PROJECT MEETINGS WITH STAVANGER MUNICIPALITY

On Wednesday this week, Nina Herigstad and Bettina Lindgren met with Stavanger municipality, including the project manager for development Zakarias Chibssa and municipal manager for welfare and social services Geir Erik Ellefsen, for a presentation of a future kindergarten and day center for young and adult disabled people, and on Thursday Nina took part in the first project meeting with the new user group that the Løvemammaene are part of together with, among others, NFU and FFO regarding the planning of new, smaller relief housing in the municipality.

New day center for young disabled adults

In Wednesday's meeting, we got a good overview of the plans and drawings of the new kindergarten and day center to be built, as well as the area around these buildings. The new day center will be a pioneering project both in terms of the environment, design and joint use. The day center will, among other things, contain a pool, including a therapy pool, which looks like a nice spa department, sensory room and sensory garden, as well as a café open to the public that will provide adapted workplaces for the residents of the day centre. In the beautiful surrounding natural area, hiking trails will be laid out that both stimulate the senses and invite activity. We cheer for this!

New kindergarten

The nursery also looks very good, with great focus on bringing in natural elements, ensuring access and universal design. Here we were given some input related to universal use of the kitchen, universally designed play equipment and sensory adaptation. It is also positive to have a nursery school in close proximity to the respite accommodation in terms of coordination for parents who have children in both places.

New relief housing

In the Thursday meeting, the architects presented what they have been working on for approx. 2 weeks. This meeting was not quite as impressive, although the intentions are probably good. The drawings showed 3 buildings with their own entrances, but with doors between the buildings that connect them and in practice make this a large residence. The order was separate entrances unrelated to each other, so we hope they will remove this. There were also two lifts shared between the buildings, instead of separate lifts in each building. The buildings together provide space for around 20 children at the same time. 12 of the rooms are about 30 square meters. including a private bathroom, and 8 rooms have slightly larger bathrooms and are a total of 35 square meters. There is a planned parking facility that will be open to the public on the lower floor. Traffic was therefore also a topic. It is a popular walking area along the county road and in summer there is also traffic to the Mosvangen campsite.

New and modern is fine and dandy, but that does not necessarily mean that it will be like a home for these children, something we at Løvemammaene are concerned with. Unfortunately, as mentioned, the building is still one large unit with 6+6+8 children in each building, which is too many (4-6 places in each building was the order). We have a way to go in terms of content and design, which is why we in Løvemammaene and the other interest organizations that participated are happy to be able to attend meetings so early in the process. This is about a type of knowledge that relatives and professionals in the field know best, which we hope the municipality is aware of and will make full use of.

All in all, it is important to point out that, by and large, it still is large. There are, after all, three connected plots of land which consist of (as the drawings are now) three large institutions: day care centre, kindergarten and respite accommodation. And although we are still some distance apart in terms of the design of new relief housing, we have a hope and a goal that Stavanger Municipality will ultimately choose to listen to the advice and views of the new project group we are now a part of gives them. We believe that this collaboration can create an offer that families in Stavanger want to make use of.

We thank you for good meetings so far and look forward to further project work in collaboration with Stavanger municipality. New meetings with the project group will already take place in August.

PS: It must also be said that Løvemammaene lacks a good respite offer for families on the outskirts of the municipality, but this is something we must work on politically going forward.