Once again, third places will be our focus in this publication. At the heart of the priority themes of Epale Belgique Wallonie-Bruxelles for the year 2023, this theme joins the Thematic Focuses of EPALE, in particular the one of Engagement, under the tags of "Community learning" or "Communtity spaces". Often mistakenly equated with co-working spaces, we defined these spaces in a previous blog post, but also in the setting of a podcast, following a first exploration during the last meeting of the adult learning days in French-speaking Belgium. This blog is the fourth in a long series of publications on this platform about third places.

So here we are again, immersed in this sprawling and exciting world that opens up inspiring new horizons every time. The more we explore the subject, the more we discover its complexity, its variants and its possibilities. This time, we are invited by the Crédal cooperative which, in the framework of its "Do It Coop" programme, wants to offer training or coaching opportunities to actors who have to manage collective projects (cooperatives, associations...). It organised an afternoon of sharing experiences and information which offered the sixty or so participants present a panel of choice speakers, both for the more formal aspects and for the testimonial part.

The Walloon Minister for the Environment, Nature, Forestry, Rurality and Animal Welfare had the honour of opening the day with a speech aimed at presenting the Walloon policy initiatives put in place to develop rural third places.

Indeed, in 2022 the Walloon Region launched a vast call for projects aimed at supporting initiatives that ambition to create multiservice spaces that best meet the needs of rural populations: local services, places of conviviality, work, training, etc. This call for projects is part of Wallonia's Recovery Plan. Although 23 projects will receive public aid, no less than 102 applications were submitted during the call for projects launched by the Minister and her colleague, the Minister for Mobility, proving the growing demand for this type of structure.

The Minister gave us a short interview which you can find here in audiocast (in french).

This Walloon funding will take the form of individual coaching and networking that will support the winners for a period of 3 years, to the sum of €500,000.

             Then it was Hubert Maldague's turn from the University of Liège's Urban and Rural Planning Research Laboratory (LEPUR), who helped us to define the third place by showing us its characteristics, its organisation, its stakeholders, its spaces and its functions.

It was especially about the links between the economic aspects and the territorial development in which the third places are embedded. Through concrete examples, it was shown that these places emanating from a network of actors are proof of a strong attachment to the territory. They are also often emblematic "totems" places with a strong heritage value. Finally, the outcome of this contribution highlighted 7 dimensions to be taken into consideration when thinking about third places: In addition to the place itself, it is necessary to consider who is the community carrying the project, the local ecosystem in which it is established, the necessary choice of legal status as well as the economic model to be adopted... the latter being linked to the types of offers, services and activities proposed.

It is worth noting that a vademecum of third places with economic vocation has been published by the CPDT. You can also find below a replay of the "LEPUR Lunchtime" about third places.

Tue, 03/14/2023 - 11:27

Marco Cecchinato

The third speaker, Coralie Mattelaer, is a lawyer and mediator specialising in social enterprise law. Her presentation enlightened us on the possibilities of legal forms that can be used to structure one's third place. To do so, it is necessary to ask a whole series of questions such as whether or not to aim for profit, to evaluate the "risk" that the activity may give rise to, and to determine the destination of any profits... These questions must imperatively revolve around different points of view such as the necessary funding, the nature of the management bodies required, the responsibilities involved, taxation, obligations, etc. Depending on the answer to all these questions, the project leader will opt for an ASBL, cooperative or even foundation type structure. It is also emphasised that a hybrid form can be chosen, i.e. a cooperative endorsed by an ASBL, both with their own missions and objectives.

Finally, the afternoon ended with an exchange of experiences, led by Jérôme Mabille, project manager at the Walloon Rural Development Network (RWDR) and which brought together several speakers such as le Monty, an artistic, cultural and civic third place in Genappe, Quatre-Quarts, an eco-responsible cooperative in Court-St-Etienne, l'Arbre qui pousse, an emerging third place in Ottignies, as well as a representative of the Buurtpunten, from our neighbours in Flanders.

It is difficult to relate all the richness of these exchanges and the sources of inspiration they can represent, so we invite you to consult a short replay of this afternoon, available via this link...

Some selected pieces: "Living rurality", "Networking", "We remake the world", "It is a project on life paths", "A territorial vision of the future", "These places belong to citizens and local associations", "These third places are at the service of territorial transition", "There is a kind of flexibility of reaction", "Places of empowerment, It's a story of encounters, it's a living organism, a place of transition and an incubator of transitions" "We sow the seeds of common imagination"...

All these actors obviously agreed on the importance of the citizen character of these initiatives, on the dimension of citizen participation and therefore on the importance of the notion of commitment (should we say sacerdotal?) that the creation and animation/dynamisation of third places in Belgium require... We will talk about this again soon!