Non-AI – CommuniCity

Interactive guide to sustainable choices and circular economy for Helsinki area immigrants

Screenshot of the digital service about Sustainable daily choices pilot

Interactive guide to sustainable choices and circular economy for Helsinki area immigrants

Challenge: Helsinki: How to enable sustainable choices and access to city services for immigrants?

Target Group: migrants

Developed on the Drupal platform for the City of Helsinki’s Urban Environment Division, this website developed by Stereoscape Oy serves as a comprehensive, accessible, and multilingual digital guide on sustainable life in Helsinki. The goal is to support residents from immigrant backgrounds who may otherwise find it challenging to access scattered or hard-to-find information on recycling opportunities and services.

The platform presents essential content such as sorting instructions, the locations of recycling stations, and details about circular economy services provided by the city. With multilingual support, the site ensures that a wide range of language groups can understand and engage with the content. 20-30 immigrants participated in co- creation activities.

This digital service not only enhances environmental communication but also empowers citizens to make informed decisions about everyday recycling. The website is modular and scalable, making it easy to update and expand in the future with additional content, languages, or new service areas.

City Services Audio Navigator

City Services Audio Navigator

Challenge: Helsinki: How to enable sustainable choices and access to city services for immigrants?

Target Group: Migrants

The pilot focused on developing a circular economy audio guide delivered via a web- mobile app, aimed at improving access to city services for immigrants and multilingual users. The main objective was to create an inclusive, easy-to-use tool that supports sustainable choices and enhances awareness of local services.

Co-creation activities included workshops conducted by Omni Audio Oy in collaboration with local partners and the Urban Environment Division of the City of Helsinki, alongside surveys and questionnaires to gather feedback from a diverse user base. These activities informed improvements in language phrasing, intonation, and directional instructions, ensuring the content was accessible and culturally relevant. Collaboration with the pilot host and engagement with native speakers were key to validating multilingual content.

Results demonstrated successful deployment and positive reception by over 60 end- users in a real environment. Feedback highlighted the importance of clear, user- friendly guidance and the need for continuous content refinement. The pilot also established a partnership with Oodi Library to continue solution use post-piloting.

Next steps involve implementing user feedback, expanding language support, and enhancing features based on further co-creation input. Continued collaboration with local organizations is planned to ensure the solution’s sustainability and scalability.

A collaborative virtual world for disabilities learning support

A collaborative virtual world for disabilities learning support

Challenge: Helsinki: How can virtual reality support the independent living of the intellectually disabled?
Target Group: People with Disabilities

The VR Cleaning Simulator teaches people with intellectual disabilities the importance of household skills and home care in a fun, gamified, yet educational way. The experience takes place in a 3D-modelled apartment where players clean by vacuuming and organising items in their proper places. Gamified elements like timers and scoring increase engagement. The simulator is compatible with modern standalone VR headsets. It was co-created in close collaboration with the staff and clients of the Virtual Disability Services for Clients in Work and Day Activities (VIPA). Regular testing sessions, fruitful discussions, and end-user feedback laid the foundation for an engaging VR simulator, serving as an excellent tool for teaching important household tasks. The simulator can be updated and adapted for different environments and household activities in the future.

Roadmap Canvas for the Regenboog Groep

Roadmap Canvas for the Regenboog Groep

Challenge: Amsterdam / Regenbooggroep: How to support the “joint journey” of the volunteers and participants of the Rainbow Group?
Target Group: individuals who are homeless, in debt, addicted or otherwise socially isolated and volunteers working with them

The Maatjeskaarten pilot aimed to support buddy pairs of The Rainbow Group (Regenbooggroep) with an easy-to-use tool that fosters meaningful conversations and shared activities. Starting from co-creation workshops, featuring 6-8 participants from the Rainbow Group, the team shifted from a digital roadmap idea to printed cards with conversation starters, activity ideas, and light challenges.

During the pilot, coordinators distributed the cards and helped select relevant sets. A digital version was also available but less used. Feedback highlighted the cards’ flexibility and positive focus, though limited testing time and varied engagement posed challenges.

Next steps involve collecting more feedback, refining the cards, and considering wider rollout within the organisation.

Surplus Welzijn – A new (virtual) reality for Youth work

Surplus Welzijn – A new (virtual) reality for Youth work

Challenge: Wildcard – Propose tech solutions contributing to a breakthrough in intergenerational problems.

Surplus Welzijn – “A new (virtual) reality for Youth work: beyond gaming for fun in applying VR in youth work”.

Aiming to propose a tech solution that would diminish intergenerational problems, Surplus Welzijn has developed a solution where Virtual Reality (VR) is integrated into youth work. By engaging young people as co-creators, the pilot designed two gamified tools – “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes” and “Wander” – able to strengthen communication skills and foster the participants’ personal development and empowerment. The first aims to help young people set and track personal development goals, while enhancing teamwork and problem-solving skills. The latest game consisted of a social mapping tool that allowed participants to create 360-degree virtual tours of places significant to their lives, facilitating discussions about identity, community, and personal experiences.

