School Chance is moving its first steps in Reggio Emilia. The Municipality of Reggio Emilia during the first semester put a lot of effort in informing and involving key stakeholders in the project. Three meetings have been organised to reach different targets: one with key policy makers, one with the several departments of the Municipality that will be involved in the project activities, and one with the external stakeholders that along with the departments will form the Local Stakeholders Group (LSG).
On the 23rd of March, a special session at the opening of the weekly City Council has been dedicated to School Chance: Mirko Tutino, Deputy Mayor for Mobility, along with the Head of Mobility Department, Alessandro Meggiato, Cristina Pellegrini, project manager, Sara Cavazzoni and Laura Degl'Incerti Tocci, technical officers for school mobilty management, presented to all the Deputy Mayors of the City the School Chance project and how it fits with the school mobility management policies that the City has been implementing for over 10 years. This meeting has been very important first to present the project to the key local policymakers, but also to have the support of the Deputy Mayors in the involvement of a broad number of departments of the Municipality.
The second meeting, organised on the 20th of April, was dedicated to the presentation of the project to the different Departments of the Municipality that will be actively involved in the activities of the project: Environment, Communication, Education, International Relations, Municipal Police, Planning and Infrastructures.
Finally, the Municipality of Reggio Emilia gathered all the external stakeholders on the 16th of May. Different kind of stakeholders attended the meeting: schools of different grades represented by the school mobility managers, the Emilia Romagna Region (owner of the ERDF ROP, the policy instrument that School Chance will target), the Province of Reggio Emilia, Fiab Bicinsieme (a NGO that cooperates regularly with the Mobility department over school mobility management activities) and the local Health Agency. Together with the different departments of the Municipality they will form the LSG. In this last two meetings, the Mobility Departmet presented the project and discussed the role of the LSG and the activities that will be implemented during the first three years.
A total of 33 people attended the three meetings. From the next semester, the LSG will meet regularly and will be the opportunity to share updates on School Chance but also to discuss with all the internal and external stakeholders concerned with school mobility management key issues, strategies and action points for imporving the mobility of students in Reggio Emilia.
