Social justice in practice

Activities in 2023

In 2023, we spoke to approximately 500 different people about their wishes for sustainable living on a tight budget during the fifty activities we undertook together with partners at nineteen different locations in Sterrenwijk, the Inner City, Utrecht East (Wilhelmina Park), Lunetten, Oog in Al, Tuindorp, Zuilen, Rivierenwijk, Wittevrouwen, Overvecht, de Uithof, and Lombok.

At the invitation of various organisations, we presented results of Sustainable Utrecht 2030 and opportunities for collaboration at meetings organised by them. With this, we reached another 500 people.

The Martinus magazine, radio Maria, WIJS, the Poverty Coalition and Utrecht 4 Global Goals published interviews about Sustainable Utrecht 2030. The reach is 10,000 people inside and outside Utrecht.

In total, 65 students and young people contributed to solutions for sustainable living on a tight budget in 2022 and 2023 in one of these key areas: organic groceries, social gardening, energy poverty and mobility poverty, or entered into discussions with new groups of Utrecht residents about sustainable living on a tight budget.

For example: in January 2023, five environmental science students from HAS University of Applied Sciences continued working on their report 'Subsidize sustainable vegetables and fruit'. Five Social Work students from Utrecht University of Applied Sciences asked children and parents in Utrecht South how they live sustainably and created a 'three-tet game' to start a playful conversation. Ten students from Bonifatius College tried this game on February 16 and wrote pieces for Instagram. Four other social interns also wrote such pieces, while three young people helped people in their gardens via Serve the City.

Five new HU Social Work students developed a manual from February to April to help people garden together. A next group of five students spoke to visitors of the free shop of Stichting Limoenz in Lunetten on 9 May. An intern from Utrecht University is developing advice on communication between energy coaches and residents of social housing. On 17 March, 30 people brainstormed in the Domkerk about the next steps towards sustainable living on a tight budget.

To prepare these steps, we held dozens of discussions with partners, and on April 25, for example, we spoke with the sacristans of the St. Martinus parish about a greener church.

From the summer of 2023, we will work together with HovenHier Alice Bezett and in consultation with the municipality of Utrecht, Stichting Present and Utrecht Natuurlijk on the next step to let people socially garden together. In 2024, we will gradually transfer the initiative to these and other partners who want to join.

From June 2023, we have conducted a pilot with subsidized organic groceries in Lunetten. The results and recommendations were presented by intern Elizabete Fedčenko on December 15, 2023 in the Dom Church.

Since the end of August 2023, a group of Environmental Science students from HAS University of Applied Sciences has been working on advice on mobility poverty. The results will be announced in February 2024.

Intern Giulia Malisani tested various dialogue methods in the fall of 2023 to start a conversation with new groups of Utrecht residents about sustainable living on a tight budget. Where we previously mainly spoke to older visitors to community centers, she focused on students and young people, asylum seekers and other people with a migration background, and conducted street interviews on the university campus and in the city center. She presented the results on December 15, 2023 in the Domkerk. We are already working on many of the wishes of these target groups, such as a sustainable diet and growing your own food. In addition, there appeared to be a need for concrete solutions and information on separating waste, shopping without packaging, flying less and consuming less.