Chat in the Park - Bucaramanga, Colombia

Every school-week, professors and students analyse the key aspects of a particular health issue and prepare a discussion guide for each Sunday morning, when families and individuals gather in Bucarmanga's parks to participate in the very popular "ciclovias" (bike routes). Once in the park, students introduce the health issue prepared throughout the week, start open conversations, and engage in discussions with different groups of people participating in the bike route. The mission of the students is to stimulate discussion, but people are free to enter or exit the conversations at any time, a strategy that inspired the title of the project. After a certain period of time, students close a "chat" session and move on to another group to start another "chat" session. Throughout the "chat" session, students highlight key aspects of health issues discussed by participants and try to identify a take-home message emerging from the discussion.

Health.

Evaluation of Chat in the Park was primarily designed to provide feedback to the session that followed. Students, that is, provided a report about "chat" sessions they led in which they identified problems, successes, and key issues that emerged during the sessions. These lessons were incorporated into the subsequent session.