The City of Pazin (HR) has been actively involving citizens in the process of adopting the city budget since 2014. This town of around 8 600 inhabitants experienced frustration and mistrust when the small municipal budget couldn't meet all expectations. Now citizens send proposals of communal actions which should be carried out the following year. After analysis by city officials, public hearings are held in each district. Citizens vote on how the allocated budget should be spent. In three years, 370 proposals were submitted, and 80 have been approved - without any amendment by the city council. The budget allocated this way has also increased. The method can be applied in varying scales and territories.

The process of participatory budgeting allows direct participation of citizens in the decision-making on city budget funds. Citizens submit their proposals of the most necessary communal actions, after which city officials present it on public hearings in local boards. Local citizens vote on the presented proposals. Communal action(s) with the most votes within a predetermined budget are included in the city budget proposal. In addition, city representatives present citizens the most important determinants of the city budget and the budget process by which citizens are well informed, familiar with the limits of the city budget and have more realistic expectations.

That also increases their satisfaction and confidence in the work of the city administration. Within the public debates in local boards, there is a time scheduled to open discussion, questions and dialogue between the representatives of the city of Pazin and its citizens. In this way, citizens get firsthand information and answers. The multiple benefits of including citizens: budget and budget process information, involvement in decision-making and active participation in the political process which leads to an improving relationship between the city and its citizens, promoting transparency and responsibility, strengthening the public trust in the institutions and their representatives, increasing the level of political culture, a fairer distribution of financial resources and the reduction of social inequality.

The project contributes to the economical and efficient spending of available financial resources, by investing in the real needs of the citizens. The implementation of communal actions raises the quality of life and work in local communities, which indirectly results in economic development, employment increase and reduction of poverty.

Regardless of their social and political status, all citizens can send in their proposals of communal actions, participate in public debates, vote for the most necessary communal action and express their opinions and suggestions. The implementation of chosen communal actions certainly requires interventions in the environment. The city of Pazin as a local government must comply with all legal requirements, and it has to follow the principles of the economic and environmental sustainability in the implementation of communal interventions, thereby reducing the risk of environmental degradation. The participatory approach is ensured by the inclusion of the National Civil Society Organization GONG, the local civil society organisation “Naša djeca Pazin”, with the support of the following associates: National Public Scientific Institute, the Institute of Public Finance and National Community of Cities – Cities association. Moderation and guidance of public hearings are left to the civil society organisation SMART Rijeka as an impartial participant in the project. Technical assistance is provided by the representatives of local boards.

Right from the beginning of this project, public hearings in local boards gathered as much as 548 citizens. The evidence of the cooperation of all mentioned organisations can be found on the website of the project, where a lot of information about the project, photos, minutes from public hearings and much more, is published.

Since the beginning of this project, citizens have submitted a total of 370 municipal actions. Public hearings in local boards gathered 548 citizens who voted and decided on a total amount of 1,100,000.00 HRK (147 000 €), choosing 80 small communal actions in approximate value given at the disposal. After the vote, the Mayor of Pazin sent a budget proposal for the following year, including small communal actions, to the City Council of Pazin, its representative body. In three years of implementation of this project, the City Council didn't amend the small communal actions that were carried out during 2015 and 2016. Actions voted in 2016 will be implemented in 2017. Parallel to the implementation of the project, a website was created to inform and educate citizens about the budget and the project. The site is regularly updated, in order to maintain the achieved degree of the budget transparency. The project was covered by numerous media, thus raising the interest of the public and other cities and institutions, and presented on many seminars in Croatia where it received an award for the good practice.

Like the city of Pazin, other European cities might face similar problems. The limited budgetary resources, the large number of requests for infrastructure interventions and the impossibility of implementation of necessary communal actions cause frustration and dissatisfaction amongst the citizens. In addition, most citizens believe that the budget is a purely political procedure which they can't influence. This project gives all citizens the opportunity to participate in establishing a budget, thus allowing an important educational component. Direct contact with citizens creates confidence in the work of the city administration. In a similar way, other cities can reach out to its citizens. Due to proposals in public hearings, our citizens are satisfied with this unique practice. Every citizen has the possibility of direct participation in establishing the city budget, therefore allowing the city administration to identify problems and acknowledging suggestions. This city budget project suits the needs of citizens. Within the project, public discussions are held where citizens can ask questions and get answers from city administration. Finally, there is a vote for proposed communal actions.

