#genera_azioni is a good practice in a rural area of Montichiari (IT) that has been deeply affected by the economic crisis and characterised by a diffused vulnerability. #genera_azioni focuses on families as the principal victims of crisis. It tackles poverty (economic difficulty, lack of relationships, unemployment, social vulnerability) with a generative, community-based model of welfare.
#genera_azioni enables the community to deal with people’s difficulties. It connects people, stories and experiences to develop integrated solutions. Being composed of four pillars that support each community – housing, work, community bonds and youth – it enables the community members to take care of themselves by combining their forces and sharing their know-how.

#genera_azioni acts on the community by focusing on the four nerve centres of many communities: home, work, the future of young people and the development of a strong sense of community and ideas launched by citizens. The hinge of the whole activities is the “community point”. Community points are places for people to meet, relate and take part in improving activities. They rise in strategic places to attract the members of the community and are driven by a facilitator, whose task is to promote mutual aid among citizens, families, workers, and to connect the people with enterprises and personal services. Around these places the different actions and programs develop. In particular: experiences of co-housing and housing-sharing with fragile families and social guardianship, the creation of a corporate network and of employability support measures, promotion of experiences of school-work through a local catalogue of proposals (to date more than 60 available positions) and extracurricular activities for young people, a Start-Up Plan developing ideas of citizens. All these actions follow an integrated approach to promote inclusion.

#genera_azioni fits with sustainable development because it promotes a new kind of welfare and a different idea of “improved quality of life”, based on the importance of relationships and sharing resources, information and time. The project contributes to reduce inequality and social exclusion, creating new opportunities for people who normally can’t participate in the normal activities of the community and promoting meeting to become aware about their rights, abilities and possibilities. Our good practice also favours an integrated and participative approach to tackle social frailty: the project’s actions are implemented thanks to a network composed of institutions, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, volunteers and citizens. So the main actor that faces the challenge is the community itself, and it benefits from the added value of the network: to give complex answers to complex problems. Such actions don’t create new services for people to help, but enable and urge the recipients to take action, promoting a model of welfare based on mutual aid.

The project is characterised by a mixed governance system, comprising both public entities and locally involved non-profits organizations; this makes the stakeholders have a relevant role in the project development, as well as in its implementation. Furthermore, it treats a community-opened system that welcomes and supports the ideas and the participation of unconventional subjects and citizens. More than 50 entities take part in the welfare design process. Look at our governance on “Studio di fattibilità” attached.

#genera_azioni is a three-year project, now in its second year of activity. Currently, six Community Points have been opened in the district of implementation (District 9 in the Province of Brescia), reaching 530 individuals and 104 organisations (institutes, associations, cooperatives, parishes, informal groups) and developing 15 laboratories.

Referring to the integrated plan about home, in 2016 the first social condominium experience was started, and the work of the facilitators has determined the subscription of 14 leases and three paths of cohabitation for frail families. Concerning work, three thematic laboratories have been implemented, and the activity of connection between supply and demand of labour produced six apprenticeships and 100 cognitive interviews.

The project also achieved good results in actions directed toward young people: the youth involved around the project have been enabled to develop four laboratories for other young people, and took part in nine events co-projected on the territory. The students of the district’s high schools also gained access to a catalogue of 60 offers for work-study experiences with qualified enterprises. Thanks to the call for ideas #genera_idee, six ideas for innovative projects for community purposed by citizen were financed with a contribution of €9,500

This good practice would be interesting for other cities around Europe, and especially for the small ones in rural areas: social frailty is a very diffused situation in Europe, whose population was hit hard by the economic crisis, and whose traditional welfare measures are now in trouble.

This uneasiness is stronger and stronger in the rural areas, where the proposal of services is narrower than big cities, and where community bonds are weak. The good practice purposed by #genera_azioni addresses the problem with a simple but innovative strategy, supporting the development of a more sensitive community, in which people don’t passively rely on the welfare state for the management of social challenges, but perform preventive actions. Strengthening social bonds with a view to preventing fragility and exclusion, as well as mutual aid within the community, sets the stage for a significant improvement in the quality of life in that community.

SPAZIO13 is the conversion of a former disused school into a creative hub in a suburb of Libertà (IT). It is a community experience of social innovation and reuse of a decommissioned public building, having triggered the involvement of residents and stakeholders in the transformation process affecting the neighbourhood. This urban regeneration process includes an extensive network of 15 youth associations.
In addition to the public multicultural nursery school set up by the city, the property of 1,000 square metres is composed of three areas:

1. Informal Education (architectural/engineering design, photography, startup businesses, digital communication);
2. Making (fabLab 3D printing, carpentry, audio/video production, recording music, photo printing); and
3. Events and social spaces (co-working, public library, public events and conversations).

SPAZIO13 offers a virtuous and subsidiary solution of community conversion of an abandoned public space strongly integrated with urban regeneration through social innovation levers and the leadership of a local youth network. A good practice of conversion, participation and innovation focused on communities, residents and local economies. SPAZIO13 is a learning space and its concept was started by a collective research action conducted on the neighbourhood identity by 15 associations of young architects, urban planners, designers, photographers, communication experts and European policies experts with residents, families and young residents. Through its participatory methodology approach to conversion of public space, SPAZIO13 is an antidote to gentrification in city suburbs. Its cultural offering, stratified into different sections (education, production and collaboration), provides interdisciplinary and multi-target methods for dialogue with the neighbourhood, highly integrated with the local networks and strongly oriented objectives of economic rebirth.

