The Municipality of Gaia, through its Youth Department, is part of the European project URB.ABLE. This initiative aims to involve young people, with a particular focus on those with disabilities, in building more inclusive and accessible cities. The project brings together partners from various European countries and seeks to give young people a voice in identifying existing barriers in public spaces and defining solutions to overcome them.
In this context, the Municipality of Gaia is associated with the participatory workshop "The City Says No", which will take place on October 17th in Turin, Italy. Concurrently, it is promoting the free handbook "Barrier-Breakers: Youth Workers' Handbook", a resource for professionals working with young people.
The workshop, part of the international festival Utopian Hours in Turin, challenges participants to explore the public spaces of the Aurora neighborhood. The goal is to identify physical barriers and less visible obstacles that may limit the city's use by different population groups, developing proposals to create more accessible and welcoming urban environments. This initiative exemplifies how young people can contribute to fairer cities through direct participation.
The "Barrier-Breakers: Youth Workers' Handbook" provides practical tools, methodologies, and activities to identify existing barriers and develop solutions with youth participation. It is available for free on the project's results page URB.ABLE. By combining youth participation tools with practical experiences, the project demonstrates that urban accessibility depends not only on planning but also on active participation in its transformation.