Local collaboration is the key in this model, put forward by the Municipality of Aalborg (DK). The concerned two Aalborg neighbourhoods are situated outside the area of dynamic urban development growth, both had severe reputation and identity problems, and they were not seen as attractive residential areas. The rethinking process has shown their potential much clearer. Strategic plans focused on visions and action plans, including investments and partnerships, are main outputs of the practice. This has been developed through a ’rethinking’ process, including both physical environments, local network and cohesion, as well as storytelling and identity. Local and political ownership and partnerships, with trustful relations between the municipality, local stakeholders and investors, have been developed. This has brought security for investors, which is very important for the sustainable regeneration process.

In Skalborg, the solution was the renewal of land use and strategic plans focused on visions and action, with cohesion and much better internal connections. This was reinforced by an important communication effort.

In Tornhøj, the solutions have been structural changes, by opening up closed enclaves and by connecting different built-up areas, people and functions with new mobility solutions. The different investor partners have committed themselves to work for the common vision.

Both neighbourhoods were built up in the golden age of the welfare state to provide separation of functions, good housing and an equal supply of public service for everybody. Now, they seem worn and out-dated, as the society and its dominating values have changed. The main goal for both areas has been developing unique urban neighbourhoods that provide quality everyday life for people. The new plans focus not only on potential areas for new housing densification, with new types of housing which are needed, but also on a potential for businesses, which can be integrated with housing in local centres. The process has been focused on communication and dialogue to create trustful relations and partnerships. Temporary activities, used strategically, have created very concrete and visible successes, and common identity in the area.

In Tornhøj, the process started with a competition focusing on sustainable urban living. It developed a strategy for feasibility and new mobility to connect the neighbourhood and increase public transport, creating a ‘main street’ as the backbone for various users - pedestrians, cyclists and a new public driverless bus -, and an attractive urban space which includes not only housing, but also public institutions and other workplaces. Tornhøj is a socially vulnerable neighbourhood, and it has been crucial to rethink the area for the existing citizens in order to provide them with a sense of community and belonging, along with an invitation of new segment groups.

In Skalborg, the project was also about improving the physical surroundings for its inhabitants' everyday life. An important part of the vision is to create a local centre for the whole neighbourhood, with a spread of service functions including grocery shops and attractive meeting places.

The approach has been integrated and participative. The holistic approach is altogether the key point in the model. Horizontal integration has been the point in the cross-disciplinary work, not the least between different public sectors. Vertical integration is used in the dialogue between local school children and other groups of citizens, at different levels of government and politicians. Territorial integration is present when the vision process touches the role of the neighbourhood in the city and city region.

In Tornhøj, citizen involvement took place by workshops, guided walks with selected focus group workshops with representatives of the civic association, a local community office etc. A game was accomplished where consensus was made on activities in the urban spaces etc. Several temporary activities were carried out, which triggered involvement and good attention to the project.

In Skalborg, communication plays a central role. The civic association, the social housing association and the local institutions play an important role as the community's cornerstones. Many citizens attended the introductory meetings and workshops. Key persons and the civic association were directly involved, and the executive committee in the local civic association was an active partner in the ongoing process.

The temporary activities have been involving people in the neighbourhoods. In Skalborg, a dark and unpleasant pedestrian tunnel under the main road Hobrovej, which is a huge barrier splitting the area in two, was painted by hundreds of schoolchildren under the guidance of a professional street artist.

The opening of this fantastically coloured tunnel was a big event which brought together children, parents and the area neighbours. The result is a much more inviting passageway. Even if the barrier problem is not solved yet, awareness of the traffic and solutions for safer ways especially for school children has come on the agenda.