SPAZIO13 fully complies with the URBACT principles and challenges both in the sustainable development dimension and integration. SPAZIO13 is a community experience of reuse and conversion that seeks the social inclusion of vulnerable groups in the processes of regeneration, activating education courses, participation, social innovation, promoting new opportunities and job skills. As reuse experience stands in contrast with the soil consumption policies, the prominence of 15 NGOs ensures a very broad urban partnership. SPAZIO13 also responds effectively to the horizontal integration and vertical principles promoted by URBACT. In terms of horizontal integration SPAZIO13 is characterized by being simultaneously a physical redevelopment of a public space, a social experience of shared management, a cultural laboratory of participation and an enabler of local economies in the neighbourhood, promoting new skills and collaborative networks. In terms of vertical integration, SPAZIO13 is a virtuous experience of PPP between the city of Bari and civil society. SPAZIO13 was inspired by the will of the city to convert the former school in the target neighbourhood of its regeneration strategy. A local group was selected after a national tender. Governance involves the municipality of Bari, neighbourhoods, civil society, local economy representatives, university and residents.

SPAZIO13 is a collaborative project that is based on the participation of civil society and local networks preliminarily involved in the co-design phase of conversion. The city of Bari established a partnership with the local group. Subsequently, the partnership involved the local university, representatives of the local economy, cultural stakeholders and residents' associations to define the best proposal. The start of the conversion has been marked by two important experiences: a photo contest opened to all residents to attest to the school’s identity before the change with a hashtag on Instagram (#nontiscordardimelo) and Huffington Post as a media partner, an experience of collective self-building to adapt the spaces at the new functions. The space was furnished through an open call to residents to donate disused furniture and fittings in exchange for participation in the courses. Neighbourhood focus groups were held to define priorities and activities.

Some results of SPAZIO13 have already been achieved, and other objectives are being realized. The results achieved and expected are:

1. promote the conversion of the former school through a collective self-build path and co-design workshops with associations and residents,
2. activate an urban laboratory of education, production and social innovation serving communities,
3. promote a collaborative network at the neighbourhood level composed by associations, professionals, institutional, economic and research that can play an active role in the regeneration process. 

Regarding the first, SPAZIO13 has involved 15 NGOs and 80 young people (16-35 age group) in the co-design of 1 000 square metres and same path was made on branding that has been marked by a visual identity defined in a participatory way. On the second result SPAZIO13 is involving 630 young people in informal educational courses and trainings and hosts five start-ups in co-working.

On the third objective, SPAZIO13 has managed the involvement of 1 110 people, including residents and local stakeholders (universities, schools, local economy representations, cooperatives, youth associations etc.) in public events and discussions. In terms of social impact, SPAZIO13 proposes an overall increase of awareness on participatory planning (+25%), an empowerment of new skills (+ 15%), an increase of knowledge about the neighbourhood regeneration plan involving 10 000 inhabitants, other 25 NGOs and more than 10 local schools.

SPAZIO13 is part of a holistic approach to urban regeneration and enhancement of young people that Bari started three years ago in compliance with the regional political framework that has represented a vanguard on the European scale for urban creativity issues (European Enterprise Promotion Awards 2012, Regiostar 2015). The city has led a regeneration focused on the reuse of public properties and the redevelopment of open spaces through the levers of culture, leisure, theatre, contemporary arts and commerce, with a strong focus on youth capabilities.

An urban programme that includes: the conversion of a large former barracks (20,000 square metres) into an extensive urban park with a public library and the new Academy of Fine Arts; the conversion of a former theatre into the Museum of Contemporary Arts (10,000 square metres), an old parking garage into a theatre research centre (2,000 square metres), the conversion of a tobacco factory (40,000 square metres) into a huge campus of scientific research and technological innovation.

Knowledge from Bari on reuse, urban regeneration and social innovation has already been shared at URBACT level. SPAZIO13 may be interesting to all European cities that are involved in regeneration processes because it demonstrates how social innovation models and creative hubs can play a key role in activating and involving people in deprived neighbourhoods.

Grand Genève is a metropolis around Geneva (CH). The agglomeration has common issues (housing, transports, environment, social cohesion) spread over two countries. This includes two distinct legislative models, three territories (Geneva Canton, Nyon District, the French Regional Cooperation Assembly - ARC), as well as a number of partners (Geneva City, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes French Region, two French departments etc.).
As this situation makes it hard to develop common policies, the Local Association for Cross-Border Cooperation (GLCT) has been created. It involves politicians and civil society representatives in order to develop pragmatic projects at local scale. After professional teams had presented a vision for these territories, discussions held at the local level within the "perimeters of coordinated urban planning" (PACA) led to a number of mobility, urban or environmental projects.

The PACA seemed the proper scale to involve all our partners. Three teams presented their different visions for the territory, and then everybody gathered in roundtables to discuss and improve these ideas. The roundtables were the best solution we found to build pragmatic projects for urban planning. The brainstorming was very productive. Thanks to that method, we have developed projects such as buses crossing the border, with priority lanes, urban projects near the railway stations, a nature project along our rivers, etc. This is a good practice which can be developed by every city.

This practice makes it possible to mix every scope with themes of sustainable development by bringing very different actors together: politicians, environmentalists, architects, engineers, members of associations, industry representatives etc. The visions of the teams had to mix environment, urban and mobility themes, with the objective of building a sustainable future.

The participatory approach is key to the project. Bringing together professionals, politicians and representatives of civil society not only fosters good brainstorming sessions, but also makes it easier to find solutions that are supported by everyone, with all the participants seeking to realise those solutions using their own skills.

The project has created a helpful tool for dialogue between politicians, civil society and urban planning professionals. Also, an appropriate scale has been found between the Grand Genève as a whole and individual municipalities. The result has been intellectual emulation and better understanding between Swiss and French actors of the territory, along with projects for sustainable urban living, mixing social, environmental and economic themes.

This practice can be useful for each city wanting to develop a real emulation around its urban planning and which wants to involve many partners.

Heerlen (NL) is marked by a number of degenerated areas due to the collapse of the mining industry in the Limburg region. To foster social and urban regeneration in these areas the municipality uses community art as a tool to engage with communities and improve the image of depressed neighbourhoods. By capturing the potentials of a bottom-up mural art movement being developed in Heerlen over the last few years, the city facilitates its further development. All murals have been created through community engagement, in which citizens, entrepreneurs and artists co-created and took co-ownership in the works. This builds long-lasting and reciprocal social engagement. Moreover, the movement contributes to Heerlen’s positive city image both inside and outside: The city is now able to attract more and more visitors.

