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.

La Colaboradora is a public co-working space of collective intelligence where people exchange services and know-how using a "time bank". It was set up in Zaragoza (ES) in 2013 as a response to high unemployment and empty public spaces. The 300 members include entrepreneurs, freelancers, non-profit organisations, and creative professionals seeking support to launch a project or improve their employability skills. They join up and use the space in exchange for sharing four hours of their time each month. 
La Colaboradora is co-governed by the local public administration and other members, promoting self-employment and public space ownership. So far, 210 new entrepreneurships have been created and 30 long-term unemployed have found jobs. Participants have shared 9,800 hours, and organised 592 activities, 51% of them free for citizens of Zaragoza. La Colaboradora believes more opportunities can be created by sharing resources and making collective know-how freely available.

La Colaboradora is a P2P co-working space where the local council supports its community’s entrepreneurial projects and job searches by offering an atmosphere to connect and collaborate through a time bank. It’s not just a working space, it’s also a community where human contact and trust are essential.

La Colaboradora is a three-year-old successful experience that offers concrete solutions both to the members of its community as well as to Zaragoza’s citizens. Members can: develop their entrepreneurial/artistic project with no cost, by exchanging their time bank hours with their peers; enter the employability skills programme ‘25 Talents’ and improve their job search skills by a mile; join a strong community of entrepreneurs, share interests and create opportunities; own a public space and help run a collaborative project by joining its working groups or Steering Committee; join the Social Challenges and use their skills to support third sector initiatives in our city; share their know-how and expertise through open source trainings for the city.

This will improve the city’s collective intelligence, promote innovation and collaboration. Citizens and members can: empower themselves by attending free training activities and rising their profiles; attend open events with special guests, debates and presentations, and expand their network. Overall, this good practice promotes innovation, collaboration, entrepreneurship, public space ownership and capacity building.

La Colaboradora was created in 2013 to address difficult challenges faced by Zaragoza’s people, unemployment the most pressing one of all. The lack of resources made us think of a public space where people could use their talents to build new opportunities together.

Just as it is based on the principles of a collaborative economy, La Colaboradora respects and integrates URBACT’s values at its core. We believe that more opportunities can be created by sharing resources and building human relationships based on trust, by freely opening our collective knowledge to the city and empowering its inhabitants. However, we not only share our skills and talent to improve our projects and employability skills, we also organise events that promote the collaborative economy in the city and coordinate the Social Challenges.

Some outputs: 30 long-term unemployed (out of 50) have found jobs, 210 new entrepreneurial projects, 9,800 hours have been voluntarily shared. We’ve raised €3,000 for charities working with refugees, planted trees, organised a free lunch in a public square to advocate for the responsible consumption of food, and supported activities with disabled children, among others.

La Colaboradora is a lively community of 300 very different people with an open agenda of training and events. Its most powerful aspect is that it is a paradigm of the Fourth Sector; it’s the hub of a mixed ecosystem where public projects, companies, NGOs and citizens coexist.

La Colaboradora is only possible with the total involvement of Zaragoza’s city council and the commitment of its members, the collaborators. Since its launch in 2013, the citizens of this community have shared a total of 9,800 hours and organised 592 activities, of which 51% have been open and free for all of Zaragoza’s population, many of them open-source training sessions. The practice is ruled by a joint-governance between its community members and Zaragoza Activa. The participation of the collaborators is key, as they run the project through the Steering Committee, General Assembly and working groups.

Since its opening, more than 100 members have helped run La Colaboradora by assuming an active role and joining one of the current six area teams. Of the total hours we mentioned before, 3,500 have been dedicated to manage La Colaboradora and, as a consequence, this civic community has developed a new and innovative way of governing and organising itself that has led to building a deep comradeship among peers and a strong sense of public space ownership.

In addition, La Colaboradora works with other entities and institutions, local and international players, who are often invited to join our events in order to broaden our network and learn from their good practices. Some of these stakeholders are the University of Zaragoza, the Aragonese Institute of Youth, the Impact Hub Madrid, the Secretary of Ibero-American States (SEGIB) or the European Creative Hubs Network (ECHN).

The key that makes La Colaboradora different is that it is a cross-sectorial public project based on a collaborative economy and community empowerment that believes in sharing resources for a sustainable future. Since its opening in May 2013 through February 2017, 300 people running 250 projects have shared 9,800 hours in services and know-how by creating a new sharing experience that has evolved in a deep civic feeling of mutual help and trust.

Above all, we are happy to say that 55% of the community’s projects started running during their first year in the community and 50% have managed to consolidate themselves after this period.

In addition, our ‘25 Talents’ spin-off, an employability skills programme created and developed by community members in 2014, has supported 50 long-term unemployed people in their job search, with 30 of them finding jobs. La Colaboradora’s model won the 2015 Ouishare Award Best P2P Finance Initiative in Spain, and the 2016 Eurocities Award for Cooperation. We are also recognised as a good citizen-driven innovation practice by the Secretary of Ibero-American States (SEGIB).

La Colaboradora has been able to build a very dynamic and emotionally united ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation in a public space. It’s the place where local professionals find their peers to share ideas and skills, be inspired and receive support. It’s a 21st century community capable of empowering itself by sharing talent, time and knowledge.

La Colaboradora’s model is founded on universal elements such as trust, commitment and public service that are easily transferable to other European cultures. However, as a community-led practice it’s permanently evolving and a strong understanding of its universal principles is fundamental to make it adaptable.

Since we launched the project in 2013, La Colaboradora has received the visits and recognition of dozens of other hubs, public institutions and foundations inspired by its innovative model. In 2016, the project received the Cooperation Eurocities Award and gained the attention of many cities. Lille, Madrid, Stockholm, Bialystok and Espoo showed a special interest by participating at the speed networking session that we chaired at the Eurocities “Sharing Cities” conference.

