We initiated the Circles as a movement to connect with people who live and work in the territories around Monsanto and to involve them in regular meetings over the period of one year. Prior to starting the Circles we visited the territories to get to know the context. Whether out of curiosity or interest, the Circles have always been open for anyone to join
The local Community Groups have also been an important bridge to connect with residents – one example is the Grupo Comunitário Liberdade Serafina that regularly brings together people who want to contribute to increasing well-being in these neighbourhoods.
The Chamar o Futuro em Campolide Circles took place predominantly online due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The focus in these gatherings has been to unravel endogenous abundance – this is the leitmotiv of all of Chamar o Futuro Circles. The topic addressed in these Circles is “how will we spend our time in the future?”
As the main leitmotiv of the Circle sessions was to unravel abundance, there was also the intention of embracing (one or more) emerging projects. In the circle sessions two projects emerged – Emergent Project “Outdoor Comfort” and Emergent Project “Podcast Episodes Monsanto”
10TH CIRCLE CELEBRATION
CALLING THE FUTURE IN CAMPOLIDE
Emergent Project: Outdoor Comfort
In the Campolide Agroforest (Bela Flor neighbourhood), on the 26th of August we celebrated in presence our tenth and last circle of the project Chamar o Futuro em Campolide.
The agenda for all other circles is below.
One of the neighbourhood residents designed the poster and placed it in shops, cafés and public spaces in the neighbourhood.
In this community space we hosted a celebration moment and brought an added value by creating shaded spaces so that local residents can spend time in comfort – this is one of the emergent projects born in the circles of the project Chamar o Futuro em Campolide.
Local residents (young and old), agroforest volunteers, local organization teams, all participated in this celebration.
Everyone present collaborated to prepare the lycra shades offered by BOOM Festival for hanging, temporarily on the existing trees. The outdoor comfort shades are one of two projects emerging from the circles Chamar o Futuro em Campolide.
During the afternoon, there were workshops facilitated by different team members and there was a healthy and nutritious tea break.
On this day with a bright blue sky and a great mood people from the neighbourhood of Bela Flor came together to celebrate abundance in the Campolide Agroforest. This is how it all took place:
During the morning the timber poles arrived (6m long with a diameter of 14cm) – these will in the future hold the lycra shades for outdoor comfort.
Learning to make knots and to connect the already existing “dolls” on the shades with the new elastic cables was the first challenge bringing all to collaborate.
Everyone found a place in the process of making knots.
Almost without any instructions and coordination the necessary preparation work was completed.
As there is an abundance of trees in the Campolide Agroforest, we decided to hang the outdoor comfort shades on the existing trees – for this pilot phase.
The fig tree is one of the beautiful trees supporting the outdoor comfort shades – in the near future, when the poles will be set up, these will take the load.
Making knots was a lot more challenging than expected!
Everyone learned to make knots their way – and the result that many different knots have become functional in the outdoor comfort shades!
There was no lack of ways to occupy well intended and available hands – here preparing seeds for the Agroforest’s own seed bank.
As soon as the shades were up and comfort was created – we started preparing the afternoon activities
LocalsApproach prepared and facilitated a workshop with their public space intervention game.
The participation in the LocalsApproach game lasted more than 2 hours.
Participants came to interesting and breakthrough insights in the LocalsApproach game.
The team of the FoodWave project also shared their next steps.
Children and adults collaborated in all the activities.
Speakers Corners were set up informally.
Special was also the fact that there were many children joining the celebration following their curiosity of what is new and different.
Two young local residents researched, prepared and facilitated a workshop about all the beneficial characteristics of the plants and foods growing in the Campolide Agroforest, showing a few leaves of every plant to participants.
The young facilitators enjoyed all the feedback and committed to deepening their research even further.
When the mood is good music emerges!
Mr. Salvador, a local resident, joined the celebration after work and played songs on his concertina to participants.
The organic tea break was super healthy (gluten free, conventional sugar free and organic) and brought comfort and good energy.
Everything was so tasty that people helped themselves more than once.
A little chicken family never strayed too far from the celebration and contributed to ingesting all the crumbs!
Covid safety: participants were invited to wear the mask at all times, especially when close to people they don’t spend time with every day. Hygiene products were available at various stations.
AGENDA
Tour de Circle opening: (15 min) Everyone introduces themselves and briefly answers the question (examples of questions asked: What do I like to do with my time? / What would I like to do with my time? / What do I need so that I may do what I would like with my time? / What do I know I need to do with my time? / What would I like to change in my neighbourhood? / How may I contribute to the changes I would like to see happen in my neighbourhood? / What do I do that most contributes to my health and well-being?)
Inquiry: (15 to 30 min) in plenary or in breakout rooms there have been three questions to answer, each on a different topic – a) public space (hosted by Gonçalo Folgado of LocalsApproach), b) social well-being (hosted by Rita Valadas) and c) life cycle of materials (hosted by ZeroWasteLab). See more information in Societal Inquiry.
Good Practice: (15 to 30 min) in every Circle, at least one good practice was presented (good practices presented: initiatives developed by ZeroWasteYouth / MedTown project by the Junta de Freguesia de Campolide / Campolide Agroforest / Porta 11 by ADM Estrela with Liberdade Serafina Community Group / initiatives developed by ZeroWasteLab / including Movimento Impacto em Cadeia, Academia Lixo Zero and Replay / initiatives developed by LocalsApproach / initiatives developed by Lipor)
Workshop: (30 to 50 min) in every Circle, there was a workshop run in plenary or in breakout rooms, with interactive activities all took part in (workshops: REBUNDANCE value alignment dynamic steps 1 and 2 / 2050 Backcasting exercise, steps 1 and 2 / public space intervention game by LocalsApproach
Mini Checkout Circle: (10 min) in plenary everyone conveys in one word what emerged for them in the session.
The Circles Chamar o Futuro em Campolide took place on the following dates: 25th of November, 30th of December, 27th of January, 24th of February, 31st of March, 28th of April, 26th of May, 30th of June, 28th of July and 26th of August.
The last Circle was in the Campolide Agroforest and was a celebration, including hanging the Shades for Comfort pilot with everyone’s collaboration – children and adults alike. (see presentation) One of the intentions from the onset was to transform the positive energy generated in the circles to manifest itself in an emergent project – something palpable and useful for the locals.