Listed below are the most important projects to be realised in Tornhøj:

• A narrow pedestrian tunnel is transformed into a broad path under a bridge. This project is closely connected to a new urban space;
• A new café will open in an existing building, facing the new “main street”;
• A new, driverless bus connection along the new main road (a pilot project with varied funding);
• A new public care home for people suffering from dementia;
• New grocery shops, cafés and different types of housing (including rental and ownership, as well as housing for elderly, young and families). The neighbourhood regeneration around Tornhøj into a new and sustainable suburb centre is in full swing. The renewal is both physical, social/functional and mental, as new stories about the area are changing its identity. The Skalborg project is some years “behind” the project in Tornhøj, but many goals have been reached so far, due to the strategic plan which gives security for investors. New collaborations, and a positive energy about the neighbourhood, did arise.
• Two housing projects under development: two very visible corners in the city that will become landmarks;
• The decoration of the tunnel under Hobrovej, which had a large impact and created big media coverage;
• The project of a new local centre is starting up now.

We think that the model could be interesting for many other European cities with similar neighbourhoods.

First of all, the overall goal of creating synergy using existing, limited resources and attracting interest from investors will be shared by many cities.

The use of a commitment process, focusing on special identities and storytelling in each neighbourhood, is involving citizens and pays attention to development possibilities. The model and methods employed can be inspiring for cities that also face safety and urban structure issues, negative storytelling and social exclusion in certain neighbourhoods.

The model can be adjusted to different urban situations or actors, to their resources and those of the municipality.

Some good advice on "how to":

• Get hold of possible investors and initiate a dialogue;
• An “opening picture” can be a method for dialogue about the future;
• Register and involve, interview key partners and local associations;
• Identify cooperation will in the neighbourhood, and bring people together;
• Communicate broadly, and in many different ways;
• Discuss the identity and future of the neighbourhood;
• Use a small amount of money on temporary activities;
• Arrange events and short-term activities, which generates new and positive stories about the community.

What would happen if the long-term unemployed were allowed to decide for themselves how the money that is spent every year to prepare them for the labour market - at least some of it - should be used? The municipality of Aarhus (DK) decided to find out and, in collaboration with the University of Aarhus, The Social Development Centre and the Velux Foundation, it has initiated a two-year pilot project which has made it financially possible to give a cash grant of up to DKK 50,000 (approx. €6,700) to 100 long-term unemployed citizens to help them in their efforts in finding or creating a job. The beneficiary is therefore responsible for how the money is used and what it is spent on. 
In 2017, the results have been very promising, with 14 of the 27 participants being no longer on unemployment benefits. The participants themselves expressed that they feel a larger amount of responsibility and control over their own lives since they are treated with trust and confidence by the job counsellors. At the same time, they experience the new initiative as something “fresh” and tailored to their situation, and so they avoid the typical “one size fits all” courses. 

The City of Aarhus is experimenting with models for self-budgeting in employment activities. The plan is to allow 100 unemployed citizens to receive up to 50,000 kroner (6,700 euros) that he or she decides how to spend in order to get a job. The Aarhus 2017 European Capital of Culture theme is “RETHINK”, and our project rethinks the relations between citizens and authorities. The project is run from the perspective that the citizens are experts in their own lives. Therefore, it makes sense that they have a greater influence on what should be done in order to find a job. The vision is that the individual becomes the driving force in his or her own job performance and that this will increase the chances of getting a job. The project is organised in three parts: • Testing and developing a model for self-budgeting in employment activities; • Developing tools for the case managers and supporting them in this new way of working with the citizens; • Validation and analysis of the data that is produced in the project by Aarhus University. The first results are promising. At the time of this writing, 9 of the 16 participants who wanted to become self-employed have succeeded in doing so.