In addition, we’ve signed an agreement with the city council of Santa Fe, Argentina, to transfer La Colaboradora’s model to the cities of Rosario and Santa Fe; and the Brazilian city of Santos has already visited us to transfer the model as well. In Spain, Barcelona Activa and AndoaIn’s city council have submitted a proposal to transfer the model. Moreover, private hubs from Gijón, Pontevedra, Madrid and Barcelona have also visited us to learn how we manage the practice.

La Colaboradora is also a member of the European Creative Hubs Network, where we share and exchange expertise and good practices with other European cities. In this context, Malmö has also shown interest in our time bank model.

A cooperation - between the Gothenburg City (SE) administration for social welfare allocation and two local IKEA department stores - was launched in 2014 to provide homeless people with a step towards the labour market. The partnership enables people who have lived with isolation and abuse to strengthen their self-esteem, gain meaningful work and furnish their homes.
IKEA's recovery department has furniture that they can no longer sell because of transport damage to packaging or to the products themselves. Participants use a truck to pick up the discarded pieces of furniture at IKEA, fix them in a workshop, then display the repaired items. Other people in the group can then choose the furniture they need. A win-win situation: the participants, and the furniture, all get their second chance.

The solutions are: job training; recycling of discarded furniture; a good social context; cooperation between the municipal and the private sectors. It's good for the target group, good for the furniture company, good for the environment and good for society. It's proven that equality creates a better context for all citizens, not only for the target group of homeless people. These are solutions that are easy to copy elsewhere.

Homelessness is a global urban problem and in the context of good practice this is an absolutely brilliant idea to give homeless people the possibility of taking the first step to the labour market. The URBACT fund is addressing common problem such as homelessness and drug abuse that are the dark side of the urban environment, but there can be great solutions to these problems.

We strongly believe that a second chance is good for everyone. All people have hidden abilities that we can find if we give them a second chance, or a third or a fourth. If you believe in humanity you also have to believe that everyone can grow. This is a context where the individuals can find their own strength grow and also find their own hidden abilities. This is in line with the URBACT positive approach.

From interviews with the participants about the project, we have found out what they believe and think about the content. The majority of them see that they are more ready for work than before and they also can see that their self-esteem has increased. They see that they have got something meaningful to do and that the work they do gives other people something that is useful for them, new furniture. Stakeholders are the allocation for social welfare and the city districts, IKEA and substance abuse treatment institutions.

This is a part of the ordinary activities in the municipality of Gothenburg addressing the homelessness problem since 2014. It has never been evaluated externally, although this has never been a project with external funding. We don't get any money for the restored furniture as it is donated by IKEA and then given away.

This is a very fruitful cooperation between the municipality and IKEA, and both parts are very happy with the cooperation we have. For the target group, this has made a huge difference in the quality of life of the most vulnerable on the outskirts of urban life.

All the things we have done are transferable to other cities. The target group of homeless people is to be found in every large or medium-sized city. Homeless but not hopeless is something that we work by.

In our case we have worked with IKEA and if other cities want to do the same, IKEA department stores are to be found everywhere in EU. We are sure that this small but smart idea can interest any city that is struggling with poverty, homelessness and vulnerability. We will be glad to show how.

When the Politecnico of Torino analysed the traditional markets of Torino (IT) in 2014, it discovered that 10 of the city’s 42 open markets were low economic performers and risked being closed. But the City of Torino, in charge of markets management, saw that even non-competitive markets were valuable for promoting social aggregation and healthy and eco-friendly habits, preventing degradation in outer neighbourhoods, and providing local services to the elderly and people with low mobility.
So to help them stay open, the Municipality designed a new model for local markets. ACC – Areas of Commercial Coverage – define small markets (two to six stalls) that feature food (meat, fish, or vegetables) and involve a lighter management system (self-waste management). In this way, the City reduced its maintenance costs for these markets, and secured a local service for the community, boosting commercial activities and social cohesion.

The solution offered by the ACC is beneficial for the local community and for the administration since it reduces the management costs for a service without removing it. The City of Torino has acknowledged the low performance of a number of markets, as well as their being essential for the local communities. Since the main task of the administration is not economic profit, but the provision of services with particular attention to the most disadvantaged citizens, the solution adopted by Torino aimed at reaching a number of beneficial goals:

1. Avoiding the risk of unemployment for stall operators, mostly immigrants, by giving them the possibility to remain in the ACC or to move to another market;
2. Keeping the public space alive and used by local citizens, including both the marketplace and neighbouring green spaces, leisure areas, etc.;
3. Keeping outer districts active from a commercial and social point of view (both markets and local shops, cafés, etc);
4. Granting the daily provision of fresh food in all city areas by having a widespread market network;
5. Giving the responsibility to each stall to dispose of its own waste, meaning less cleaning costs for the municipality;
6. Avoiding trips to distant commercial places, thus reducing traffic and CO2 emissions;
7. Improving the commercial attractiveness of the ACCs by rationalising the former stalls distribution;
8. Avoiding depriving the elderly and low mobility people from their gathering place.

The ACC experience combines many aspects connected to the sustainable and integrated urban development approach, since it deals with jobs protection, sustainability measures and the smart use of the public space, giving positive externalities to the surrounding urban tissue.

The low performance of a number of markets in Torino represented a risk to all the small companies working in those markets, as well as to the commercial activities/retailers based in the concerned areas. The decision to reshape the markets according to actual customer requests and to give them a lighter management structure was the solution to avoid job loss and urban and social degradation.

An important reason to create an ACC instead of closing up a market was the environmental impact that would have been generated by forcing people to move from their neighbourhood to do their basic daily shopping. The compulsory presence within each ACC of vegetables and other foods represents the provision of a basic service for people with fewer possibilities. Moreover, this measure is particularly attentive to raising the environmental and public responsibility of the stall operators so that they are required to dispose of their own waste by bringing it to a specific collection point.

