I'm doing my LiA just now! I'm in Barcelona, Spain, working with BarcelonActua, a nonprofit that serves unhoused immigrant adults. I'm in the education team, but the NGO has football matches, houses where some live, fund raising for college scholarships, cooking volunteers, and much more. I've been observing the classes of language and helping the set-up of their new space.
BarcelonActua just got kicked out of their old space, and the new space is shared with another NGO now. We're choosing what to move from the old place to this one - what books and materials would make these rooms feel nice? How to create a fruitful and enjoyable learning space? That is, how to make the vibes good even when the resources are not that good? I'm learning a lot about it, trying new things based on pedagogies I researched, mainly from decolonial perspectives of Brazilian scholar Luis Rufino and psychiatrist Nise da Silvera. They highlight agency and pleasure for creating a generative environment. Of course, each space has different needs and ways of achieving that for their communities!
It's just the start... In a few weeks, I'll have more thoughts and data about what worked here in BarcelonActua in supporting the vibes both for the workers and the students <33 The picture is of the BarcelonActua team during the event for honoring immigrant students who got scholarships this year!