“Long-term unemployed take the lead” is based on at least two of the URBACT approaches. In relation to horizontal integration, the project combines both the social perspective and the perspective of economic thinking, in the sense that it aims at helping long-term unemployed people out of their unemployment - which is an economic benefit to society, but also a social, emotional and economic benefit for the individual citizens. Regarding Vertical integration, the project builds on both a local strategy for strong cooperation between the municipality and businesses (the business strategy) and the local policy of active citizenship. The background of the business strategy is a vision of establishing Denmark's strongest partnerships with local companies - partnerships for jobs, social responsibility and growth. The municipality is working to become the local companies' preferred partner in finding and hiring new employees and finding solutions for employees on sick leave. Businesses are our number one customers, and the strategy for cooperation with more companies focuses on a more service-oriented approach, benefiting both companies and unemployed citizens. This good practice in many ways also taps into the City of Aarhus Citizenship Policy with its focus on active citizenship, new solutions, inclusion, and diversity. Based on the first results (of 27 participants, 14 are no longer in the system), the project contributes to a more sustainable welfare service.

The city council of Aarhus decided on 6 November 2013 to set up a Citizenship Committee with citizens and politicians. The job of the Citizenship Committee was to challenge the municipal practice of public involvement and inspire a new practice for citizen participation, collaboration, and co-creation. The result of this work is a new Active Citizenship Policy (the policy is part of the Support Package). The Committee has on several occasions helped to inspire the work in the project. Both individually and in groups, they facilitated citizen perspectives and have made a number of concrete proposals which have been put into the project. As stated in the Citizen Policy, managers and employees in the municipality demonstrate openness to new initiatives, help citizens help one another, and are prepared to accept the consequences of the new expectations regarding our cooperation with citizens. From the start of the project, the employees have been closely involved in the development of a methodology to ensure: • Ownership; • Safety and making it possible to apply the method in practice; • The opportunity to contribute with social expertise and knowledge of the local context. So, both during the planning of the project and afterward there has been a high degree of co-creation and participatory activities.

It is not yet possible to say anything conclusive about the programme, but the first results are so comprehensive that It makes sense to launch a good practice call. As of January 2017, 14 of the 27 participants had found a job, and reported other benefits: • A boost in confidence; • That the job consultants can finally give them an offer that is usable; • That they get a customised offer; • That the offer is based on trust rather than control; • That they have great personal ownership in the process to find jobs. Phases 2 and 3 are no longer on unemployment benefits, while the participants in phase 4 began their activities in February 2017. As already mentioned, 9 of the 16 participants that wanted to become self-employed succeeded in doing so, and as such, the experiment has shown that there is a considerable amount of unemployed that wish to take a step into the world of entrepreneurship, which may be worth paying attention to. There has been a great desire among the participants in the project to start their own business. It is remarkable because within the current legislation is not possible to help unemployed citizens who want to start their own business. Another important result is that the citizens feel that they are consulted and involved to a much greater extent than in the usual employment process. Through qualitative interviews, we have documented what the citizens experience: they are met with trust.

The 2008 -2009 global recession and the Eurozone debt crisis significantly affected European economies, decreasing growth and increasing unemployment in many EU countries. Despite some signs of recovery, many EU countries continue to struggle with sluggish growth, high unemployment (especially among young people) and dissatisfied publics. Across Europe, we are in the middle of a fundamental transformation of the welfare state. We are breaking with the traditional conception of welfare as a standard benefit or service, and challenging the time when a case manager could offer a standard product to all of our citizens. Instead, welfare should be created in the space between citizen, companies, businesses, the case manager and civil society. What we see in these years is that the municipalities are making experiments with new forms of welfare – co-created with citizens and businesses. We go from system to person – from expert to “sparring partner” and from giving answers to asking questions. However, one thing is to realise the challenges and put up new visions. Another thing is how it is done in the daily work in the employment department. “Long-term unemployed take the lead” is an example of how we try to make the vision concrete.

What do a bus station, a park and a tunnel say about equality and gender issues? With the objective to underline the importance of gender equality and to show actions and results of a long-term work in the city, Umeå (SE) created a "Gendered landscape". Since 2009 guided bus tours around the city show to passengers successful changes in the city, and put light on still existing gender inequalities. This practice raises important questions about the city’s development and identity issues. How do we build new tunnels, playgrounds, meeting places, recreation centres? Do we plan our public transport for those who use it or for those we wish would use it? Why are women using public transport more frequently than men?

