The co-creation toolkit is here to help keep your stakeholders interested and motivated in your co-creation activities. This collection of tools constitutes a compilation from two previously developed toolkits, one focused on strategic urban planning and one developed for the SCORE project.
When talking about urban development and management, complexity cannot be avoided. Different urban contexts around the world deal with numerous challenges, being touched upon in various aspects of urban life. Having to deal with such complexity, co-creation is more than essential. Getting stakeholders to work on specific issues and ideas is necessary but can also be challenging. Stakeholders need to be approached and engaged in a welcoming, attractive, and interactive way so they don’t lose momentum throughout the process.
“Giving everyone the power to co-create”
We firmly believe in equality, equity, social justice, and the right to shape the cities we live in, so it is important for us to have this toolkit as an open source for everyone interested in engaging people (or getting engaged!) in urban development projects of any scale.
Are you working in academia, action research, or for civil society groups? Are you a trainer/facilitator, student, or engaged citizen? Then this toolkit is for you! Co-create your city toolkit is for anyone interested in being engaged and engaging others in an urban development project, small or large.
“Keep all relevant actors in the loop”
The tools can work out effectively only when the relevant people are invited to use them. The target group of stakeholders in a co-creation activity can vary depending on your goals, type of project or a specific issue you want to work on. The proper selection of the relevant stakeholders is important; you should carefully identify and plan well in advance who will get engaged, when and in what ways.
“Co-creation is better when you know how”
If you have never been involved in setting up a co-creation activity before, it might look like a daunting task. Where to begin, and how? This toolkit can help you organize and facilitate a multi-stakeholder process or activity related to urban development.
Are you looking for tools for need identification or idea creation? Do you want to engage participants in developing concrete plans for the future? Do you need to experiment and test any developed solutions in a real-life setting? Or maybe you seek ways to evaluate your participants’ reactions and get their feedback?
How to use the toolkit?
This toolkit is divided into 5 main categories, where you can find a wide range of tools based on your co-creation target. You can select specific tools from each category using the available selection criteria (type of format, facilitation level, time, size group, target group) based on your co-creation target.
The co-create your city toolkit is deliberately not a fixed step-by-step guide since we believe each project, each team of facilitators and participants or context is unique. This guide is, therefore, supportive of designing your own co-creation journey. Many of the tools can be used by and with stakeholders with no background and/or experience in urban development but can provide valuable input.
We would love to hear how you use this toolkit or what you would still like to see differently or added on! Contact Elina Makousiari (makousiari@ihs.nl) and get in touch with us!
- More information
From IHS and the SCORE team, read more about our contributors below: