One Page Summary

Challenges:

The abandonment of rural areas like Carregal do Sal is a worldwide phenomenon. Young people go to cities in search for work, leaving their hometowns and community. At the same time cities become overcrowded and expensive and lack of a sense of community.

Opportunity:

Luckily, with the rise of new technology and remote work, Entrepreneurs now have the opportunity to work from rural areas. There is already a movement of people starting or relocating their businesses working together to rural areas where they are surrounded by more community and nature and a more affordable way of living. As a result more and more rural coworking spaces are opening up allowing for new collaborations and entrepreneurs to be invited.

About us:

We are Pandorahub: a network of rural shakers: facilitators, mentors, business specialists, researchers that have a shared passion: revitalizing rural areas. For the last three years Pandorahub has been mapping and activating rural entrepreneurial ecosystems, drawing entrepreneurs to rural areas. Based on the knowledge and best practises we have gained we started building a rural dynimazing toolkit in order to give a framework for rural communities struggling with similar problems.

Our solution:

We propose to create the appropriate set up in Carregal do Sal to use and further develop this rural toolkit and open source it for other EU communities. The project execution exist of three phases.

Phase 1: Mapping the local entrepreneurial ecosystem

Conducting ethnographic research (observation, immersion in contexts, interviews, etc) and running participatory workshops in order to identify the key local heroes and stakeholders whether they still reside in the region or not, specially focusing on the escaped talent that could potentially return to the region (we are attaching a collection of success stories of local heroes that once they have returned to the region, are capable to attract new talent), assessing people, places, opportunities, capabilities, strengths, local knowledge, cultural heritage, identity traits, resources, challenges and non articulated needs in the region, and also underused resources and available assets such as abandoned buildings. Based on the mapping findings we will frame the following phases:

Phase 2: Co-creating the Activation Roadmap together with its protagonists

Co-creating the Activation Roadmap together with its protagonists, running activation activities and programs such as hackathons, design sprints and incubation programs, for co-creating entrepreneurial, innovative and cultural projects involving both locals and newcomers aimed at empowerment of the identified areas of opportunity and tackling the non articulated needs

Phase 3: Exploring the possibility of turning underused space(s) into community hub(s)

If we identify available or underused spaces that are be appropriate, don’t require previous investment and/or fix costs (i.e. provided by the local municipality), we propose the possibility of programing the activation activities there and ideally turning one of those underused buildings into a community hub/coworking. This would clearly empower the chances for consolidating and fixating in the region people, projects and initiatives arose during the hackathon activation, enabling cross-pollination between local and newcomer projects thank to the possibility to invite a broader network of european entrepreneurs. But it will also be crucial to give continuity to the space beyond the 6-month project, finding the way to creating ideally 2 jobs for 1 community host and 1 space manager that could ideally mean returning 2 entrepreneurs to the region.

Outcome:

Apart from a more extensive toolkit for rural communities, these workshops together with a physical space would enable diverse and multicultural conversations and collaborations, which may become a path into the future of Carregal do Sal.