CitizenDev: Marianne, one hundred an hour for the classroom
Marianne, born in the Netherlands, is a woman of conviction who knows what she wants. She is a passionate retiree who loves to put both her head and hands to work on her projects. She also enjoys hiking in the woods, tending her garden and dreams of learning to sew with a sewing machine. Since the very beginning, she has been committed to her community, so she has witnessed up close the changes in her neighborhood.
“I have lived in this neighborhood since 1979, in the same house for forty years. One thing has changed in all that time: I moved from the second floor to the ground floor.” So the Brabant neighborhood has no secrets for Marianne: she lives there, is committed to the neighborhood and has had a lot of contacts for years. Her commitment to the neighborhood has changed over time, though: “When I moved here in the beginning, I left early in the morning until late at night. I didn’t really know what was going on then.” Marianne didn’t wait for them to come and get her involved, however. She was already very active during her career, so volunteering is not new to her. Before the District Office became concrete, several activities were already taking place in the Green Street neighborhood: the phone line, guest tables, animations around the mobile bread oven.
“That bread oven is for baking pizza: it is used in the street for parties, etc.” The Neighborhood Watch is thus part of her long-term commitment to the neighborhood.
“There are sometimes times in the day when you have to do something and be somewhere.” Although she does not count the hours she spends in the Local, Marianne is not there to fill her free time. She is involved in the Local because she has a mission, she is not doing it for herself: “I don’t see the Local as a mere pastime or out of lack of contact. I am well surrounded. In fact, I think that’s a sine qua non condition: you can’t do much for others if you’re not well-surrounded yourself.” Needless to say, her days are well filled with permanences, meetings and even preparing the guest tables she hosts once a month. Even though it is not a goal in itself for her, Marianne does meet new people through the Neighborhood Center: “It doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes I get to know people who live in the same street as me. People I didn’t know before and with whom I have things in common. In a way, you meet people without seeking them out yourself.” Above all, she hopes to revive the former climate of mutual aid: “I myself still lived through the time when people helped each other much more. I want to create that kind of bond again and make myself useful at the same time.” Thanks to the Local, neighborhood activities were also brought together and promoted. “Moreover, it is a place where you realize that persons you consider different are often much closer to us than we think.”
Portrait by Montaine Kayaert, Romane Marchal and Lucie Roba, students of Université Saint-Louis-Bruxelles
Want to learn more about the CitizenDev action research project? Read here the full publication.