Madrid

Since 2008, economic crisis impact in Madrid has produced several mutations. Social polarisation and spatial segregation dynamics have escalated, strengthening even more the income barrier between the north (exclusive urban services) and the south/ southeast (negative externalities concentration).

MARES project will initiate an urban and economic resilience strategy on employment through social and solidarity economy in key industries to move forward a new model of productive matrix of the city.

Thus, a comprehensive approach of actions will be deployed, based on four pillars:

• Activating recovery processes, prototyping and co-designing disused public spaces.
• Launching a competencies lab capable of promoting economic resilience strategies of civil society.
• Fostering territorial economic innovation processes which generate a new economic fabric through social economy formulas and improve the competitiveness and sustainability of the existing productive schemes in the city.
• Encouraging mechanisms for awarenessraising, territorial economic revitalisation and cooperation among agents in order to articulate ecosystems allowing production diversification and more collective possibilities on employment and employability at local level.

MARES project will launch in four city districts, Centro, Villaverde, Vallecas and Vicálvaro, four spaces called M.A.R.E.S. Every MAR will be specialised: M (movility), A (food), R (recycling), E (energy) and S (social and care economy, common to the four MAR). These MARES will become a prototype of urban resilience on employment by encouraging social and solidarity economy on these strategic sectors, by:

• Generating economic activity and creating stable jobs by deploying business models, principles and values of the social and solidarity economy.
• Recovering abandoned or disused common areas and making them available for the creation of new productive initiatives.
• Identifying and developing existing competencies in the territories, as ground from where to articulate local strategies, projects and economic initiatives.
• Triggering participation processes on/ in the space allowing the interaction among territory citizenry economy.
• Stimulating the existing productive fabric and its links to emerging forms of economic activity.
• Awareness raising, training and support for citizen groups on social and solidarity economy.
• Improving employability processes with unemployed population and/ or at risk of social exclusion.
• Transferring of productive informal initiatives to more central importance spaces in economy.
• Opening economic activity in those south/ southeast districts to new realities and emerging production sectors within the current cycle and in a dialogue with metropolitan dialectics of Madrid.

• Ayuntamiento de Madrid
• Agencia para el Empleo de Madrid (AE) - Public Agency
• DINAMIA S. COOP. MAD  (DN) - Private Company
• Grupo Cooperativo Tangente  (TNG) - Private Company
• SIC ARQUITECTURA Y URBANISMO SLP  (SIC) - Private Company
• Vivero de Iniciativas Ciudadanas  (VIC) - NGO
• Todo por la Praxis  (TxP) - NGO
• Fundación Acción contra el Hambre (ACH) - NGO
• NUEVO ESPACIO INDUSTRIAL MADRID, S.L. - ECOOO - Private Company

MARES de Madrid project is expected to help to:

• Reduction of unemployment in focused districts.
• New productive initiatives and forms of cooperation, especially in the field of mobility, recycling, energy, food and care economy.
• Increase of Community participation in support, awareness raising and skills training activities.
• More quality jobs linked to new enterprise initiatives in the social economy sector.
• Increase of the number of cooperative firms.

June 2017 - Four interactive maps of citizens 'skills and initiatives in the four focused districts

October 2017 - Most of the properties that will host the MARES have been restored, renovated and are ready to open doors.

July 2018 - Learning Communities: First results

October 2018 - Attraction Program for top SSE firms from outside Madrid to the territory: First results

March 2019 - Staff/Partners Exchange Program: First results

November 2019 - Intermares Fair