On the 12th and 13th October, we presented the SISCODE project and our co-creation journey to the general public at the Changemakers Festival – a joint event by Continium discovery center, Cube design museum, and Columbus earth center. The festival is dedicated to all people who have inspiring ideas, products or projects to make a change for a better future, including scientists, designers and artists, and involving people in lectures, workshops and other activities.

We set up a space where people could see and read about our challenge and insights regarding citizen participation in an ageing society. More importantly, we invited people to have some cookies and a conversation and share their own ideas for the future. The main question we addressed was how to engage others? Many people have ideas, but you need others to realize them – how to do that? How to actually co-create? We learned that many people are already actively involved in different community projects. This is probably due to the fact that the first edition of the Changemakers Festival in Kerkrade first and foremost attracts people who already consider themselves as change makers. Yet the challenge remains: how to involve other parts of society? How to make citizen participation as inclusive as possible?

– written by Anja Köppchen –