The change stories shared by adolescents were translated using Deepl, with no additional editing beyond translation.
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This change began in the Caimitos neighbourhood with an imaginary line that divided it into different territories. Nobody knew who had drawn them, but everyone knew who could cross them.
One day, Vivo Mi Calle arrived at Antonio Lizarazo School, offering a leadership course for ninth-grade students. Lorena, a student at the school, joined the course where she learnt about healthy cities and leadership, which inspired her to become a leader in her community. What worried Lorena the most was not being able to use the Caimitos Sports Complex because of the invisible borders, so Lorena decided to build bridges by challenging the territorial rule. She invited her friends to play, families to join, to clean and organise and to take ownership of the Caimitos Sports Complex, helping to create new leadership and motivating young people to follow her steps. The community began to spread it by word of mouth.
A word of mouth that echoed throughout the whole city, knocking on doors to make visible the problems of the commune, until one day she began to receive intimidation and threats from groups to whom it was not convenient to eliminate the invisible barriers, who benefited from the conflict in their territory, seducing young people to become part of the criminal gangs, for example: the illegal use of weapons and the consumption of drugs.
On the other hand, instead of feeling intimidated by what she was already doing, she began to join the Community Action Boards together with VMC, to knock on the doors of the public administration, and in this way, they helped to spread her voice so that several young people benefited from the transformation of the Caimitos Sports Complex. For Lorena, this story is significant because it shows that a public space can become a place of growth, connection and safety when young people take ownership. For her community, it meant regaining a park not only as a physical space but as a symbol of collective strength and possibility.
In conclusion, our spaces have the power to create new experiences and develop different emotions. If we fill them with good intentions, care and meaning they become places of growth, connection and well-being.
What type of space would you like to create or transform?
