On June 10, the project’s closing event – a conference, on the importance of children and youth engagement in culture and the urban environment, organized in collaboration with the Latvian New Theatre Institute, took place at the wooden building renovation center “Koka Rīga”. The conference was attended by more than 70 people (more than half of them were children and young people), and it discussed not only the progress of the MC-YOU project, but also the importance and results of children’s and young people’s involvement and participation in other projects and initiatives.
The event was opened by Laima Geikina, Chairwoman of the Riga City Council Education, Culture and Sports Committee. The conference featured presentations from artists Anda Lāce (the project “The Artist is Present”), Eva Vēvere and Laura Prikule (“Poetic Robotics” workshop), Elīna Konrade (Rīga Circus School) and Santa Remere (the new theatre festival “Homo Novus” and “Rīgas grāmatas” activities). The event was hosted by actor Reinis Boters and special video interviews of children and young people on the streets were prepared; activities were offered by “Brain Games”, FOBO photo corner and “Koka Rīga”. Finally, since the theme of the MC-YOU project is closely related to sustainability and resilience, completely vegan and very delicious snacks and desserts were provided during the event!
The most anticipated event at the conference was the final presentations of the 3 best MC-YOU project visions from the Riga Technical Creativity House “Annas 2”, the private school “LATREIA” and the Riga Bolderāja School of Music and Art (RBMMS), which in the first round of the jury evaluation in May presented the most interesting, most substantiated and most developed visions in the Minecraft environment in a competition of 10 teams. One vision was dedicated to the development of the Briāna/Palīdzības Street square (“Annas 2”) and two – to the arrangement of the Bolderāja branch library courtyard (LATREIA, RBMMS).
The visions were evaluated at the conference by both the jury and each visitor could vote for them. The jury consisted of municipal specialists – Laine Treidena from the Housing and Environment Department, Karīna Jansone and Elīna Mieme from the City Development Department, Anna Ance Rusova-Lūse from the Riga Energy Agency and the jury chairman, MC-YOU project manager Mārtiņš Eņģelis from the City Development Department. In the first round in May, the jury was also supplemented by Minecraft ambassador in Latvia, researcher and teacher Uģis Kagainis.
The MC-YOU project vision competition was won by a large margin by the “Annas 2” team, which won a ticket to the MC-YOU project international final forum in Brussels. Second place was taken by LATREIA and third by the RBMMS team. As the jury members reveal, the main factor in the victory was respecting and incorporating the jury’s recommendations, improving the applications since the first round of evaluation in May, as well as the creative presentation during the conference. The high level of vision implementation, as well as the enthusiasm of the participants themselves, were certainly taken into account.
“We have told the student teams since the beginning of the project that we want to change the paradigm of children and youth involvement in the municipality – their ideas and needs are equally important, and children and youth, like any citizen, have the right to participate in the creation or development of an urban environment or processes that are important to them. Therefore, the next step already included in the MC-YOU project this summer is to meet with Riga City Council members and employees of municipal institutions so that what is reflected in the teams’ visions does not disappear and is integrated into real actions in the development of both the Briāna/Palīdzības Street Square and the Bolderāja branch library,” says Mārtiņš Eņģelis.