Educational rooftop farm for school pupils
Background:
NBL has a collaboration with Hersleb upper secondary school, with the highest drop-out rate in Oslo. The majority of students are first or second-generation immigrants struggling with low academic test scores and low degree of attractiveness on the labor market as well as limited life skills and networks to ensure employability and other key aspects of societal integration and participation. In previous years, NBL has employed youth for maintenance of the ‘Tak for Maten’ rooftop garden and then for implementing a composting “soil factory. Youths have been in charge of developing all key aspects of the project (establishing and running of the composting program, which recycles food waste from the city, as well as branding and sales/marketing strategies). The youth themselves have also identified as a key goal, their urge to share their engagement and experiences with youth in other cities and countries.
Vision:
The pilot aims to explore the synergies of social innovation and urban farming through participatory processes, leading to sustainable, long-lasting green jobs for vulnerable groups while enhancing CRFS sustainability. The pilot key activities will include the definition of parameters of social impact appropriate for the demographic group and activities, toward monitoring and evaluation of the project based on these parameters. It will then continue developing both the pilot of youth-led rooftop gardens and composting facilities as well as entrepreneurship training and the “living lab” methodology and tools, and work to ensure that the outputs of these activities become attractive tools to share across Europe. Furthermore it will explore participant-lead dissemination activities in collaboration with Hersleb to ensure that the impact of the activities reach a higher share of the student community.
In collaboration with FoodE partners:
Nabolagshager AS (NO), Università di Bologna (IT), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES), Institut des Sciences et Industries du Vivant et de l’Environnement – Agro Paris Tech (FR), Wageningen University & Research (NL), Nolde Erwin & Partner (DE), Ajuntament de Sabadell (ES), Commune de Romainville (FR), Comune di Napoli (IT)