good vibe is enough to make it a success to any target group. So, how do you create a good atmosphere? It’s important to facilitate and have a good manager to animate and run the place. This is easier said than done. A good manager of a Places3T is not easy to hire. Be aware that the government or the local authorities are not always the right institution to hire this person. Their environment and perspective is usually more conservative, more bureaucratic and within a certain administrative frame work. You need an entrepreneurial person, someone who already has a network and can easily connect with the 3rd place and its people, and is in a natural way accepted by all parties. The Places-3T framework can usually not be ticked within a certain frame work and on all boxes. On Wednesday October 6th we finished with a workshop at CEIS and a study visit to a community in Santa Maria Madalena.