Albergaria + Inclusiva challenges young adults with disabilities to build their 'green city'

Albergaria + Inclusiva is the latest funded project coordinated by BioLiving Association, whose main objective is to raise environmental awareness among young adults with special educational needs in Albergaria-a-Velha, using LEGO® blocks. Once the project was finalised, it was possible to reach more than 300 people. Get to know its main results in this article.

Over five months, Albergaria + Inclusiva project challenged young adults with special educational needs from the municipality of Albergaria-a-Velha to build their sustainable city.

Since the beginning of the project, we have worked in partnership with Associação Humanitária Mão Amiga, Escola Secundária de Albergaria-a-Velha, APPACDM Albergaria-a-Velha and ASSOL to organise activities for young adults with special educational needs. In these activities, LEGO® blocks were used as a tool to reflect on environmental problems, such as pollution, deforestation and climate change, as well as solutions to these problems, in a creative, dynamic and fun way.

Three different activities were carried out in each institution. In the first activity - "The cities of progress" - participants used LEGO® to create their vision of what a city is, serving as a starting point for the environmental debate. As we addressed the various environmental issues related to cities, they replaced structural parts in the city they had built to make it more and more sustainable. In the second activity - "Caring for water" - the focus was on water use and pollution. Young people added structures to their city that would minimise water consumption and prevent water pollution. In the third activity - "My ecocity" - participants built their vision for a sustainable city to be presented publicly, along with the conclusions drawn from this ongoing work.

Some of the activities took place outdoors, in a street action format, in order to raise the awareness of general public and the communities of the partner institutions about the environmental cause. In total, 12 activities were carried out with beneficiaries from four local institutions, involving around 250 people, directly or indirectly.

To showcase the great ecological city built by the project participants, we promoted the exhibition "My ecocity", during the 26th, 27th and 28th of July 2023, at the Municipal Library of Albergaria-a-Velha.

Over three days, the exhibition welcomed 96 visitors, interested in the theme and the educational method used in the project, as well as the results achieved. The group of visitors included locals, tourists from Canada and Venezuela, young people from the World Youth Day and members of the media, such as Jornal de Albergaria.

This exhibition closed the Albergaria + Inclusiva project and aimed to expose the results obtained to the entire local community, fostering pro-environmental behaviours and showing that, acting together, we can make a difference.

In addition to the more than 300 people involved in the project, directly or indirectly, it was possible to reach more than 15,000 people through the media, such as the websites and social networks of the organiser and partners, as well as local newspapers.

At the end of the project, we hope to have encouraged people to build creative and active solutions for the protection of natural resources and biodiversity, while fighting the isolation and social exclusion that often affects people with disabilities.

Finally, we would like to thank all the partners, organisations and volunteers who collaborated with us, enabling the implementation of this project with their beneficiaries, partners, family and friends.

Albergaria + Inclusiva was supported by the Municipality of Albergaria-a-Velha, LEGO® and People & Planet - A Common Destiny project, which is co-financed by the European Union and Camões, I.P. The international consortium implementing People & Planet includes Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr.