We’re thrilled to launch Let’s Look Closely – The Place I Live, a new Erasmus+ collaboration between Green-Schools Ireland and çocukistanbul in Turkey.
This exciting project empowers children aged 9-12 to share how they see and experience their cities; what they love, what could be better, and how they imagine more sustainable, inclusive communities for everyone. Through these workshops, children will become “young city planners” , exploring their local areas, identifying challenges and designing imaginative solutions to make their neighbourhoods better places to live.
We look forward to sharing updates, stories and reflections as the project grows. Stay tuned as we begin this journey to make children’s voices heard in shaping our cities!
Project Partners: Green-Schools (Ireland) & çocukistanbul (Turkey)
Funded by: Erasmus+, Leargas
Green-Schools and Çocukistanbul Kick Off New Partnership in Cork
3 November, 2025
Over Halloween week, the Green-Schools Global Citizenship team was delighted to welcome our Turkish partners Çocukistanbul to Cork for a three day Kick-Off Meeting marking the start of our new collaboration on child participation in local and community decision-making.
The meeting, hosted in Cobh, brought together both organisations to strengthen our partnership, build a shared vision, and plan the year ahead. Through a series of interactive sessions, we explored our shared values, motivations, and the goals of the project.
Sibel and Erdoğan from Çocukistanbul led an engaging training on child participation, introducing both the Lundy Model and Roger Hart’s Ladder of Participation. They also provided hands-on training to the Green-Schools Global Citizenship team on the “Let’s Look Closely” workshop methodology, which will form the foundation of our upcoming activities in Cork.
The group also had the chance to enjoy some traditional Irish barmbrack as part of the Halloween celebrations and visited Cork City, where the future workshops will take place. These visits offered valuable context for planning and deepened our shared understanding of how child participation can be integrated at community level.
The next step in this exciting partnership will take the Green-Schools team to Istanbul, where we’ll see the workshops in action and meet with municipal officials to learn how Çocukistanbul and their local partners have successfully embedded children’s voices in decision-making processes.
Green-Schools first connected with Çocukistanbul through the Erasmus+ BCORE21 project, and we are thrilled to continue this relationship. Their wealth of experience in promoting meaningful child participation in Istanbul will inspire and inform our ongoing efforts to empower young people in Ireland to take an active role in shaping their communities.
