Conducting an interactive workshop entitled: “Policy Labs: A Participatory Approach”

On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, at the Department of Social Protection, Education and Lifelong Learning of the Municipality of Livadia, the interactive workshop entitled “Policy Labs: A Participatory Approach” was held in the context of the European Programme “Multi-STakeholder Labs for migrants and stakeholders (MUST-a-Lab)”

Managers and employees working in various departments, institutions and programmes of the Municipality of Livadia participated in the workshop. The aim of this interactive workshop was for the participants to get familiar with the methodology of the Policy Labs, a participatory process that can be used in various sectors and bring about positive results.

During the workshop a detailed briefing was provided by the Project Team regarding the objective, the implementation and the results of the MUST-a-Lab programme. In addition, the methodology of the Policy Labs was thoroughly presented, which promotes fundamental values ​​and suggests a bottom-up procedure by involving in decision-making vulnerable population groups that are directly or indirectly affected by these decisions. Moreover, Ms. Dionysia Lampiri – Coordinator of the Coordination Group of the Network of Cities for Integration and the Coordination Center of the Municipality of Athens for Immigrants and Refugees – analyzed the value of participation by presenting good practices of the Municipality of Athens that were based on participatory processes.

All participants had the opportunity to exchange opinions, find answers to their questions and familiarize themselves with the benefits of using participatory methods when making decisions and furthermore, they proposed ways of how to use participatory procedures in various sectors.