Heerlen Murals is a community art form that is based on the creation of mural artworks in the city through community involvement to counter social and urban degradation. Heerlen Murals’ success is in line with and based on the spreading urban trend of place making. People care about public places they use when they are emotionally connected to them, and this can contribute to sustainable use of public spaces. Community art, especially murals, is a strong and effective tool to inject life into abandoned public spaces. Artists create the murals on raw walls and derelict buildings selected with their owners. The murals reflect on local contexts of people, neighbourhoods and the city’s history. Murals are created in cooperation with citizens, local businesses and schools, as well as community organisations through a process of co-creation. By doing so, the local identity is increased, leading to an improved sense of well-being. The mural street art movement nurtured by the city of Heerlen serves as a spark for additional activities such as workshops, community events, as well as projects about green development. Moreover, the Street Art Foundation, which is an important link between mural arts and urban redevelopment, develops mural walking routes for tourist. By attracting tourists and increasing local attractiveness, Heerlen is also able to increase its economic performance.

It is well known that when culture is used for urban development, social issues are being touched upon automatically, as culture makes dynamic use of the internal energies of communities that automatically evokes social dialogues and linkages. Boosting creativity in a city can lead to leapfrogging in terms of social and economic development in small and mid-size towns. As each mural is created following a bottom-up initiative and through a co-creation process, by bringing local entrepreneurs, citizens, schools and community organisations together to co-create, the Heerlen Murals ultimately aim to create stronger local communities. By doing so they contribute to the social integration. Underlined by various bottom-up spin-offs, such as local events and workshops, community building is indeed characterised by sustainability. By increasing the attractiveness and liveability of neighbourhoods, Heerlen Murals have a positive influence on businesses as well. Visitors are attracted by the development of mural walking tours that increase the potentials of the tourism industry. Murals are also used in the process of redesigning public spaces and add to their economic value by attracting new businesses. Environmental integration is backed by experiments with the re-use of materials and the creation of murals that use green patches, this leads to an increased environmental consciousness.

All murals are created through local participation. Several examples can be mentioned: citizens and school children provide city stories and names to the murals, local businesses provide financial contributions. Several housing corporations and businesses started to provide space for murals on their properties and financially support the creation of these murals, as well as cooperating with their tenants and the Street Art Foundation. Moreover, the national trade union FNV donated a mural dedicated to the mining history of the city, inviting former miners to related ceremonies to build cohesion between citizens and Heerlen’s history. A number of murals have been realised along with the refurbishment of public areas to increase livability. The Street Art Foundation cooperates closely with the Tourist Information Centre in the creation of mural walking routes and maps for visitors. A number of murals have been realised through community financing. The cardiology department at the local hospital worked on the creation of a mural in the hospital, with the aim of strengthening its connection with the city. Weller, a local housing corporation, donated one of its properties to create an urban gallery of mural. For the mural “Heerlen Herlon”, an initiative by several creative entrepreneurs, a separate crowd-funding campaign has raised 13 000 euros in a few weeks’ time.

The Heerlen Murals project has led to the development of a total number of 67 artworks spread out over Heerlen, all co-created by artists, local citizens and businesses. It has also led to a significant increase in public and private engagement in Heerlen, as well as an increased sense of well-being.

Moreover, Heerlen Murals clearly increased the attractiveness and image of the city. In 2016, the city won the Dutch Street Art Award, confirming it the “mural capital” of the Netherlands, creating the image of an innovative cultural city also on international level, known for its street art scene. Therefore, the city is developing its reputation as an internationally recognised laboratory for the development of a street art genre.

Also, the Parkstad Region won the Tourist Tomorrow Award in 2016, in which Heerlen Murals played an important part. These all result in an increase of visitors coming to Heerlen. Based on estimates of the Tourist Information Centre in Heerlen, it amounts to a few thousand more visitors in 2016 compared to 2013.

Public figures from the liveability statistics provided by ABF research for the city of Heerlen for 2012-2014 show that the local perception of the physical surroundings in Heerlen turned more positive in the majority of the city’s districts. Although there are no later statistics available, it shows a sign of an increased positive perception of liveability in the city. Heerlen Murals contributed to the process.

Many European cities have recently started mural-painting activities (e.g. Belgrade, Kaunas, Gdansk, Antwerp, Ostend, Bristol, Malmo, Reykjavik, Budapest, Waterford). One of the most important motivations of these cities is to make neighbourhoods more attractive. Many of these cities also deal with problems of deprivation in neighbourhoods often characterised by high-rise apartment blocks, or open spaces and raw walls in between historical buildings. However, to connect and engage local communities, to inject life into depressed neighbourhoods and to foster social and urban renewal, so to maximise the potential impact community art-based mural paintings can generate is often missing. Also, in the majority of cases, a clear city-wide effort to facilitate the process is missing. Moreover, Heerlen is engaging with other cities in the Euregio, such as Liège. These cities are highly interested in the manner by which Heerlen was able to rapidly use street art to formulate answers to issues of social and urban deprivation. It is also worth mentioning that hundreds of cities in former Communist countries are painting high-rise blocks in the frame of isolating projects, but without any concepts behind colouring and targeting community engagement. This could create great interest for Heerlen’s good practice.

Throughout history, trade has played a significant role in the birth and development of cities. The city of Lisbon (PT) developed the programme Loja com História, “Shops with a History”, to recognise trade as a distinctive element of the city. The Shops with a History label is awarded to places such as shops, restaurants and cafes that have helped foster the city's identity and play a role in preserving its historical and cultural heritage. The municipality's goal is also to promote local shops, mainly in the historic town centre, as part of Lisbon's rehabilitation strategy for revitalising the city's economic and social fabric. Thanks to a multi-disciplinary team following predefined selection criteria, a first selection of 63 shops, including restaurants and patisseries, were distinguished in July 2016. A further 19 were highlighted in March 2017. A municipal fund has also been created to support the selected stores.