Since 2009 the city of Umeå provides guided bus tours around the city to show “the gendered landscape of Umeå”. This is an innovative way of showing how working with gender equality takes form in a city - exemplify successful changes and work in the city, as well as illuminating remaining issues. In line with Umeå’s high ambitions on sustainability and gender equality, the gendered landscape method has been developed in Umeå, and, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first of its kind in Europe. The method is not about traditional neighbourhood safety/security surveys, it is about taking the city itself as the starting point, highlighting gendered power structures throughout the city and how they can be understood and transformed. The method of "the gendered landscape" is being used for educating and creating awareness on the importance of a cohesive understanding of gendered power structures concerning all urban planning in the city. The method raises important questions about the city’s development and identity issues that are critical norms and, in some cases, provocative as well as challenging and dynamic. How do we build new tunnels, playgrounds, meeting places, recreation centres? Do we plan our public transport for those who use it or for those we wish would use it? Why are women using public transport more frequently than men? Who has the power to decide? What knowledge do we use when we are working on developing the city and our public spaces?

The idea of the Gendered Landscape is to highlight power structures in the city, to focus on the city in itself rather than specific groups in the city, and to have an integrated understanding of inclusion, gender equality and sustainable urban development. Different stakeholders are represented at the stops of the bus tour, as well as different levels of government (i.e. highlighting the cooperation between local, regional and national level in working with gender equality through the bus stopping, for example, at the county administrative office). This approach leads to a better understanding that a city, to be able to be transforming, must develop new initiatives and projects with an understanding of the context of the city and an understanding of gendered power structures. The Gendered Landscape approach highlights the need to have qualified staff within the city administration involved in all urban development issues within and outside the city administration, and not exclusively focusing on representation issues, etc. In this respect, a good cooperation between Umeå University (for example the Umeå Centre for Gender Studies) and the city of Umeå is seen as one key component.

The tour is a way of making the statistics in the “Gendered Landscape” report come alive, currently outlining 25 integrated practices in the city, and an innovative way of demonstrating the concrete effects of striving for gender equality. The work has been led by the municipality, but also by other organisations and persons. The idea of the tour is to highlight the city as one and the need for cooperation and collaboration in creating an inclusive city. One example is the park “Freezone”, a collaboration between different parts of the municipality and groups of girls in the city. The collaboration led to a better understanding of expectations that young women deal with every day and the need for public spaces where nothing is expected of you. With this new knowledge, a park was built in the city centre. Collaboration between the municipality, Umeå University and the Swedish for immigrants-school led to an understanding that there is a difference between being seen and feeling like an object or a subject in public spaces. How do background, age, gender and disability figure in, and how is the city planned? This led to changes in how public forums are arranged in the city to insure that more inhabitants take part in the process. Both these examples are part of the Gendered Landscape tour which also includes places with work that has been or is being done by NGOs, public works of art and highlighting the constant interactions between public and private that are present in a city.

There are several examples of how the initiatives of the bus tour have made an impact in the planning and development of the city. The Freezone initiative has impacted the work of the Umeå Street and Parks department, changing their methods for dialogues with citizens and gender-mainstreamed the content of steering documents. Another example from the tour is the example of Gammliavallen football stadium and the city’s ambition of a more equal use of public spaces and sports arenas. In 1999, a political decision in the municipal board of leisure led to that practice hours were divided according to what division soccer teams played in, regardless of gender. As a direct result Umeå’s leading women’s soccer team, Umeå IK, got to choose their practice hours before the leading men’s team, Umeå FC. Since then, the decision has impacted the distribution of practice hours in all municipal arenas in Umeå. A third example is from Umeå as a cultural city, where the cultural sector continually monitors gender representation in the city cultural scene. A positive trend towards more gender equality is observed over the last few years. In 2015 there were 45 % women (out of 2,000 events) represented on the main cultural stages in Umeå.