Hosting 13 co-creation meetings with VR specialists and 33 interactive sessions with young people ensured the VR tools’ practical application in youth work settings, which enhanced their effectiveness. Additionally, the young people who participated in the co-creation expressed their desire to continue working with it.

Brainstorm en concept – Virtual Reality Training

Challenge: Wildcard – Propose tech solutions contributing to a breakthrough in intergenerational problems.

Brainstorm en concept – Virtual Reality Training Intergenerational Problems

On behalf of the City of Breda, brainstorm en concept has developed a new VR-interactive application with social impact, as it will contribute to the improvement of intergenerational issues. The aim of this interactive training is to bring different age groups together and create more understanding and empathy for each other. Three different locations in and around Breda have served as locations for 360-degree films, in which young participants have played the scripts co-written with the elderly. This way, a young person can now look through the eyes of an older person to experience their issues in daily life and sympathize with them. It is possible to implement the application on other Meta Quests by us to make it available for other organisations and hopefully bring a stronger positive impact in other cities.

Duckwise ApS – Simplifying bank account setup

Duckwise ApS – Simplifying bank account setup

Challenge: How can technology ease the process of setting up a bank account for foreigners?

Duckwise ApS – A collaborative approach to simplifying bank account setup for the international workforce in Aarhus Municipality

Bank bureaucracy can sometimes be a problem for foreigners in Denmark. The long and inefficient process poses challenges for all involved parties, particularly for immigrant workers. Overcoming this challenge, Duckwise ApS co-created a user-centred and intuitive approach to simplify bank account setup and administrative processes, helping immigrants to start a new life in Aarhus Municipality.

The development of this solution incorporated a cooperative process from the beginning, as some co-creation activities include interviewing the target groups, allowing them to share their experiences, and creating a prototype based on the feedback received. Hopefully, the replication of the project in other cities can improve the quality of international residents, Citizen Services, banks, and companies across Europe.

KU Leuven – Breaking Boundaries with Situated Surveys

Cross-Border Pilot with Prague

Challenge: How to engage the citizens in participatory planning?
Cross-Border Pilot with Porto and Amsterdam

KU Leuven – Breaking Boundaries with Situated Surveys

How to involve residents in urban decision-making and take their insights into account? With the fast development of European cities, which are becoming denser and more diverse, it is essential to engage citizens in how the city should grow. The Situated Surveys of KU Leuven gave us an answer by bringing a part of the urban planning process to the residents’ everyday-life. In Prague, Porto, and Amsterdam, the project’s Citizen Dialog Kit survey devices allow citizens to share their thoughts on a simple, immediate, and inclusive bottom-up urban planning approach. The easy-to-use devices are distributed in public places and gather real-time feedback from the participants. This solution addresses contextual and social challenges, improving the quality and sustainability of city decision-making and overall fostering a more satisfied and inclusive European community.

Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research – Porto Sense

Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research – Porto Sense

Challenge: How to improve the thermal comfort and overall health in residential buildings?

Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research – Porto Sense

Household environment profoundly impacts human health. PortoSense aims to improve thermal comfort and the overall health quality within residential spaces. The proposal intends to develop a user-friendly tool that offers residents in-depth knowledge of homes’ environmental conditions and crucial data about their living spaces in an accessible manner, and to combine a human-centred design and co-design sessions to prototype a digital recommendation system to passively enhance living conditions.

The proposal includes a collaboration with residents in urban rehabilitation areas, conducting focus groups to identify needs, evaluate sensing systems, and empower users with best practices. Summing up, PortoSense is developing a digital solution that not only monitors living conditions but empowers users with clear data for effective action. In an sustainability-driven age, this pilot aims for life improvements without the complexities of major renovations.

Empowering Elderly by Hoivita

Challenge: How to increase the autonomy of the elderly?
Empowering Elderly by Hoivita

The safety and comfort of the elderly has been the driving force of the Hoivita since incorporation. Hoivita currently caters to customers in the South Karelia, Pirkanmaa and Uusimaa regions of Finland with ongoing pilots with Spanish hospitals. With our automatic, easy-to-install solutions combined with the Hoivita One View platform, we have saved the lives of many elderly clients by tracking their movements at their homes and providing objective data to the caregivers to take corrective measures early. In Challenge 2, “How to increase the autonomy of the elderly?” Hoivita targets clientele who don’t have pets, live alone or with their spouse, live in a studio, two-bedroom or three-bedroom apartment.

Expected Outcomes:
• Increased awareness on the wellbeing of the elderly without intruding their daily routines
• Provides a more holistic view of the elderly to the caregiver ensuring their wellbeing is monitored round the clock
• Provides objective data for caregivers to take corrective measures when necessary
• Help caregivers to determine if the right amount of care is being provided (or if transfer to an assisted living facility or hospital is required)