The candidate stores are visited and inspected by a multi-disciplinary working group set up for that purpose. This group consists of a mixed team of the municipality and the Faculty of Fine Arts that recommends the shop (or restaurant) which meets most of the criteria to be awarded with the distinction. The distinction is awarded on the basis of the cumulative assessment of various factors such as commercial activity, as well as the existence and preservation of architectural heritage or cultural and historical materials. Afterwards, the working group proposes the distinction, which will be validated by an advisory board and finally confirmed by the mayor or the deputy mayor concerned. The distinguished stores will be listed in a database with the documentary and photographic record that testifies to its current repository as well as the authenticity of its history. Each distinguished store is awarded a plaque with the insignia (Loja com História) to be placed on the façade of its building.

With the distinction awarded by the municipality, the stores benefit from greater public visibility, being a stimulus for updating their processes and methods to reach the market. This justifies the creation of a municipal fund as an integral part of the same program. This fund is intended to contribute to the costs carried out by stores in three areas: maintenance or restoration of façades or architectural and decorative elements, business dynamism or cultural initiatives.

The Shops with a History programme aims to support and promote the traditional local trade as a symbol of Lisbon, as well as to safeguard the remaining retail stores with unique and differentiating characteristics of commercial activity, and whose history is intertwined with that of the city. The concern with the retail shops (and restaurants) is recognised by the municipality with the reduction or exemption of municipal urban taxes. The City Council is committed to protecting historic shops by combating property speculation and the unrestrained increase of retail rents.

Civic participation has been encouraged by the initial meetings. Starting in February 2015, the City Council began talks with shopkeepers and representative trade and restaurant associations to reverse the commercial crisis situation and maintain business and lifestyle in the city. From these meetings some basic ideas emerged, with the formal start to happen with the probation of the criteria in February 2016 and constitution of a working group to realise the project in May 2016.

Furthermore, both the distinction and the fund were subject to their own regulations and submitted to a public consultation, before being ratified by the Municipal Assembly, the deliberative body of the city. All the distinctions were submitted for approval by the Advisory Board. This board is constituted by individual retailers and representative associations of trade and catering, as well as personalities with strong links to the history or the commercial life of the city.

The act of distinguishing a store is prestigious for commerce, but also for the city and for the owner of the store, which is not usually the shopkeeper. In some cases, having the Shop with a History/Loja com História distinction could help a store avoid eviction, displacement or forced compensation.

At the national level, the programme has already had repercussions in the country’s second largest city, Porto. Porto has held meetings with Lisbon officials in order to launch a similar initiative, called Porto with Tradition/Porto com Tradição.

Furthermore, our project manager is invited to a regional meeting to be held in Algarve, next April, organised by DG Cutura of Algarve/Ministry of Culture under the theme “Shops with a History/Encontro Lojas com História”. It will be an opportunity to present the Lisbon experience. This programme is easily transferable to other European cities, considering that the EU itself intends to improve trade and quality of life in cities, for example through funding under Horizon 2020.

For instance, a well-known blogger from Antwerp has already shown interest in publicising these ideas in her city. A meeting was scheduled with the Vice President's office.

With an electoral abstention rate of over 60%, Cascais (PT) faces a distance problem between its citizens, policies and politicians. In response, the municipality introduced a participatory budget mechanism in 2011 to bring citizens closer to decision-makers. It is a low-cost, legally binding methodology, with two cycles (decision and implementation), involving citizens from the presentation and discussion of ideas, through to the project's opening. Cascais’s participatory budget is accessible to all, promoting social inclusion, gender equality, and integration of all social groups. It is a pioneering model of public administration. Cascais, which has a population of 206 000, has used the participatory budget model for six years, involving more than 150 000 citizens, implementing 88 publicly voted projects, and strengthening people's confidence in their governors. The most voted participatory budget of Portugal, it has been replicated in more than 10 cities and has sparked interest across Europe and beyond.

The participatory budget improves service delivery and the power of citizens to make their voices heard in local politics. There is a trust that generates mobilisation. People approach the municipality because of PB and over time as an outcome, they get increasingly involved. People take responsibility for the management and maintenance of all aspects of projects. They deal with problems and find solutions. A smart city is a democratic and participative city designed through collaborative learning. It is a process by all of us, within public participation, and as a combination of participative and representative democracy. PB develops new behaviours in the community, leading it to take an active role defining priorities for the use of available resources, ensuring and enabling everybody’s right to participate in developing their territory.

PB is a new way of decision-making and a tool for active participation. So, by practising democracy and cultivating a locally participatory culture an impact on the further development of a democratic union is achieved.

PB is the most relevant project that Cascais has to promote public participation. The PB was born of the need to strengthen civil society by modernising public services and combating corruption. Our guidelines are accountability, active citizenship, participation, transparency, and the management of resources according to people’s real needs, rather than the self-interest of departments.

The sustainable development of a city involves four fundamental axes: environmental, social, economic and cultural.

In the social axis, participation emerges as a need for people’s interaction in strengthening democracy. PB emerged in the 80s in Brazil as a way to bring poor and excluded citizens into prioritizing their problems and finding solutions.

Our strategy has 5 axes:

• Territory with quality of urban life;
• Territory of creativity, knowledge and innovation;
• Territory of environmental values;
• Coherent and inclusive territory;
• Territory of active citizenship: promoting proximity and active citizenship through participatory democracy, thus fostering a spirit of community and promoting voluntarism and social responsibility.

In 2011, a new team was born in the municipality, and the PB was based on Local Agenda (A21). A Letter of Principles was prepared for PB promoting informed participation to bring citizens closer to decision-makers and contribute to administrative modernisation and the fostering of a dynamic civil society.