The whole process has been developed according to Art. 47 of City Council Regulation no. 305 of 21 February 2005 regulating retail in public areas. The concerned article sets up the “Forms of representations for the market operators” by establishing Market Committees and a Technical Advisory Committee. The latter is formed by the Deputy Mayor in charge of Commerce, a representative of the local police, the head of the Markets Department of the City of Torino, the representatives of the trade associations and the representatives of the consumer associations.

Paragraph 4 of Art. 47 states that the Technical Advisory Committee must be summoned to take decisions concerning retail in public areas. That is why the decision not to close down low performing markets, but to establish ACCs instead, has been taken with the involvement and agreement of all the relevant stakeholders represented in the committee. The involvement of all relevant associations is also established in the Protocol of Intent signed on 20 January 2015 between the City of Torino and the main associations.

Moreover, the process was also shared with the concerned city district local governments (Circoscrizioni). In each city district a public meeting was organised to present the project and each assembly voted to approve the initiative. Finally, each stall operator has been given the choice to join the ACC or to move to the nearest market area.

The main reason for undertaking such an initiative is the preservation of the role of community markets as places of identity and social gathering. This initiative has prevented negative effects from the suppression of a local service which might have caused the degradation of the public space previously devoted to markets, the generation of more trips to reach other commercial areas, the decline of the shops and commercial activities located in the market area.

Moreover, the stall operators have been granted the possibility to keep their own regular customers, since fidelity is one of the main drivers of the seller-customer relationship. Finally, the users of the concerned markets/ACCs have perceived the role of the public administration as the “keeper” of the common good, regardless of the economic priorities. The first result that can be documented concerns the savings by the city administration connected to the waste management costs of the ACCs, calculated at more than €100,000 for 2016, and €340,000 per year when at full power.

The good practice implemented by the City of Torino might be very interesting for many types of cities. Mediterranean cities are particularly concerned by the phenomenon of open-air urban markets and might face the same challenges as Torino in terms of commercial competition and loss of purchasing power of a remarkable portion of citizens. They might be interested in developing the model of ACCs by adapting it to their local and national regulations, public spaces, commercial and social habits.

Moreover, ACCs can be implemented in cities of various sizes since they are very locally based, and are not affected by the overall dimension of the city. City administrations might consider ACCs as a good instrument to reinforce their relationship and dialogue with those citizens living in peripheral and/or more disadvantages areas, by committing to a project that unites the administration and its citizens around the challenges of common issues: employment, affordability and proximity of services, environmental protection.

Groningen (NL), like many university cities, is becoming increasingly international. This is driven by demographic need and opportunity in the knowledge economy. The good practice represents an integrated approach to internationalization to ensure a sustainable future for the city. Groningen is small and traditionally regionally oriented, thus the large-scale internationalization is a relatively new phenomenon for the town. The city manages complex processes included in an integrated and participative programme which addresses four key aspects: housing, work, city living and communication. The programme aims at attracting, retaining and integrating new residents while maintaining a high level of social cohesion and liveability. It contributes to a sustainable economic, demographic and cultural future and makes Groningen an attractive home for locals and internationals.

Our good practice addresses both the external objective of remaining competitive in a globalized knowledge economy, and the internal objective of maintaining the high social cohesion and livability that make Groningen such an attractive city. Thus we provide an integrated practice for achieving resilience in a global setting. We achieve these goals by actively managing internationalization along four key dimensions: housing, work, city living and communication. Projects address problems in these areas as follows:

• combined on- and offline platform will improve access to local housing and housing support,
• a broad regional programme “Make It in the North” will open up access to the local SME sector and international knowledge migrants (through jobs portal, internship programmes and network events), thereby also adding to the innovative capacity and global reach of local enterprises,
• several “city living” projects will make the cultural and physical life of the city more accessible to new residents by improving way-finding off- and online,
• matchmaking organisation and events, to provide language support and social integration between locals and international residents,
• a new city site will provide English-language information for prospective and new residents of the city, and contribute to Groningen’s international profile. These projects are coordinated and managed by a multidisciplinary team with local and international members.

Our integrated good practices for managing internationalization represent sustainable urban development by contributing directly to the demographic resilience, economic vitality and social cohesion of the city and its surroundings. In particular, we address inclusion by a calendar of events to stimulate and facilitate interaction between old and new residents and are exploring the possibility to include refugee groups in these too. Indirectly, we contribute to the knowledge areas prioritized by the local educational institutions: energy, sustainable society and healthy ageing, all of which are underpinned by sustainable development goals. In terms of our approach, the scope and coordination of the International Groningen programme represent both horizontal and vertical integration. The projects combine physical interventions in the city (e.g. street signage, clubhouse), with community building programmes and coordinated, online information channels to improve access to local facilities, networks and (job) opportunities, and interaction between internationals and locals. The deep vertical integration of the programme is evidenced by the support of the “Akkoord van Groningen”, a high-level strategic partnership between the municipality and the higher educational institutions, as well as the broad participation of regional bodies and the private sector in sub-projects such as the Make It in the North initiative.

The International Groningen programme is fundamentally participatory in its nature. At a strategic level the entire programme is supported by the Akkoord van Groningen, a unique partnership between the municipality and the higher educational institutions in the city. For relevant sub-projects, such as the Make It in the North to open up the regional job market to internationalisation, a much wider group of stakeholders is actively involved, including SME organisations from the surrounding provinces, the provincial government etc. The projects which comprise the programme have been developed and implemented by mixed teams of municipal and university employees, international residents operating on a freelance basis, international students and interns. In the development phase we have worked extensively with focus groups consisting of international residents and local student project groups to better understand how internationalisation is experienced and what the key challenges for the city are. Additionally, the proposed projects have been presented in diverse contexts, such as to the University’s Council and Advisory Board, the municipal board, Dutch diplomats from northern Netherlands and regional representatives.