Thus far we have had around 30 international exchanges with representatives from European countries and around the world on the Gendered Landscape approach. The challenge of gendered power structures is shared across all European cities. The social and cultural context of the cities differs, of course, across EU Member States, but the Gendered Landscape approach offers flexibility to adapt to these different pre-conditions. In an international context, we see that the potential to reuse the methodology is great, not least within a European (i.e. URBACT) context, as the methodology has proven to be easily adaptable to different local cultural and social contexts. Examples of international exchanges so far include: • The European Capital of Culture (ECoC) network, where Umeå, as European Capital of Culture, has hosted a number of international meetings; • CEMR; • Union of Baltic cities Gender and Planning Commissions; • Urban Development network 2014 Innovation pitch in Brussels. We believe that the Gendered Landscape integrated approach has been successful in Umeå. The long-term ambition is to build on the interest generated thus far and implement further developments in Umeå and across Europe. The ambition in applying for an URBACT Good Practice is to use this as a starting point for a European network initiative (possibly within an URBACT Transfer Network), inviting other parts of Europe to work together on further developing the approach in Umeå and elsewhere.

Every year from April to May, the City of Tallinn (EE) holds a big Spring Clean-Up Campaign. Volunteers get together to clean salt from streets, plant trees and flowers, pick up litter from Baltic beaches. There are celebrations and a far-reaching environmental awareness campaign. In terms of waste management, the main actions are to remove self-generated landfills, collect hazardous waste and clean up roads and green areas. This involves the city cooperating with waste treatment companies, residents of city districts, non-profit associations, apartment associations, schools, youth organisations and pensioners. The Spring Clean-Up Campaign is widely publicised in Estonian and Russian, with a public screen in the central Freedom Square, coverage in district newspapers, a campaign website and a booklet "The ABC of Public Facilities and Maintenance". In 2017, the event took place for the 26th time.

Clean-up of roads, residential areas and green areas. Clean-up actions organised by city institutions, district authorities, NGOs, local communities, schools and residential associations. Planting of trees in schools on Earth Day. An educational project for schools: "Let’s see, know and do!" Participation in European Clean-up Day. Demonstration of environmentally friendly cleaning products. Mobile collection of hazardous wastes in residential areas.

For each year, the city has planned a specific budget to organise the Spring Clean-Up Campaign, covering the costs for different city-wide activities related to maintenance. All the city districts are involved in the activities of the Spring Clean-Up Campaign and the needs for specific activities are discussed jointly.

In addition, opening and closing events of the Spring Clean-Up Campaign are organised. In the opening event, the traditional Spring Clean-Up Campaign is officially declared open and in the closing event, the most active and industrious participants of the maintenance works are thanked and recognised.

There are traditional activities, such as washing the waiting shelters for urban public transportation and cleaning urban waste and trash from roads and pavements. In addition, road salt is removed from the streets during the Spring Clean-Up Campaign. Trash piles, which have accumulated over time, are also removed.

If such events are regularly organised each year, then people want to participate and wait for the next event, so as to help keep their home surroundings in good order. The time and place of a specific event is announced in the local newspaper (Linnaleht) and the citizens are invited to participate.

Posters are placed in public places and public institutions, announcing the time and place of the event, and advertisements are displayed in supermarkets informing the audience of the specific event taking place in their city district. In public transportation, if there are screens available, information about the events organised in the city is displayed. City district governments send e-mail invitations to different authorities located in the city to participate in these events.

Regarding the information campaign of the Spring Clean-Up Campaign, there is an animation clip that is shown on TV, on the website's home page, on Facebook, in public transportation and on the screen located at Freedom Square (Vabaduse väljak). There are also urban media, information days, outdoor posters, hanging banners.

The people’s environmental awareness has increased. Satisfaction surveys of the citizens of Tallinn show that the Spring Clean-Up Campaign is well-known (69% of all citizens) and people participate willingly in many events and cleaning campaigns.

Organising the Spring Clean-Up Campaign is a very good opportunity for local government to include city residents in the maintenance of their home surroundings. Such activities increase the satisfaction of people and help them to change their habits. Therefore, it is easier to acknowledge the importance of each person’s contribution in ensuring proper maintenance.