HOUSING COMMUNITY DAVORINA JENKA 3A –
IDEAL NEIGHBORS

Residents of a Mirije block proved that neighborly solidarity is not a utopian scenario. Neighbors from the Davorin Jenka 3a Housing Community have significantly changed the space in which they live by working together. Given that 23 children under the age of 6 live in the community, the people of Mirijev were in agreement - they lacked a park, a place to hang out.

The tenants wanted the unused space between the buildings to get a purpose and be useful to all the neighbors. However, they encountered an obstacle - the piece of land they wanted to use belonged to an investor. "All of us who bought an apartment were promised a playground for children." Since two years have passed and nothing has been done, I suggested that we, within the community, do something.", explains the manager of the community, Dejan Grujić. Dejan was persistent, although help from the city and the Secretariat for Youth and Sports was absent. The justification was that the plot was private. Nevertheless, their idea was recognized by people from the platform change.rs , on whose website the community manager proposed the action. On invitation Jelena Šantić Foundation, our Jovana Timotijević and Bozena Stojić, provided mentoring support to the community. As part of the cooperation between the housing association, our organization and architects Jelena Stanković and Stefan Milićević, meetings and workshops on participatory design of common space were organized. Finally, the construction of the construction site began. The dedication of the tenants, who carried out most of the work by themselves, is commendable.

In just one year, with the combined efforts, a green area was created where everyone today happily hangs out and children play carefree. "We have a summer house, birthdays and celebrations are held in the park. The other day we celebrated the birth of a new baby in the neighborhood. I achieved my goal, people realized that together we can achieve a lot", says Dejan proudly. They say that they do not plan to stop at this action, but to form an alliance of residential communities in the future. The plan is for the alliance to include about 10 buildings initially, while the long-term goal is to operate not only in their backyard, but also on the premises. They are also planning the next project of building a field for football and basketball. "That would be ideal for the kids, to get away from the computer, to have space to play and socialize.” says the community manager.