These objectives structured a deliberative PB in which participants could submit proposals and decide projects within a stipulated budget. In 2013, the Division of Citizenship and Participation was created, which included A21, volunteering, cultural associations, residents’ associations and the PB. With this division, local government was committed to promote governance, to increase the participation of the citizens in the management of the territory.

Compared to other municipalities, Cascais stands out for its representativeness. Our PB highlights are: high voter rate, amount of investment, participants number in public sessions, voting model, follow-up work by the first dimension is the one in which are more indicators. The number of votes is only one of them. PB is deliberative and emerges as a decision-making power based on and by people so citizens have a continuous interaction in the whole process, which is the key element of our participation concept:

• Communication (bms) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfH2U2Ws184
• Public Sessions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sppl0M34dq8
• Technical analysis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHidvE7EG10
• Voting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kg6qaMgzt8
• Implementation of the projects www.cascaisparticipa.pt

On the financial side, Cascais had the highest percentage of budget invested in PB (18% in 2015). In the last dimension, Cascais has the highest implementation rate in the country with total transparency during the process, due to high-quality technical analysis and multitask team. Cascais PB is innovative in establishing new interactions between citizens, public administration and politics, projects’ proponents, work executed percentage, and an exclusive PB team. There are three dimensions of analysis: participatory, financial and implementation that compose a diverse set of quantitative and qualitative indicators.

The Cascais PB in its six editions had a strong impact on the territory.

This impact was in participation:

Total votes (6 years) 219,307;

Sum of participants in public sessions 4,389.

Transparency impact: people can control and monitor what is happening with their projects/works at www.cascaisparticipa.pt.

Administrative modernisation impact: multitask teams were created, a dedicated team, available directly via mail, phone and face to face and ongoing bottom up evaluation;

Most participated session 210;

Total proposals (9 sessions x 6 years) 975;

Total proposals in plenary (9 sessions x 6 years) 628;

Total proposals/ technical analysis (9 sessions x 6 years) 289;

Total projects submitted to voting (6 years) 196;

Total works (after voting) 88.

The implementation rate had the following impacts:

The sum of investment in works during six years was 15.8 million euros.

The 88 projects had the following results:

PB 2011: 12 projects/ 12 fulfilled;

PB 2012: 15 projects/ 14 fulfilled;

PB 2013: 6 projects/ 5 fulfilled;

PB 2014: 9 projects/ 8 fulfilled;

PB 2015: 21 projects/ 6 fulfilled;

PB 2016: 24 projects/ 0 fulfilled.

Many of the projects had an impact in education (25). The others concerned urban rehabilitation (12 projects), green spaces (11), sport (10), the public road network (10), security and civil protection (7), culture (6), social action (5), environmental protection and energy (1) and innovation and knowledge (1).

Our PB has been recognised as an example of good practice and has been used by other cities on the national and international levels. Many other cities have reproduced our PB model, including in Portugal: Alenquer, Águeda, Caminha, Funchal (Madeira Island) Lagoa, Lousã, Mafra, Torres Vedras, Penacova, Penafiel, Portimão, Ponta Delgada (S. Miguel island, Azores). Many cities in Europe have sent representatives to study our PB practice: Brussels, Stockholm, Dubrovnik, Ríčany (Czech Republic). Worldwide: Maputo, Quelimane and Nampula (Mozambique), Manágua (Nicaragua) and New York City (USA).

In order to promote a bigger interaction, several municipalities and Cascais created a national participative network called RAP (Rede de Autarquias Participativas).

Lex Paulson, an organiser of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, visited our PB and said: “What impressed us most in Cascais was that they used Participatory Budgeting to build trust and participation, not just for a year, but for many years. There are many participatory budget processes that fluctuate and do not last for more than two or three years. What Cascais has done over the past five years has been to show that we can always improve and create more and more confidence by showing the impact and the results, so that the citizens are more and more committed, dedicated and motivated.”

So Stay Hotel was established by the Social Innovation Foundation in cooperation with the Municipality of Gdansk (PL) and business partners in 2016. The hotel was created to change the lives of young people who grew up outside of the family, in care homes. The innovative hotel's operational model - the first in Poland - combines a market approach with social responsibility. Young people gain qualification and experience under the guidance of professionals on the working site, which is highly valued in the open labour market. Youths participating in the employment programme are provided with housing support organised by the Foundation. This support gives young people opportunities to leave care facilities and start an independent, adult life.

At the starting point the practice shows how the three sectors can work together on meeting the challenges important to the city and the citizens. It is an example of a social enterprise where young people who have individual problems getting education and vocational training in the public school system can get qualifications on the work site while earning an income and starting an independent life.

Supporting young people to succeed in adulthood prevents them from returning to the welfare system. Young people learn a profession and get their first professional experience under the guidance of professionals. They learn in real working conditions. Acquiring experience and practical skills allows them to gain a first job in the open market. At an early age they are given the opportunity to build a belief in work values and life responsibilities.

Participation in the internship and first job programme at the hotel is also linked to housing assistance organised by the Foundation (assisted living). Individuals (trainee, apprentice, hotel worker) in difficult housing situations have the opportunity to rent accommodations on preferential terms, in premises managed by the Foundation. To secure this, the Foundation created a three-sector cooperation with the municipality and business which enables it to acquire apartments from the city's municipal resources, and repair and equip them in cooperation with business partners and young people themselves.

So Stay Hotel and the programmes combined with it (vocational training, job coaching, social housing) as a Good Practice refer to URBACT principles by the holistic approach in its mission and in the daily execution of this mission. It was designed and is managed now in the participatory, co-creative way involving civil, public and private sectors and the users into the whole process (public property managed by civil society organisation as a social enterprise, coached and mentored by business sector representatives and involving youngsters themselves). It aims to be the remedy for poverty combating and social exclusion of the socially challenged young people. It has an influence on physical, economic and social spheres of the city of Gdansk and is oriented for driving change in the city towards the sustainable urban living. So Stay Hotel is also an answer to Gdansk socio-economic strategy, especially social policy objectives. The motto of the hotel is “Responsible for Business - Responsible for Community”. This is an action field strengthening the development of urban community residents, creating opportunities and conditions for harnessing the potential of residents, regardless of their birth status and education.

