TEJIENDO FUTURO

Weaving safer communities through public space, youth, and collective action

The future is not awaited. It is woven

At Huasipichanga, we believe that neighborhoods change when people come together, participate, and build with one another. That's why we joined Tejiendo Futuro, a community-strengthening process that seeks to transform risk factors into protective factors, activating the power of the community, public space, and youth participation to build safer, more resilient, and more connected territories.

Through a preventive, participatory, and territorial approach, Tejiendo Futuro has driven processes together with adolescents, young people, families, communities, organizations, artists, local businesses, and local governments to strengthen capacities, reclaim spaces for gathering, and build more lively, safe, and welcoming neighborhoods.

Although the community process began more than two years ago through workshops, gatherings, and on-the-ground work, at Huasipichanga we joined this collective endeavor six months ago through methodologies of urban co-creation, tactical urbanism, and community participation. More than intervening in spaces, we seek to strengthen the sense of belonging, coexistence, and collective appropriation of the territory.

What did we do?

Through methodologies of tactical urbanism, community listening, and co-creation, we worked together with adolescents, young people, neighbors, organizations, and local actors to imagine, design, and transform public spaces into safer, more livable, and more meaningful places.

The process included:

Participatory co-design of public spaces together with communities and local governments.
Listening and awareness-raising processes to understand how the neighborhood is experienced and how to improve the everyday experience of public space.
Recovery and activation of deteriorated spaces through mingas (community work), urban interventions, and community actions.
Implementation of elements for permanence, gathering, and appropriation: furniture, vegetation, lighting, art, and signage.
Artistic and community activation through murals, urban painting, and collective appropriation actions.
Strengthening of community networks and local capacities to sustain change over time.

Territories intervened

Quito: when the neighborhood is built by the hands of its people

Quito is also built and woven by the hands of its community.
More than 150 people including adolescents, neighbors, volunteers, artists, students, and local businesses took part in community workdays to reclaim public spaces and strengthen neighborhood coexistence.

Thanks to the collective work, the following was achieved:

🎨 2 community murals

✏️ More than 1,000 m² of sidewalks painted

This process was made possible thanks to the commitment of the community and the coordinated work with allies who were committed to transforming the neighborhood collectively. We especially thank ST Innova for the donation of paint and Cordillera TEC for joining in, together with their students, in the creation of murals and the painting of sidewalks.

Crucita: transforming space through gathering

In Crucita, more than 250 people took part in the community minga and the inauguration of Tejiendo Futuro, showing that public space can become a place of gathering, care, and collective pride.
Through community work, the following were implemented:

🪑 29 public furniture pieces

🌿 10 planters with local vegetation

🏠 2 canopies to provide shade

🌳 More than 20 trees planted

🌼 6 photovoltaic lamps

💡 5 solar lamps installed

📍 Informational signage

🎨 2 murals created by a local artist

Each element is part of a process built together with the community to strengthen permanence, coexistence, play, gathering, and the appropriation of public space.

Our approach

At Huasipichanga, we believe that safety is also built through public space.
When young people participate, neighborhoods come alive, and communities come together, networks of care, trust, and belonging emerge. That's why Tejiendo Futuro is committed to cities built with people and not only for people, where public space becomes a tool to strengthen bonds, generate well-being, and activate collective power.