How to create new life in the square and in the surrounding premises?

Ellingsrudåsen center has had empty premises for a long time. This week, the district, OBOS, Ferd social entrepreneurs, Pådriv Oslo and people from the neighborhood gathered to come up with ideas and proposals for how we can together create life and activity at the local centre.

The neighborhood was invited to sign up for a “Pådriversamling” to create life and activity in and around the square. This took place on Thursday 14 March in Forandringshuset Ellingsrud. More than 60 people had turned up to take part in the brainstorming session on how we can create more activity and better well-being at the center for both young people and adults. The gathering was organized in collaboration between Alna district, OBOS Samfunnsarena, Ferd Sosiale Entreprenører and Pådriv Oslo, in addition to a number of local zealots.

Pådriv Oslo provided a tight and good direction for the brainstorming session. They are a not-for-profit company that assists districts, businesses and volunteers in collaboration on projects of a socially beneficial nature. Oslo municipality, OBOS, Forandringshuset, NMBU and VIF are some of their partners. They also have local promoters as individual members.

There was a lot of energy, great commitment and many good and concrete suggestions for what can be done. The participants were divided into groups that worked at separate tables after the district, OBOS, Ferd and Astrid Kjellevold as resident and local promoter had given their short introductions.

A proposal that was outlined at the beginning is to create a “sustainability center” at Ellingsrud – a neighborhood center based on both social, economic and environmental sustainability, with a mix of volunteer centre, re-use and repair room and multi-purpose room, preferably with a cafe run as a young social entrepreneur project . A connection of vacant premises at the center will give the opportunity to share and close premises depending on what is in use. It will provide more space for courses and meetings, mini-concerts and lectures as well as square activities in parts of the year. A strengthened volunteer center will be able to function as an “umbrella” over new neighborhood activities at the centre.

“Ombruket” is a local initiative that has grown out of neighborhood markets in housing associations. It has become a popular meeting place where neighbors can give and receive everything from clothes to household items. The recycling facility is currently located on the edge of the center and has requests for expansion for more reuse and repair. It has been discussed whether “Recycled” could move into the square and become a core activity with a link to the volunteer centre.

Several local actors, such as Forandringshuset, the sports club, Ombruket, the cooperative Enga and the voluntary center are concerned with creating varied work training for young people in collaboration with NAV and local businesses.

Café/book café was mentioned by several groups. Outdoor cafe tables, play equipment, chess tables, planters with varied plants, outdoor exercise and mini-outdoor concerts were mentioned as measures to get people to stop and stay in the square – not just rush past. There was also a proposal for a frisbee facility in the forest area closest to the centre. Ellingsrud school could tell that there will be a great library in the new secondary school. This will be open to the neighborhood and located close to the centre.

Some called for better lighting in the centre.

A supplementary summary from the brainstorming session will be posted shortly on the district’s website for local input, alnainvolverer.no. Everyone is invited to submit ideas on this website, which will be open for input for approximately three weeks from 15 March. You can easily log in and write your ideas, as well as support or comment on others’.

Ellingsrud has great potential for creating good meeting places across age and cultural background. The follow-up work in the future will be decisive. It may be relevant to have resource groups that work on specific measures and pop-ups for testing ideas.