The opening of So Stay Hotel was preceded by a three-year participatory process in which young people helped to shape the mentoring concept. Young people took part in the EU-funded project “POMOST na rynek pracy” (“Bridge to job market”) where they had an opportunity to take part in internship and skills development, as well as workshops, study visits and professional training. Study visits at the “Pan Cogito” hotel helped the young people to find out about the managerial competence needed to run a hotel. A team of five young people helped to create a working structure of So Stay and was the core of the first team of the hotel vocational training programme. Some people from this group have since found employment on the open labour market. Young people’s learning process during the planning, testing and creating phase of So Stay was crucial to developing the Hotel’s working frame as it is now. On the other hand representatives of the business sector, especially of the Craftsmen Chamber and restaurant owners, were supporting the Foundation to build a business model for this enterprise.

It has made a difference in the physical, economic and social spheres of the city life.

Physical: an old, devastated building and its surroundings, located near the city centre, was regenerated and got a new image, raising the quality of public spaces in the neighbourhood.

Social: after two years of operation the results are:

• Five people have found employment on the open job market (outside of So Stay);
• 10 people ages 16-18 have completed an internship programme and continue their formal education;
• 10 people (50%) from the So Stay staff are employed in the professional development programme, including one person in a managerial position;
• 12 young people are living independently, receiving slight non-financial support from the Foundation.

Economic: the business model of So Stay Hotel and the social housing programme enables socially challenged youngsters to start their self-sufficient independent life without any support from the welfare system.

The practice will be interesting for other European cities due to its transferability, including:

• The integrated approach to assisting young people in the transition to adulthood and independence (mentoring, paid internships, assisted living);
• The integration of potential benefits in the business, civil and public sectors;
• Cutting the operational costs of assisting young people and eliminating their dependency on social benefits and the welfare system;
• A sustainable social business model.

Glasgow (UK) committed to becoming a Co-operative City in 2012. To reach people most in need and do more with limited funds, the city trailblazes new co-design models for local people, communities and public services. It aims to help people do more in their communities while ensuring high quality, value-for-money, integrated services - citizens get what they need at the right time and place. Glasgow City Council is growing co-operative businesses and social enterprises, and devolving power to its citizens. It launched a Co-operative Development Unit to boost sustainable cooperatives and social enterprises in the city, running a Business Development Fund to support new and existing cooperatives. 56 Co-operative Glasgow Business Development Grants have sparked an increase in turnover of about 7.7 million euros in the city’s social enterprise and co-operative sector. A council-wide network of “Co-operative Champions” was also created to embed co-operative principals in service delivery opportunities.

Co-operative Glasgow fundamentally changes the culture within the local authority and offers cities a model with which to adapt their attitude towards co-designed services without radical changes in structures, something that can be bureaucratic and time-consuming. Co-operative Glasgow established the Co-operative Development Unit (CDU) to deliver the action plan of the programme. It identified two primary pieces of work:

• To develop a culture of partnership and to help the co-operative sector in the city thrive and grow through easier access to networking and funding,
• Establish a Co-operative Business Development Fund: transformational business development grants to co-operatives, mutual and social enterprises.

These two key areas of work offer a solution to improve economic growth in cities by:

• Increasing productivity, income, innovation and survival, through collaboration, achieving economies of scale, increasing attitudes towards innovation and entrepreneurial activities,
• Rooting businesses and employment within communities, by providing employment or services, meaning that they tend to stay rooted within that community and generate wealth and other employment benefits.

In terms of social benefits, they offer solutions to social disadvantage by:

• Enabling communities to be direct beneficiaries through the access of goods and services,
• Support a more balanced distribution of wealth,
• Foster greater community-based innovation and knowledge transfer.

Co-operative Glasgow has been built on the principles that integrated approaches foster the most effective results and economic growth must be combined with a reduction in poverty and community benefits. By adopting co-operative models, public services are integrated, of better quality and are designed around people’s lives, rather than being delivered in silos. It creates an ecosystem of integration by developing co-operatives that span key economic development drivers, e.g. some of the co-operatives created or supported include:

• A Youth Co-operative within a community-based housing association,
• New technology for credit unions,
• A student-led co-operative within Strathclyde University to develop industry based IT solutions,
• The creation of FareShare Glasgow, a local food distribution scheme that utilises manufacturer and supermarket waste food and redistributes around organisations that support people with low income,
• Glasgow People’s Energy – an energy switch co-operative to provide holistic energy advice, information and support for business and individuals experiencing fuel poverty.

Co-operative Glasgow promotes economic growth through a programme of activity that supports job creation, co-designed and co-created services, business development, social cohesion and environmental sustainability. Internally, the service redesign model of Co-operative Champions covers all service departments to ensure that integrated approaches are embedded in service development.

Participation, equality and community benefit are at the heart of all Co-operative Glasgow’s initiatives. GCC is part of a process called “One Glasgow”, looking at the holistic needs of the city in partnership with a number of public sector organisations and NGOs to involve citizens in decision-making. To further embed this into council processes, co-operative principles have been specifically adopted in the development of a number of community-based initiatives. Citizens can now see how decisions are made by watching live streaming of council meetings, influence how community budgets are spent through participatory budgeting and through community benefits in public procurement, over 500 long-term unemployed people have secured employment.

The CDU is an enabler for community-based project development. It develops partnerships based on mutual trust and respect, resulting in a number of community programmes across the city, e.g. it has assisted Glasgow’s 34 credit unions through dialogue, practical and financial assistance to become the most advanced credit union sector in the UK with over 25% of Glasgow’s citizens benefiting from CU membership.

The CDU has facilitated the Future Savers programme to foster a greater savings culture in Glasgow’s young people. All pupils in Glasgow in their first year of high school are provided with a credit union account with a £10 deposit. This Co-operative Glasgow model is a partnership between 14 Credit Unions and 42 high schools.

