In Madrid, activities related to the design of the urban intervention were held in April. The process began on 14 April with a first diagnostic session to gather proposals and concerns from neighbours at the Zofío Neighbourhood Association for the community garden of the San Juan de Ávila Parish. The aim is to improve the outdoor conditions for the summer while at the same time promoting its use as a social space. In addition to the neighbours, this session was attended by participants from other associations: Barrio Más Joven, Cáritas and Basurama.
The second stage consisted of a co-design session in which the Summer Energy Poverty Agents participated and which took place at the E.T.S.A.M. of the Polytechnic University of Madrid on 19 April. Together, based on the diagnosis previously made, cooling strategies such as shading and portable sprayers were proposed.
Finally, on 26 April, the last co-design session was held at the Zofío Neighbourhood Association where the proposed actions for the community garden derived from the first session were presented in order to reach a common agreement on the final design.
April was filled with workshops in Barcelona. About 12 sessions took place in different places with different organisations and events to learn more about electric bills and heat culture.
With AMUNT we had one of the volunteers from Scheider deliver a session to learn how to read the electricity bills and understand all the items listed in the document, in order to be able to adjust the household consumptions and locate unsolicited services.
Other workshops took place in housing services for people in vulnerable situations managed by ABD, where we talked about bills but also shared some tips and strategies to help the residents cope with the heat at home.
La Botiga del Prat also hosted two workshops about electricity bills and heat culture offered by one of the SEPAs to professionals and consumers of the social food shop and another one was delivered to families in the Preinfant program to learn both about bills and strategies to keep the heat out of the house.
Cooltorise collaborated with Habitat 3, an organisation that works to facilitate access to housing for vulnerable people, and provided a double workshop on electricity bills and heat culture.
Other workshops were delivered with Energy Communities, one from the La Bordeta neighbourhood and the other one from Bon Pastor. In addition to the one offered in Ca l’Isidret, a community centre in the Poblenou district.
Last but not least, on the 26th of April, the Cooltorise team joined the annual event for elderly people in Catalonia organised by Fira Gran and offered two workshops. In the morning, they talked about electricity bills and in the afternoon we shared some ideas and tips for energy saving at home and to cope with the heat and climate change effects at home.
Although the workshops were the protagonists, a diagnostic session for an outdoor intervention took place in Espai Llavors a library and community centre in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat where volunteers and neighbours discussed about the situation of the neighbourhood regarding vegetation and green areas, spaces of shadow and heat and shared the first ideas about what could be done in the library patio to avoid and reduce the heat impact in summer.
