The overarching theme of this good practice is strategic management in the context of long-term decline and stagnation. After local industries closed, the population of Altena (DE) shrank by 43% between 1975 and 2014. Facing diminishing resources and increasingly complex problems, the municipality adjusted its priorities, working more closely with citizens. Actions include: organisational restructuring (such as downsizing and resource-sharing), developing civil society (including the involvement of hundreds of volunteers), economic revitalisation (through tourism, for example), and integration of refugees. In 2015 Altena's population increased for the first time since the 1970s. Municipal finances have improved, there are fewer empty shops, and unemployment has fallen for the first time in 40 years.
Having shifted its strategic objectives to work more closely with citizens and focus on controlling decline rather than focusing on growth, Altena has stabilised its population and improved municipal finances. Altena provides examples where the response to decline is rooted in local resources and expertise. The experience of Altena shows that activating often dormant resources and opportunities requires a frank debate about the future direction of the town. This requires strong visionary leadership combined with the ability to integrate conflicting interests and overcome resistance to change.

Altena provides a case study of two practical interventions which can arrest and ultimately reverse decline: the ‘Stellwerk’ volunteers’ platform, and a ‘Pop-up Shop’ campaign. Fostering the engagement of inhabitants who are not in paid employment but have access to skills and resources to help support those in need, builds the capacity of civil society to engage with often complex social problems in a structured way. Altena founded its NGO platform in 2008 and called it Stellwerk. The Stellwerk started without a budget. The municipality made available premises, paid the energy and cleaning bills, provided a minimum of administrative resources. Currently the Stellwerk has 8 volunteer workers who co-ordinate several hundred volunteers providing disability support, arts and music groups, home visiting and home care services, refugee integration and much more. The Stellwerk provides an essential channel of communication between civil society and municipality. Economic decline and outmigration of economically active populations result in an over-supply of retail premises, especially in town centres. Pop-up shops provide an effective way to populate the town centre with new enterprises. The goal is to support entrepreneurs in testing the viability of their business in that particular location and then facilitate the transition into permanent rental agreement with the property owners. The municipality carries some costs and also risks during this period and needs to be prepared to overcome resistance from existing shops and also the owners of empty premises. Altena established 14 pop-ups of which 5 are now trading as permanent, regular businesses on the high street. The good practices Altena are relevant to all smaller cities that have to rely on their own resources to create opportunities for improving socio-economic and environmental conditions. This includes creating opportunities for meaningful paid and unpaid work, tackling environmental degradation, reducing financial liabilities for public agencies, safeguarding essential services, enhancing economic activity and integrating vulnerable members of society. The practices developed by Altena are locally created sustainable innovations based on the resources that are typically available to smaller cities, including: natural resources, such as landscapes, forests, rivers, man-made physical resources, such as buildings, roads and infrastructure, economic resources, such as existing companies, education and training facilities, and, perhaps most important, social resources, meaning the skills, energy, resources and networks of the people who live and work in the city. To generate effective responses to shrinkage these resources need to be bundled in ways which resonate with local stakeholders because they are the engine that mobilises the skills and energies available locally.

Altena has been identified by national and international experts as a good practice case in responding to urban decline in sustainable and cross-cutting ways. Downsizing and restructuring the municipality resulted in the integration of planning, economic development, transport functions, education and leisure services were combined, housing and adult social care were integrated. But equally important, the civil society forum (Stellwerk) was strengthened and given a voice as well as influence over the strategic decisions the city administration would have made in isolation in the past. These actions were embedded in a strategy framework developed in close collaboration with the local population, which resulted in the Altena 2015 strategy (see below). Hence the good practices promoted here are fully aligned with the URBACT principles of sustainable urban living as well as an integrated and participatory approach to socio-economic and environmental development.

Between 2003 and 2005 Altena received support from the Bertelsmann Foundation to develop participatory initiatives for building an inter-generational town that embraced the needs of an ageing population. Planning consultants, architects and academics facilitated a comprehensive range of workshop to explore the ideas as well as apprehensions local people had about the future of their city. This process was called ‘Altena 2015’ and resulted in a strategic development framework for the city which was governed not by the municipality alone but in conjunction with a newly created partnership of civil society organisations. The strategy went beyond generational matters and identified a large number of priorities for new social, economic and environmental developments – none of the ‘old’ initiatives when the town was still in denial about the reality of shrinkage were included. The strategy was based on the principle that citizens had to contribute in practical ways to the services and any improvements they wanted to see. Given that the municipality was technically bankrupt at the time, the active and extensive input of citizens who live and work in Altena is considered to be the distinctive and decisive element of a strategy that has brought about a reversal in the fortunes of the city.