It is difficult to show hard evidence of the effectiveness of the policies, as during the life-time of the policies (2017-2021) 2 mayor trends happened: the Covid -pandemic put an effective halt to migration, and, even during the pandemic, the number of internationals is growing faster than we can cope with. We have to prioritize in order to make sure that all newcomers can actually live in the city. 

Due to the migration-saldo, Groningen has a growing population, with a greater growth than average with comparable cities. 

So, attractiveness is there, but the policies are strained due to lack of sufficient structural funding and due to increasing demand for services. We do see local impact along several key lines:

• The topic has risen on the local and regional political agenda, thanks to the Akkoord van Groningen,
• Internationals are becoming more engaged as we ask them to join project teams and focus groups,
• Cultural stakeholders and companies are seeing ‘the international’ more and more as a potential interesting target group they have to facilitate in new ways, 
• The municipality starts to embrace internationals in other policy fields as well, such as public transport, health care etc.,
• We have outside interest from other secondary Dutch cities

Groningen led the Welcoming International Talent Network over 2.5 years, transferring its practices to 6 other cities: Magdeburg (Germany), Parma (Italy), Bielsko-Biala (Poland), Debrecen (Hungary), Zlín (Czech Republic) and Leuven (Belgium). You can, in particular, check Debrecen‘s Good practice here. The approach was based on 5 themes on which Groningen focused and adjusted to each partner city: Cross-cutting issues ( effective governance: stakeholder co-ordination, empowering and engaging the internationals effectively), Facilities (access to housing, medical services, amenities, help with bureaucracy), Branding and marketing, Improving integration/incorporation and mutual appreciation, and Improving labour market integration

Arts and culture sector collaboration on climate action and engagement in a city which recognises the value of culture and is itself demonstrating climate change leadership, linked to two of the key local challenges that run through the city’s climate change strategy:

• mobilising business action on climate change through a sector-specific approach
• engaging and mobilising citizens to act on climate change

This model of sector collaboration is rooted in the city and enables members to meet face-to-face on a regular basis, share common challenges and opportunities and link directly to what is happening on a city level. The group is chaired by members on a revolving basis, and able to fund small projects and reporting through an annual membership contribution of £7,000. Action on energy has led to a 16% reduction in emissions over three years, avoiding 2,800 tonnes CO2 and £0.9 million, largely through zero to low-cost measures. The group also works on a range of topics from green energy procurement to sustainable materials Members are using creativity to engage employees, audiences and communities, with many bringing climate change themes in programming and learning activities. The group is taking an active role in shaping and delivering city climate change strategy.

MAST’s external-facing activities involve Manchester citizens in both the development and the implementation of local climate change policy. For example, MAST’s “Our City, Our Planet” event worked with young people to help define the sustainable city they want. Climate Control at Manchester Museum focused on climate change and how people can take action. Over 90,000 visitors attended and were encouraged to contribute towards Manchester’s Climate Change Strategy 2017-50. Integrated and participative approach Manchester has an overarching strategy for 2016-25, Our Manchester, which was developed based on the views of local citizens and organisations. The strategy’s delivery is overseen and driven by the Our Manchester Forum, a partnership of senior politicians, public sector, the private sector and NGO leaders. Manchester’s arts and culture sector is represented on the Forum through the chair of the Manchester Cultural Partnership. MAST enables the Partnership to focus on Our Manchester’s climate change objectives, as part of the city’s wider social, economic.

Manchester’s cultural community has been working together through MAST (Manchester Arts Sustainability Aeam) since 2011, to understand, share, solve and scale climate change action. MAST brings together diverse arts and cultural organisations, about 30 in total, from community-based arts centres and iconic cultural venues to an internationally renowned festival and national broadcasters, in a participatory and non-prescriptive way. Different activities have also been carried out to engage with citizens:

• Practical action and creative responses - productions, exhibitions, events, etc. – which engage audiences and communities on environmental and climate change themes, now go hand in hand, for example,
• HOME Manchester and the Whitworth Gallery’s wide- ranging environmental programmes across buildings, procurement, transport, public engagement and programming
• Manchester International Festival‘s organic urban farming partnership with the Biospheric Foundation, engaging thousands of community volunteers
• Contact Young Company’s ‘Climate of Fear’, a show exploring the emotion of anger through themes of climate justice, social inequality, memory and the body ITV’s inclusion of climate change in Coronation Street’s storyline, the UK’s most popular soap opera
• Arts and culture-based activities proved particularly effective and popular in 2016’s Climate Lab, an experimental programme, run by the Manchester Climate Change Agency, to test different ways of engaging citizens in developing its 2017-2050 climate change strategy. One of ClimateLab highlights was Climate Control at Manchester Museum, a six-month long series of exhibitions and events, attended by over 90,000 people, exploring what kind of future people hope for and how to make it a reality.

MAST is getting support in different forms:

• MLA Renaissance North West. a museum programme: provided external funding for the MAST group in its first two years
• Julie’s Bicycle, a charity supporting climate action in the creative community: facilitated the group in the first two years; supported MAST in defining joint commitments and an emissions reduction target; did annual tracking and progress reporting; supports MAST development; disseminates the MAST model and achievements in the UK and abroad
• Arts Council England: environmental reporting, policy and action plan requirements for funded organisations since 2012 – including the majority of MAST members – and an accompanying environmental support programme, delivered in partnership with Julie’s Bicycle, further reinforces MAST commitments and provides MAST members with a range of exchange and learning opportunities
• Carbon Literacy Project (CLP): carbon literacy training undertaken by a number of members; a few members, such as HOME and Manchester Museum, now deliver organisation-wide training; in 2016, MAST partnered with CLP, Manchester Metropolitan University and HOME to adapt the training for the arts and culture sector MAST grew from the Manchester Cultural Partnership’s desire to explore how arts and cultural organisations could contribute to the city’s first climate change strategy 2010-2020 In 2013 MAST set a target of an annual 7% emissions reduction in line with the city’s target of a 41% reduction by 2020 – over three years it achieved an annual 5% reduction MAST supported development of the city’s 2017-2050 climate change strategy MAST’s chair is now a member of the Manchester Climate Change Board, a stakeholder group which oversees and champions delivery of the 2017-2050 climate change strategy MAST is now working with the climate change agency and board to establish how the arts and culture in the city can make its fair contribution to the Paris Agreement, and align with Greater Manchester’s 2038 carbon neutrality ambition – announcement expected in 2019.