Co-operative Glasgow has utilised the CDU to support Glasgow's co-operative sector and directly benefit communities. It is a unique support resource, complementary to other business support functions. It has supported initiatives strategically important for communities. Putting co-operative values at the heart of service development and delivery has resulted in a wide range of initiatives across the city, some of which are outlined in 4.3 and are also promoted via the newsletters submitted as part of the support package. Co-operative Glasgow has both a lasting impact and long-term approach. To date, 56 Co-operative Glasgow Business Development Grants have resulted in an increase in turnover of approx. 7 700 000 euros in the cities social enterprise and co-operative sector. 75 full-time equivalent jobs or volunteer posts have, or expect to be, created, and a further 250 employment or volunteering positions have been safeguarded as a result of the Fund. This equates to a return of 3.07 euros of every 1 euro of public money spent. Organisations highly value the support received from the CDU. The benefits realised are significant for co-operatives, the communities they serve and the sector in Glasgow. The Fund has helped to increase the scale and profile of supported organisations, as well as increase member rewards, and improve working practices. A number of co-operatives reported that the funding has improved local partnerships and achieved greater levels of community participation.

As mentioned, the effects of the economic crisis are still being felt across EU cities. As an URBACT city, Glasgow is fully aware that new ways of working to deliver quality services to the citizens of cities is of great interest and can provide useful methodologies and good practice to guide cities:

• It addresses issues of challenging council cultures and provides methodologies for transformational change within local authorities – moving to a more community-based model of service delivery that creates tangible economic benefits.
• Glasgow can impart expertise in navigating difficult legal challenges to creating more democratic partnerships with external organisations.
• Glasgow understands the financial responsibilities of cities that can often lead to local authorities being “risk averse” when implementing new programmes or priorities. Co-operative Glasgow has the experience to mitigate this.
• The development of a network of “Co-operative Champions” across the council is an easily transferable model that cities can adopt. Glasgow’s experience can demonstrate to cities that meaningful buy-in from stakeholders is essential and that co-operative forms of service provision should not be imposed as a preconceived solution or purely driven by the need for cost savings – it is about valuable co-production and new ways of transforming services – knowledge that can be transferred and adapted to suit the needs of cities and their citizens.

A network of medium-sized cities in Catalonia (ES) has been working since 1988 on a collaborative, integrated and continuous Research and Development programme to get indicators to measure Quality of Life and Sustainability (QofL&S) at the local scale. This is useful for benchmarking and positioning, and for decision-making processes. The network developed a common methodology to select and discuss indicators, and manage how to use them in decision-making processes related to indicators from public policies management. The participants believe that the creation of a common resources system is useful for every agent involved in urban development processes, helping to value and measure the key elements influencing the quality of life in medium-sized cities. The Profile of the City contributes to the existing body of knowledge on the definition of public policies designed to improve the quality of life of medium-sized cities.

The project developed a methodological tool, which we will call tableau de bord, that will ease and inform policy decision-making, as well as offering an instrument to link and commit citizens to the assessment of the QofL&S in their own environments. The project will unfold in several work packages that will involve different timing and partners.

The action plan is divided in two different work lines: the first line of action, the core activity of the project refers to the measurement of the QofL&S, as defined, of European medium-sized cities based on the construction of a set of indicators relevant to policy making.

The other line of action includes the complementary activities that refer to the reinforcement of the skills needed for managing quality of life and sustainability, and all the communication and diffusion activities well beyond the network. Work packages included in the core action line are the following:

• Definition (permanent) of the tableau de bord;
• Establishment of a socio-economic observatory in each locality;
• Information collection;
• Analysis of the information;
• Review of the cities profiles and review of the decision supporting tool;
• And communication of the profiles (currently by a yearly report and a blog posted on its web site: http://www.perfilciutat.net).

The tool will be built on the conceptual development of a methodology to tackle issues related to QofL&S from a local point of view and focusing on its usefulness for city planning.

The practice is directly related to urban policy development, focusing on the core of economic and social matters. Measuring QofL is a way to obtain the very essential base to start an evaluation of those policies, as in fact these measures (the indicators) have been used for policy-makers, even in a confrontation with opinions or perceptions of citizens, especially during the deepest moments of crisis.

The actions of The Profile of the City have as their most visible result the construction of models of quantifiable profiles of the quality of life of a city, based on measures or calculations from official statistics and the local government’s management data (and also now in databases of private companies, on which the network is currently working, connected with smart-city processes and impact analyses of public policies).

The network is providing an annual report about the quality of life indicators, through which indicators city partners are compared, also thinking about the historical series to not lose evolutive dimension, divided into eight chapters (demography, labour market, housing, economic and business activity, enterprises fabric, social cohesion and sustainability, and finally a special part on synthetic diagrams of local information, related to evolution benchmarking). Also, an open blog is provided to express and debate several contributions on experiences on data use and new statistics and methodologies, and also for expressing opinions on the results of public policies, as a way of evaluation of those policies. The net also organises training sessions or conferences and meetings in order to communicate, argue and discuss the results of its reports. All the activities of this network are published through its web site (www.perfilciutat.net). The report is reviewed through deep working sessions, very participative, taking into account the significance and pertinence of indicators, their very lateness and also their usability. Members are also committed to taking part in the composition and writing of the final report and also about contributions to the experiences blog.

Profile of the City aims at improving the knowledge on structural changes in an urban environment and measures the impacts of those transformations on the QofL. It will do so by producing a conceptual and methodological tool to promote a framework of sustainable development in medium-sized cities, assess the QofL and inform urban policy decision-making. Special attention will be given to overcoming the sectoral approach to urban policy development and ensuring stakeholders participation in the definition of this decision-supporting tool. The proposal seeks a holistic view of living conditions and a multidimensional definition of sustainability and QofL. That is why this project intends to develop a common place where local authorities, economic agents, interest groups and citizens can share their notions of quality of life and sustainability and improve their measurement through agreement, sharing and the process-line “reflection/initiative/action”. The main difference is focusing on the link between the evolution of social or territorial indicators and the evolution of management ones, which leads decision-makers to ask some critical questions about the continuity and pertinence of several public programmes. The annual report is a basis for a constructive discussion on local development policies and also the treatment of sustainability matters, especially related to urban environment and the contribution on heat islands and on climate change process.

