The largest district in Tallinn is called Lasnamäe. Its large housing blocks are home to one-third of the city’s population. British Council Estonia has been working with Lasnaidee/Ласнаидея core team of ten people since 2016 to inspire and engage local residents in taking more interest in the Lasnamäe area and be proactive about their living environment.
Some highlights of the programme:
- Workshops and events organised by the core Lasnaidee team of ten people throughout the year bring the locals together to explore how they could take a bigger role in Lasnamäe’s future. Topics range from urban gardening to city design, sports, reading, etc – to cater to the various interests of the people, but also to invite locals to work as teams.
- Some of the methods have been quite novel: for example, to help housing associations learn ways to solve problems, Lasnaidee/Ласнаидея employed forum theatre techniques.
- One of the biggest success stories has been setting up the first community garden in the district – with a number of local volunteers now helping to maintain the grounds, making the programme thus more sustainable through close links to the community.
- The newest additions to the programme are running a Human Library and getting the local youth to design an urban quest game for one of Lasnamäe districts.