Over 2.5 years, Manchester has led the C-Change network, transferring its practice to 5 other cities: Wroclaw (Poland), Mantova (Italy), Gelsenkirchen (Germany), Sibenik (Croatia), Águeda (Portugal). You can, in particular, check Mantova’s Good practice here. The approach was based on Manchester’s experience adaptable to each city’s reality and focused on: Sector collaboration on climate change, Sector support on climate change understanding, action and engagement, Sector involvement in city climate change policy and strategy and/or other related city policies and strategies and Citizen engagement, awareness-raising and public participation. The final outputs are all available here. The practice of Manchester is also currently being transferred in a cascaded way from Mantova to other Italian cities.

In 2013, Preston City Council (UK) and six other anchor institutions embarked on a project to identify how their wealth could be understood and harnessed more effectively for the benefit of the local economy. An element of wealth that anchors institutions can influence their procurement spend. Central to the work in Preston has been the analysis of these institutions’ procurement (1 billion euros), to understand where that spend goes geographically and on which types of business type, and what happens to it once it reaches suppliers. The anchor institutions then used the evidence gathered to inform how they undertake procurement. Some institutions have revisited the spend analysis: evidence suggests their spend has increased in the local economy and with small to medium-sized enterprises. The work demonstrates the importance of using evidence to shape policy change and the role of procurement in addressing challenges.

The good practice offered by the Preston City Council and the six other anchor institutions is a methodology and means of changing behaviour around procurement so that it generates more local economic, social, and environmental benefits. The methodology consists of three parts. First, it enables cities and institutions to understand where their procurement spend goes. So, the methodology measures the extent to which the annual 1 billion euros of procurement spend of the anchor institutions is with: businesses based in Preston and Lancashire, SMEs and social enterprises, and with businesses in particular industrial sectors. Second, it enables cities and institutions to understand the extent to which their procurement spend occurs elsewhere in the UK and across Europe and in which sector and to explore the scope for that money to be spent with different types of business, for example.. Third, it enables cities and institutions to identify the extent to which their suppliers are creating jobs or apprenticeships and find out about their practices around social sector engagement or environmental management. Effectively this activity develops an evidence base through which cities can understand the existing contribution their anchor institutions make to a local economy and assists in developing policies and practices through procurement which can enhance those contributions and further harness the potential or wealth of anchor institutions.

The good practice fits with URBACT principles because it is about harnessing the wealth of anchor institutions through procurement spend which can help to create wealth in the local economy, thereby reducing poverty and social exclusion through increased employment opportunities, the creation of new businesses and supply chains, skills development, and dealing with environmental issues, for example, by reducing carbon footprint, waste etc. It is also based on an integrated and participatory approach whereby the anchor institutions (public and social sector) work together to ensure that their procurement spend is used to bring additional economic, social, and environmental benefits to their local economies. The recent inclusion of stakeholders from business networks ensures that the voice of the private sector, and also supply chains, are involved in the process. Whilst the good practice initially focused specifically on the Preston local authority area, it has now been broadened to encompass the wider functional urban area (of Preston and South Ribble) and also the wider Lancashire region, ensuring that the horizontal, vertical, and territorial integration aspects have been taken into account.

The work around anchor institutions and spending analysis in Preston commenced in 2013 and continues in 2017. Over the last four years a range of stakeholders has been involved and the whole project is framed by a cooperative desire across the institutions to use their wealth to create greater benefits for the local economy. Stakeholders have been involved throughout the work.

1. The chief executives and political leaders (where appropriate) were visited to secure their buy-in to the principles of harnessing the wealth of institutions.
2. Procurement officers in each of the institutions were engaged to share data around their procurement spend and their suppliers to enable the analysis to take place.
3. The chief executives, politicians and procurement officers were brought together to share the findings of the supply chain analysis and to develop a collective statement of intent as to how they were going to change practices around procurement in light of the analysis.
4. The procurement officers have continued to meet through a procurement practitioners group and now an URBACT local group (as part of the Procurement Network) to discuss how they are changing practice around procurement.
5. The supply chain of some of the anchors has been engaged to identify the wider impact they are bringing through the delivery of goods and services. Engagement has been sustained over the course of the last four years with the stakeholders described above.

The overall achievements of Preston have been:

1. It has positioned Preston as a progressive place for local economic development and addressing poverty.
2. It has led to a much more effective relationship within and between institutions in Preston.
3. It has enabled a range of baseline data to be collected about the existing impact of anchor institutions and the wider business base in Preston.
4. It has secured the buy-in of senior stakeholders and enabled the development of a collective statement of intent.
5. Through the analysis of where spend goes and in what sector, it has enabled a much greater understanding of Preston’s business base and those which could potentially deliver goods and services.
6. It has changed behaviour around procurement in each of the institutions and enabled enhanced impact. For example, the proportion of spending of Preston City Council with Preston-based businesses through procurement has increased from 14% to 28%.
7. It has recognised that this is a long-term approach to addressing key challenges.
8. It recognises the importance of scale when implementing wealth-building initiatives.
9. It has had an impact on addressing wider issues including low pay and deprivation. The core impact has been in the behaviour of anchor institutions and the realisation that spending analysis and procurement can be utilised as a lever or way in which challenges facing cities can be addressed.
10. The approach has enabled more effective engagement with SMEs and subsequently a greater proportion of SMEs being successful.
11. There is a more collective approach to not only delivering local economic benefits through procurement but also to Social Value.

