Can anyone go talk to restless.brussels?

The Reef
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restless.brussels is a community of expats in Brussels arguing that expats should engage more deeply with the city. They are part of our target. They also regularly organize events.

I have been trying to engage with them and propose an event on cohousing, but they ignore my emails. However, here’s them organizing an event on social housing: Social Housing in Brussels - Restless Brussels event

It’s next Wednesday in Anderlecht. Would anyone have time to go, bring flyers and stickers, and take the floor during the Q&A? The narrative could be:

  • Cohousing is not automatically social housing. Both are pathways to affordable and sustainable living.
  • Cohousing is an interesting modalities for social housing, as people can support one another on care duties, bulk purchases etc.
  • The Region (development.brussels) is experimenting with cohousing in this sense, with Tivoli being a community land trust cohousing (in 2023 they also announced a call for projects to allocate at least one more site, but that never happened.
  • Brussels has a vibrant cohousing scene, of which our group is part. Advancing the culture of more social forms of living is part of our mission, and we are happy to collaborate with others.

Ping @reef-external

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I can’t go, but I will contact my friend Julius from Volta XL to see whether we can apply for a city-wide event and organise a presentation / workshop on communal living.

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I already did that, and they did not get back to me. So I was looking to someone from @reef-external to go crash the party! :slight_smile:

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I’m hesitant here. The talk is about social housing in the strict definition of the word and The Reef is not social housing, even less so after we had to stop the negotiations about inclusive units.

But it might be good to hang out and meet people. I’d love to but am travelling that evening.

We’ll certainly discuss with @reef-external on Monday.

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On a side note, will you be available to attend a DiEM25 meeting and spread the word there ? @GaultierDWM

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In what language, @Wenwei ?

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The meetings are held in English, but most of them are either Dutch or French speaking. If Gaultier goes to the meeting, I’ll give hime some flyers ( the trilingual version about the info session )

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I am intrigued by DIEM25, but do not have many free evenings. When would that be?

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Back to Restless, @alberto, can it be that what is missing is some high visibility person? If yes, could it be an option to see whether we can convince someone from the New European Bauhaus team?

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Hi Alberto!

I haven’t really been active with DiEM for some time. There are monthly meetings in Brussels at Grand Café.

Usually the last Tuesday of the month. Next meeting is 27/5 at 19.30. We can go there if you are interested.

The other topic listed for that day is about an upcoming ‘war and peace’ café about alternatives to NATO

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Hi @GaultierDWM, welcome, nice to meet you! It does sound interesting.

I doubt it. This is more them not reading their emails. Otherwise, it would be more courteous to reply thank you, this is not close to our heart right now, we’ll get back to you, or not.

I am pretty optimistic that we could convince Alessandro. But I don’t think he knows much about cohousing.

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