Description
Over the course of the last 2 years, the KIT building has been in a transformation process from a museum and international development research institute largely subsidised and with a significant part of the building closed off to the public, into a more open building with nearly 50 organisations (in addition to the original research institute) who are all committed to sustainability (through research, impact investing, platform development, ecosystem restoration, urban innovation, entrepreneurship development and more). In 2017 the KIT building and community hosted an Impact Summit on the 2 year anniversary of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and came together branding this community as ‘SDG House’ with a shared purpose: We are an action-oriented and partnership-driven community growing solutions for the global goals. Many organisations who are part of this community work with diverse stakeholders across different types of institutions both in the Netherlands and abroad (largely the global south) and we are seeing increased activity within the building that also invites in more people from the general public.
However, we notice that those who engage and feel attracted to the SDG agenda and to the activities that our inhabitant organisations offer are typically white, educated, middle-class while we are in a city that is much more diverse! How can we invite diversity in? Given the nature of the topics we address (inclusion, sustainable cities, societal betterment, etc) and given that we are situated at the edge of a predominantly new immigrant neighbourhood, how can we invite more visible minorities and newcomers to become a part of our community?
We are therefore looking for a solution that enables us (and perhaps other such institutions and multi-stakeholder space in our city and in Europe) to authentically engage people who represent the diverse demographic of our city, and to be a part of a new developmental agenda that is more inclusive.