CAPACITyES (Children Against Poverty Awake the CITy Education System) is a project funded by the European Union to test innovative solutions in urban areas for territorial and social regeneration (UIA, Urban Innovative Actions).
Its general objective is to support the right to decent housing and the fight against poverty, especially learning poverty, among children. Since the very beginning, the project was designed based on the awareness that learning poverty is a multidimensional issue that spans over areas such as housing, schools, sociality and the possibility for people to express themselves and their perspectives even if they are children or in situations of economic and social hardship.
The project revolves around children and their families. However, it does not see them just as final recipients but, rather, as main beneficiaries and actors to be involved at all stages of planning and implementation.
A strong participation component aimed at valuing people’s aspirations and abilities to finally respond to their different needs according to a logic of a selfsustaining community.
The city, neighborhood and urban spaces are, indeed, places characterized by those living and experiencing them. For this reason, through bottom-up co-design activities,
CAPACITyES wanted to give a voice to everyone, especially children.