Friendly Shoppers

By project School Chance

Published on 13 July 2022

Spain

Cataluña

Girona

About this good practice

Most children from eight years old still go to school in private modes of transport because their parents don’t allow them to go alone and in consequence, to be more independent. Also, due to Covid-19, sustainable modes of transport such as the bus, metro, or public trains, were affected. People (families) didn't want to use them because they were afraid of getting infected. Then, the school routes in private vehicles increased.

Friendly shoppers want to change the minds of parents, offering them a network of shops as a support for children on their route to school. It means being a business that the child identifies as close, with people who, if they need help or have a need, difficulty, or problem on the way to school or when they return home, will offer their attention and help. The focus is on developing a social support network to ensure the safety of school children.

1. An agreement between the Municipality and the school to sign the demands for each party.
2. Creating a database with the shops in a radio of 500 m around the school, previously selected.
3. Visiting the shops to involve them in the network and share the material (the sticker and the paper sign).
4. Developing educational activities to share the project with the students, parents, and the educational community. For example, the maps route of the Friendly Shopper game.

The principal beneficiaries are families, educational communities, and stakeholders like local neighbors and shops associations.

Resources needed

For two different neighborhoods:
Nº of stickers printed: 73
Nº of paper sign printed: 73

Evidence of success

Nowadays, there are two schools and 73 shops in two different neighborhoods involved in the network of Friendly Shoppers. Many schools demonstrated their interesting in to be part of the project to offer to their families and children, another strategy to promote the independence of children going to school in a city of more than 50,000 citizens.

Potential for learning or transfer

It has an easy methodology, which brings the possibility to setting up the friendly shopper’s network with few resources. The benefits of the good practice are many;
Promote a changing in parents mind.
Help children to be more independent in their route to school.
Offering to the citizens, another kind of service taking into account the local shops (for example, ones affected by the pandemic).
Creating a social network of shops in each neighborhood.
It is a project, which involve different perspectives to work in medium cities such as Girona; education, social-community issues, local commerce, sustainable mobility modes, and the configuration of public spaces around schools.