Over 2.5 years, Preston has led the Making Spend Matter network, transferring its practice to 6 other cities: Pamplona (Spain), Kavala (Greece), Bistriţa (Romania), Koszalin (Poland), Vila Nova de Famalicão (Portugal), Schaerbeek (Belgium). You can, in particular, check Koszalin’s Good practice here. The approach was based on Preston’s four areas of work adaptable to each city’s reality: Advanced Spend Analysis, Business Database Development, SME Capacity Building, and Social and Environmental Criteria. The final outputs are all available on the URBACT website.

People from all over Budapest (HU) take part in the city's Weekend of Open Houses – Budapest100, a festival that opens the gates of 50-60 houses and institutions each year. The event has become a tradition since its launch in 2011, with attendance reaching 20,000 visitors during the weekend.
Between 2011 and 2015 it was organised as a community-building initiative celebrating 100-year-old Budapest buildings, with the cooperation of citizens, NGOs, public institutions and district municipalities. Its main aim is to draw attention to local buildings, their architectural value and history - and to the civilian power that organises residential communities and holds them together. Since 2016, the event has been structured around a given theme or location.
The broad mission of Budapest100 is to initiate a common discussion about revival and inspire the establishment and strengthening of residential communities.

The solution offered by Budapest100 is threefold. It contributes to reforming urban community co-existence, to change the relationship between residents and the city and to help people become more responsible citizens. The weekend of open houses initiates common discussion about urban revival, underlines the values of the built environment and takes action against social isolation. Throughout Europe there are similar initiatives, but with a much lower social impact. The examples are mainly concentrating on the built environment, letting the audience enter a building and sharing with them the most important data, collected and presented by experts. Budapest100, on the other hand, adds the factors of community-building and creating value. In the apartment blocks joining the programme, residents prepare in a self-organized way (with the help of volunteers) exhibitions, cultural events, concerts and give building-history tours for the visiting audiences. The strength of the event lies in creating a demand to share and value transfer. The easiest way of social mobilisation is to create emotional engagement. The festival creates a platform for telling the stories behind closed doors and to start dialogues. Budapest100 has highlighted the possibilities of a cleverly organised, friendly city involving the residents.

Through its strong community development focus, its link to informal education, social isolation and nurturing of local organisers, Budapest100 essentially includes the social aspect related to integrated urban development. Both economic and environmental aspects of urban development are tackled by the fact that residents form communities within the programme and are more alert to physical degradation. Many apartment blocks started repeating community action in a self-organising way after Budapest100, resulting in renovations and smaller architectural changes, not to mention self-organised actions. Besides mobilising internal efforts (local people caring more), Budapest100 also draws the attention of tourists, local businesses and municipalities. The real economic impact potentially achieved through these actors is significant, even if indirect. Budapest100 not only addresses the city-loving audience, but a wide range of professionals, namely architects, landscape architects and urban planners, and initiates a common discourse on the themes affecting the city and its people. During the months of the preparations for the weekend festival a significant number of volunteers are involved and trained, who get in touch with the buildings which respond to the open call. In line with the above progress of the initiative, in 2016 the festival departed from the historical aspect of celebrating 100-year-old houses (because as a consequence of WW1 there were no buildings to celebrate) and has started to be organised around a theme. In 2016 the topic was the Grand Boulevard of Budapest, in 2017 the Danube quays, in 2018 the squares of the city while in 2019 the Bauhaus heritage.

Budapest100 was launched by the Open Society Archives and is organised by the Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre, an NGO dedicated to the dissemination of architectural practices. Budapest metropolitan and district municipalities aid the organisation by financial and in-kind support (human resources, data, communication). Since the 2011 beginning, the event has been performed with a constantly growing infrastructure and press attention, with many partners joining the initiative. The festival uses already successful methods in a further developed way: recruiting a network of 150 volunteers and involving researchers. Their composition is mixed across ages and professions, including students, retired people, architects, employees of companies and artists. There is no declared hierarchical relationship among the various actors, the structure is transparent, with open communication. Residents and volunteers are realising community programmes together alongside the principles articulated by the core team of Budapest100: culture development, information transfer, preservation of values and community cooperation. Along with the programmes in the houses, workshops and discussions on urban planning also take place attracting professionals and decision-makers. The core team pays attention to the residents and makes sure they are getting involved in these discussions, so they have the opportunity to offer their own opinions and ideas.

In the past ten years, Budapest100 has opened the gates of 50 to 60 houses and institutions yearly. Based on the feedback from involved residents, the weekends were full of experiences and lessons learnt. Many of them have highlighted that they would never have thought that so many people would be interested in their lives or their neighbourhoods. In an indirect way the festival offered them the feeling of uniqueness and importance and created conditions for neighbourhoods working together towards a common goal, making the residents’ voices heard. Local communities became stronger through the access to knowledge that helps them get closer to their own stories, their buildings and through that their cities, making them feel responsible. A more concrete success is that many apartment blocks started repeating community actions in a self-organised way following Budapest100, resulting in renovations and smaller architectural changes or organising a yard picnic or concert. The festival also got international reputation: in 2013 the Guardian chose the festival as one of the most interesting programmes of the continent, and it also received one of the prizes in “The most beautiful city feast” by Lebendige Stadt Stiftung, Hamburg. Besides the URBACT good practice label Budapest100 has become a part of the Cultural Heritage in Action Programme too.

