As a researcher and educator, I study and verify that young people need face-to-face learning contexts that foster social participation, connection, and inclusion. They also need to develop an essential set of skills, such as public speaking and collaborative problem-solving, to thrive. Yet many face educational inequalities and limited access to enriching and intercultural learning environments. Impactful solutions are therefore essential to reduce loneliness, social exclusion, and school dropout. Every young person should have access to an education that supports flourishing and a meaningful life. Every teacher should have access to specialized support to advance their professional learning and development. Common Room was created as an effective and innovative response to these challenges and is now ready to replication.
Imagine a living laboratory inside schools and communities where young people are not passive recipients of learning, but active protagonists. In Common Room, students step forward to learn to speak in public, design and organise real events, and present their work to authentic audiences that include peers, teachers, families, and members of the wider community.
This work begins with real challenges that shape students’ daily lives: loneliness and social isolation, superficial peer relationships, school dropout, lack of belonging, excessive workload, or disengagement from school life. These are treated not as abstract issues, but as shared problems that demand collective response.
Students work collaboratively to co-create, implement, and evaluate concrete whole school approach solutions, such as: school activities that strengthen connection and improve school climate, or participatory processes that give students a real voice in decision-making. In doing so, they build relationships of trust between students, and between students and teachers.
Teachers are central facilitators and tutors within this process. They support inquiry, scaffold collaboration, and help transform classroom dynamics into shared spaces of participation and responsibility.
With Common Room, change occurs: exclusion gives way to belonging, and loneliness to connection. Students develop healthy relationships, self-efficacy, and motivation as they learn and see their ideas take shape in real contexts.
We have implemented two complementary projects: one in a public school, focused on deliberation, oratory, and collaborative problem-solving through real-world challenges; and another in university and community settings, focused on developing social, intercultural, and communication skills while fostering social inclusion. Both have demonstrated measurable results and tangible impact. At this stage, Common Room is supported by academic and local partners, ready for replication, and open to social investment to scale its impact further.
If you want to implement it, feel free to contact us for mentoring and to pilot Common Room in your school or community.