The initiative can be useful for other cities, as we have already said (see sections 1 and 2). But for a double motivation:

1. To implement progress in territorial cooperation (technically, horizontally) of cities and wider territories, on their own competencies and responsibilities, and
2. The permanent evaluation of implementation and impulse of public policies for each city from its own indicators and also in a comparative way with other cities, to get enough reference to know what position was gotten. It is from a temporary and comparative serial of quantitative indicators. In fact, this practice was shared with other partners (local authorities) in Europe in several methodological meetings. Also is related with statistic aims of Eurostat and Eurocities in actions providing indicators for territories/administrations smaller than states or regions, in a similar way than that done by EU Urban Audit for bigger (capital) cities. It was extremely interesting to compare methodologies and to learn about other experiences developed by other possible partners in other countries. Ours is rather a learning organisation.

The City Council of Esplugues (ES) follows a permanent policy of citizen participation. Municipal activity is open to citizens, based on the principles of transparency and shared responsibility. Citizens are invited to participate in the joint project of building the city. There are several spaces for such participation. Among them are the Children's Council and the Public Youth Audience. The first is a forum for fifth- and sixth-grade pupils in public schools. Here, children have the possibility to learn, reflect, discuss and agree on proposals related to their environment. The Public Youth Audience enables students in the fourth grade to take part in educational debates and make proposals for the transformation of the city. Both forums take into account a work plan developed in collaboration with schools and institutes, contributing to the young participants’ education, values and attitudes to citizen participation.

Until recently, cities were built through the eyes of adults. With the new mechanisms of participation it is intended that the construction of the city be adapted and enriched through the participation of young people and children, who live in and enjoy it.

The results of the interventions of both groups (children and youth) as well as the proposals derived from the participation actions, which are transformed into municipal actions, are considered as solutions whenever possible and feasible. That is why a series of municipal actions have been carried out after the different participatory processes developed by the Children's Council and the Public Youth Audience.

By the Children's Council:

• Rights of minors;
• Recovery of traditional games;
• Party of park;
• Design of a park;
• 50th anniversary celebration “Esplugues City”;
• Proposals to encourage reading for all citizens;
• Design of kindergartens, “The garden of the senses”. 

By the Public Youth Audience:

• Study on healthy habits;
• Times and spaces for leisure;
• Attitudes and values of entrepreneurship among young people;
• Development of the Local Youth Plan;
• Design of a campaign against sexist violence;
• Actions, proposals to combat harassment/bullying;
• Encouraging values and attitudes towards participation, association and voluntariness.

Regarding the wider integrated approach, the initiative is aligned with several of the United Nations’ sustainable development objectives. The activities carried out by Children's Council and Public Youth Audience mainly contribute to ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels, relating to Goal 16 (promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provision of access to justice for all, and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels).

In addition, promoting children and youth participation makes the city more inclusive (Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable). Also, the experience of being part of these participation bodies represents a form of high-value non-formal education (Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning).

In terms of integrated urban development, the initiative falls within the scope of governance, mainly related to areas such as city management, social innovation, youth, and above all participation. Related to the vertical integration between the different stakeholders involved in the initiative, this is mainly between the political and educational fields, so it is frequent that both the mayor herself and some councillors interact directly with children and young people.

Both the Children's Council and the Public Youth Audience are initiatives whose conception and development of activities necessarily contemplate the participatory approach. On the other hand, Esplugues Local Youth Plan 2014-2017 is based on three main axes: promotion of emancipation, fostering participation (including the Children's Council and the Public Youth Audience) and promotion of leisure and culture. In addition, for the definition of this plan an intense participatory process has been developed in which children and young people have played a fundamental role. Thus, different working sessions were developed using the participatory bodies that make up this good practice, and other workshops were held in local schools. The result of all this was the elaboration of a participatory diagnosis contemplated in the same plan, as well as the definition of a series of proposals of action that were sent to the government team of the City Council of Esplugues.

Most of the participatory experiences of young people and children have focused on the civic, pedagogical and educational sphere, perhaps due to the weight of this specific competency in the Municipal Action Plan (through activities such as “Making an Educating City” or “Building Citizenship”). It has also made progress in the implementation of specific urban and cultural projects. Concrete projects have been promoted, such as the construction of a children's playground. The participation workshops have identified as a weakness:

• The lack of participatory culture among the citizens since there is usually a low interest to attend the meetings. It is proposed to increase the dissemination of participation systems to attract citizens. 

Highlights identified include:

• The diversity of channels made available to citizens to participate in the decision-making processes on the issues that concern them and affect them. They are channels open to all citizens and do not discriminate against any person who wants to be part of it;
• Citizens see their proposals reflected in the performance and municipal management.

Every city has children and young people. They could be the foundation for effective development at the local level, and if engaged they will improve many of the structural development challenges that the cities face today, including enhancing the cohesiveness of families and communities, reducing health risks and advancing livelihood opportunities. They are the bridge between effective development policy and valuable practical action on the ground.

Across many European cities, different organisations are practicing different ways of engaging children and youth through participatory activities, and the experience accumulated from Esplugues would be useful both for those cities that have already begun to work in this direction, as for those that have not yet done so but are determined to do it. Children have value as members of European society and adults can learn from and with them.

In summary, there are three main reasons why this good practice may be of interest to other European cities. Based on citizenship, young people have citizen’s rights and responsibilities. Based on pragmatism, it’s acknowledged that participation leads to better decisions. And based on vision, European cities have to recognise the mutual, life-enhancing benefits that come with engaging children and young people as equals.