After being awarded the URBACT Good Practice title, Újbuda was able to create the Come In! Transfer Network to which six European cities (Gheorgheni RO, Forlì IT, Varaždin HR, Pori FI, Plasencia ES, Targówek/Warsaw PL) were invited. Actually, Újbuda itself also used the method of Budapest100 in another target area, Őrmező, a prefabricated housing estate. Equipped by URBACT with a toolkit, the cities could learn from each other. The transfer process was not one-sided, during the transnational meetings the existing practices of some of the transfer cities inspired Újbuda and contributed to the development of ideas to further improve the Good Practice in the following ways. 1. Organisation of spin-off activities besides the annual big festival (like the event in the Castle District of Budapest). This has partly been inspired by the Come in! project partners which transferred the good practice in neighbourhoods and not in fragmented houses through the entire city centre. 2. Reflection on modern built environment during the annual festival. It already happened that the topic of prefabricated housing estates was one among the potential topics. Most likely one of the next BP100 festivals will reflect on modern heritage. 3. Budapest100 was inspired by the Forli website as well. In Budapest there is a massive database of houses involved in the last years, but the Italian website is very professional in terms of highlighting storytelling. This was one of the key themes of the Come in! network: describing the stories of the places (in a website and on the spot) can extend the effect of the festival, making it permanent, not only one-off event. 4. Using design thinking workshop methods as a further motivation for the volunteers. 5. Moving forward from celebration to joint placemaking actions on super local level (e.g. building an inner garden in a patio).

Innova.TO is a competition for all municipal employees of Turin (IT), except the directors, inspired by the principles of lean organisation. It aims to stimulate and develop innovative projects to improve the administration's performance, reducing waste and/or valuing resources.
The city of Torino employs a 10,000-strong community of well-educated, skilled people. At the heart of Innova.TO is the ambition to encourage all these employees to see themselves as potential innovators. To reinforce participation: project proposals were anonymous; the jury was composed of internal and external experts; private sponsors agreed to offer awards.
So far, 71 projects have been submitted, 111 employees involved, and 10 proposals rewarded. No public budget has been allocated. Winning proposals include an idea for improving transparency and community participation in local projects, sensors to regulate lighting in public buildings, and a new model for smart procurements.

Of 71 proposals submitted, 63 were from individual employees, five were presented by two employees and the remaining were proposed by three people. Proposals were related to service quality improvement (19), new services (7), environmental friendly projects (7), organisational development (16), employee welfare (5), informatics (3), and operative efficiency (14). The web-platform hosting Innova.TO has obtained more than 4,000 contacts. Ten projects have been awarded, for example:

• 5*1,000. The idea was using the 5x1,000 donation for the development of specific projects selected by the local community. In this manner, the citizens of Turin can concretely see what they finance through the donation of the 5x1000 of their individual income tax return, promoting the transparency of public action and better participation by the local community.
• Smart solutions for smart procurements. The project would like to organise a team inside the municipality dedicated to the procurement of innovative goods and services, and able to operate in integration with the existing organisational structures. It encompasses the definition of a new organisational model and dedicated administrative instruments to systematise the use of innovation’s procurement and realise Smart City policies. The project proposes the installation of sensors to regulate the intensity of the light in the public buildings and, consequently, save energy consumptions.

Innova.TO has been designed by a team drawn from different departments of the City of Torino to assemble appropriated competencies and assure a good level of knowledge for the definition of each phase of the implementation process. Public employees as proponents of innovative solutions face directly or indirectly urban challenges in every field of intervention - it doesn’t matter the workstation placed by the public servant in the phase of ideas generation - shows evidence of how important for a big organisation to adopt lean and sustainable instruments to better deal with complex urban problems. The public administration is asked even more to find innovative solutions with smaller public budgets. Therefore it becomes crucial to create a collaborative environment enabling the generation of ideas of everyone “without having to ask permission to propose to make better”.

Changing mindsets is an important aspect of Innova.TO. In fact it has been designed to encourage public employees to become active participants in the city’s growing “intelligent community”. The challenge reflects the growing importance placed on staff and customers in public service redesign. The public employees know how things function, are well aware of user expectations and, for this reason, have a wealth of knowledge and experience. Innova.TO has ambitions to create a “ vibrant context”; it can be a very useful tool for the improvement of structures and lead to services of higher quality, maybe even generating managerial savings. Small or large, the ideas of workers may turn out to be valuable resources, especially in the current context, where all public entities are called to do more with less. Innova.TO is a successful example that shows how the adoption of the principles of an open innovation model can make social innovation. It’s a flag initiative of Torino’s strategy to trigger urban innovation which leverages on collaborative knowledge and action to create a multi-actor local ecosystem as well as a new open culture nurtured within the public administration and the territory.

Innova.TO shows that public employees can come forward with innovative ideas if they are engaged in a collaborative way. Employees are citizens too, and they know well how public money is spent as well as the environmental impact of our work. It also debunks the myth that the private sector is the sole reservoir of innovative thinking. It's important for employees to have a green light to experiment and to potentially make mistakes. Employees should also take a step back from their daily roles to consider the wider aspects of the organisation’s functions. These important messages about structures and work culture come from these "reflective spaces", and from the encouragement to think beyond the daily job. Leadership takes many forms: Innova.TO shows that. When It is bottom-up, It can flourish where there is high-level support, and even where that high-level support is initially lukewarm, it can be secured in other ways, provided senior staff are open-minded and listening. Here we see the streetwise and savvy civil servants coming to the fore, being prepared to persevere after initial disappointments. There is much talk nowadays about the multifaceted nature of civic leadership, and this is one example of it in action. Changing attitudes and mindsets is the start of a change process – a profound and potentially lengthy one – aimed at stimulating innovative and enterprising attitudes within public administrations.

Innova.TO is a model that is easily replicable, not expensive, and very flexible and agile. For these reasons it has received an award from Place Marketing Forum 2016, an international conference organised each year by the New Place Marketing and Attractiveness Chair of the Public Management Institute (Aix-Marseille University) as one the best worldwide practices in the category "Innovation marketing / Offer qualification / Relations personalisation". Innova.TO has been successfully promoted in public events such as the first URBACT City Festival (Riga, 6-8 May 2015) and during the Third World Forum of Local Economic Development, organised by the United Nations (Torino, 13-16 October 2015).

