Getting inspired! Live!
Third IN SITU study visit took place in Rijeka in September 2021.
IN SITU project partners from Croatia, City of Rijeka and STEP RI, hosted their fellow IN SITU project partners, as well as stakeholders from Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Germany and Italy to showcase Rijeka’s social innovation scene. The aim of this event? Share best practices, meet social innovators and actors of the social economy in Rijeka, get inspired, network and detect synergies and eventual gaps in the social innovation ecosystem in Central Europe. All of this live, after a year and a half of online meetings!
Participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with E-GLAS assistive technology and smart solutions, ESTON TECO activist fashion brand that promotes sustainable fashion and pero ecofriendly cleaners. In addition to social entrepreneurs, various associations also presented their work. Društveni Centar Drenova presented its activities of heritage valorization and social inclusion, Oaza Association presented its work with the homeless and socially vulnerable people, Terra Association displayed its work with vulnerable and marginalized people, especially addicts, and CeKaDe Association presented their project My place under the sun for equal opportunity childhoods. How all this is implemented at policy level, partners could to hear through the presentation of the project CITIES4CSR – Cities for socially responsible behavior.
The partners got the foundation for absorbing all these great examples by getting to know the rich and innovative history of Rijeka with a social innovation walk through the city center where IN SITU partners had the chance to see examples of social innovation on the spot, “in situ”, as the project’s name suggests, as well as by visiting Fiume Fantastika exhibition showcasing disruptive innovation in Rijeka over the ages. Moreover, examples of social inclusion and valorization of industrial heritage as a catalyst for social innovation presented by colleagues from the City of Rijeka and RIJEKA2020, European Capital of Culture, left no one indifferent.
Ahead of departure, partners from Italy, Germany, Poland, Slovenia and Austria said they were incredibly inspired and returning home full of examples of good practice, glad to have met so many actors working for social innovation and well-being!