To respond to the lack of coordination and communication among the many social organisation in Riga, the NGO offers a new model of civic-ecosystem creation. Operating since 2013, the NGO House is the virtual and physical space of collaboration and support for non-governmental organisations, and the place where volunteers, representatives of NGOs and citizens can engage in socio-cultural activities, learn, explore and create.

The solutions offered by the Riga good practice are oriented towards the creation of a democratic and inclusive society based on solidarity, sustainability and equal access to civil, social, economic and cultural rights. While the idea of a hub for civic oriented organisations was born in 2010 for the capital city of Latvia, it is in September 2013 that the Riga City Council established the NGO House. The scope is to address the challenges of participation in the activities of the municipality, to achieve social integration for people of different ages, social groups and nationalities, by supporting NGOs promoting citizens' awareness of local affairs. The Riga NGO House is a platform for cooperation , but also a physical space located in a five-storey high white brick building in one of the neighbourhoods of Riga, 20 minutes ride away from the city centre. The place is meant for meeting among organisations to receive educational, technical, administrative and information support. The NGO House is a place for organising informative and practical seminars for the representatives of NGOs for free, offering an opportunity to get new, useful knowledge on various topics, important for the operation and development of NGOs. Furthermost The NGO House organises events, thematic talks to address current societal issues and challenges.

European cities have committed themselves to providing integrated and quality services and cooperation possibilities for citizens to ensure their active integration into society. The cities adapt to citizens’ expectations and needs and not vice versa. Targeted and appropriate investment in urban integration, participation and social inclusion processes will result in economic and social betterment. The founding and operation of the Riga NGO House is based on a participatory approach. The cooperation model of the Riga municipality, non-governmental organisations and citizens is focused on sustainable long-term activities, and the NGO House serves as a tool for this cooperation model. Members of NGOs are the most active part of society, bringing together people of all ages, professions and nationalities. NGOs help citizens to make their voices heard, express their creativity, represent and defend their interests. The role of the non-governmental sector in the development of civil society is growing alongside the support of the municipality for joint projects and activities. There's also increased participation of NGOs and citizens in implementing various municipal policies and proposals put forward by citizens. The founding and development of the NGO House demonstrate the interest of the Riga government in bilateral cooperation as it provides a significant long-term support system for NGOs' activities, henceforth a sustainable society and integration policy development direction.

The NGO House was set up at the request of the inhabitants of Riga. Organisations' needs are taken into account in the development of services, and the city conducts regular consultations. Since the opening of the NGO House, more than 47,000 people have visited it and attended the events organised by the NGO House or NGOs. In 2016 the number of visitors doubled compared with the first two years of operation. In the course of three years 140 NGOs have organised 2,920 events. Every year we witness the growth of the number of events: in 2014 there were 400 events, in 2015 830 events, and in 2016 1,690 events. Representatives of more than 500 organisations have participated in the events organised by organisations themselves or municipalities. Some 104 informative, educational seminars or practical workshops attended by representatives of more than 410 NGOs have been produced by NGO House staff as support measures. Twinning and networking events of 18 organisations drew more than 1,000 participants.

Through the participation in Active NGO, the city of Riga took the opportunity to expand the NGO House potentials beyond the physical walls of the House itself. Riga has 58 neighbourhoods and NGos are spread all over the city. Thanks to the Active NGO leadership, Riga could embark in an improvement plan that launched several actions of the “NGO House outside the House”. The scope was to reach out more people in a more capillary way in the entire city area. The partners in the network .( Siracusa IT, Santa Pola ES, Dubrovnik CR, Espoo FI and Brighton and Hove UK have been excellent advisors providing fresh new ideas. For instance, inspiring was the case of Brightong and Hove, with the initiative “Hawks Community Cafe” for informal meetings and the programme “Active Life”, with events offering possibilities of voluntary work or joint walks taken by the councillors and residents in the neighbourhood to highlight the issues that need to be solved within communities. As response Riga organised a similar events and other festivities in peripheral neighbourhood of Riga, reaching out places where the presence of community based activities was sporadic ( further info here). While operating I, the life time of the network Riga was able to organise also ad hoc seminars in project management, public speech, personal data protection directed to almost 600 NGO members, employees and volunteers. During the heights of the pandemics the NGO House practice resulted crucial in providing support to most in need and adapting their activities to this time of crisis.The NGO House became a point of contact, exchanging information and providing distance seminars to guide people in the digital environment with advices on how to reorganise work and private life . NGO House was closely cooperating with the voluntary movement “Stay Home” born in Latvia, which, by using technologies – an application with tasks and Hotline phone number, provides help to those most in need of it. The work was focused on providing help in e.g. delivering groceries and other purchases, taking pets for a walk, thus allowing people to stay at home.

Riga’s learning was supported by exchange visits in cities part of the network which contributed to expand the wealth of ideas and practice of the initial NGO House. These international visits brought together different members of the ULGs, allowing municipal officers and their civil counterparts to establish new connections and partnerships, thus strengthening their local ecosystems. In addition, Active NGO closely collaborated with Civic Estate and Comm.unity Lab Urban network for exchange of practices and knowledge sharing. In terms of transfer, the Riga NGO House is a specific model that is strongly rooted in its own local administrative, policy, economic and social environment. At the same time, the Transfer of learning from Riga’s NGO House and the local experiences of other partner cities could bring specific, custom-made knowledge to each municipality and local stakeholder group.The final outcome of the Network is in form of a book The Power of Civic Ecosystems based on the testimonies of the participating cities, enriched by case studies of other sister practices in cities all over Europe. .