Through the ‘Altena 2015’ strategy many problems were tackled in an integrated and collaborative way. By working with civil society it was possible to reduce the number of schools, nurseries, leisure centres and vacant housing stock in ways which minimised the impact on people’s lives. Problems were turned into opportunities by:

• Connecting the town with a major visitor attraction on the mountain above Altena through an elevator, the ‘Erlebnisaufzug’.
• Pop-up shops to bring entrepreneurs into the town centre
• Refurbishing the riverfront
• Developing inter-generational projects
• Strengthening voluntary agencies. In 2011 there were 23 empty shops in the town centre, now there are 18 and essential services are provided to a high standard, often complemented with support from citizens. The local economy has turned a corner and for the first time in 40 years unemployment has fallen and stands at 6.5%. The financial resources of the municipality are now stable, showing a break-even budget 2017/18 instead of projecting a deficit as in previous decades. In 2015 Altena’s population increased for the first time since the 1970s, primarily by inviting more refugees than required by legislation, thus growing its capacity to respond to shrinkage. The exemplary work undertaken to integrate refugees is well known: http://www.dw.com/en/altena-leads-by-example-in-refugee-crisis/av-19098707

After being awarded the URBACT Good Practice title, Altena was able to create the Re-growCity Transfer Network to which seven European cities (Manresa Spain, Idrija Slovenia, Igoumenitsa Greece, Isernia Italy, Melgaço Portugal, Aluksne Latvia, Nyírbátor Hungary) were invited which were similarly facing the challenge of declining population. Equipped by URBACT with a toolkit, the cities could learn from each other. Re-grow City deliberately focused on small and medium sized towns, because they face distinctive challenges in terms of constrained resources and limited technical capabilities when compared to larger cities. These constraints offer opportunities, however, for example robust social networks with high levels of ‘social capital’ and short decision making routes that speed up the adoption of untested or controversial methods. Taken together with the resources and skills local people have, shrinking cities are places of opportunity and can demonstrate considerable resilience even where they face severe constraints. As a side-outcome of the Re-Grow City network, in May 2021 the new pan-European network ReGrow Towns has been established. This is aimed for towns below the size of 50 th residents and is an addendum to the already existing networks of Eurocities (cities above 250 th residents) and Eurotowns (cities between 50-250 th residents). 16.500 https://www.citypopulation.de/en/germany/nordrheinwestfalen/m%C3%A4rkischer_kreis/05962004__altena/

Every day, citizens, tourists and enterprises need to access a range of city services and resources, and in some cases to pay for them. Meanwhile, city councils are also developing various policies to boost healthy habits and social behavior to improve the quality of life.
The Gijon City Council (ES) fulfils both these groups of needs with a smart card (Gijon Citizen Card) that gives citizens access to the city's services and public facilities, such as shared transport, cultural activities and digital services. It also sets up citizenship profiles to better match citizens' needs with public policies. The Citizen Card has become both an integrated tool for public services and a coordination and loyalty mechanism. Launched in 2002, the Citizen Card is now used by more than 300.000 people to access and pay for municipal services and activities.

The following list shows the different uses of the Citizen Card:

• Citizen Terminals: there are one-stop shops where citizens can access different procedures around the clock and with terminals that are located in the neighborhoods (currently, there are 21);
• Public Transport: citizens can recharge the Citizen Card to use the bus. As it is a personal item, the card has information about citizens' situations and adapts the prices, and if someone loses their card the transport company refunds the credit previously put on the card;
• Virtual Office: access to online services;
• Parking tickets: to get a ticket to park the car in a restricted area;
• Libraries & Media Centres: the card allows members to borrow books, CDs and DVDs. There are 12 Tele-centres, each with approximately 15 computers where citizens can take courses or can connect to the Internet for one hour using the Citizen Card;
• Public toilets: with the Citizen Card, 18 equipped toilets can be used for free. Otherwise users have to pay for it;
• Free entry to local museums;
• Use of Bicycles: Throughout the city, there are 64 bikes that can be picked up and returned to eight terminals. The bikes are available for use free of charge for Citizen Card holders;
• Leisure Activities and venues: With the Citizen Card, it is possible to pay for and book different sport and cultural activities and venues;
• Car sharing of public electric vehicles: Free recharge of electric vehicles at five points in the city.

The Citizen Card will contribute to sustainable urban living because it promotes and facilitates the use of public transport and other sustainable ways of transportation such as car sharing or electric vehicles. Other uses linked to the promotion of sports and cultural activities are very important to foster integration, good health habits and to avoid social exclusion. The Citizen Card also contains details about users’ socio-economic situations, which allows us to adapt the rates of the different services, contributing in this way to the reduction of poverty. One of the current aims of the Citizen Card is to work with a holistic and participative approach, because it combines different services that are interconnected and can share relevant information. It also allows citizens to participate and use the services throughout different tools (Citizen Terminals, online, etc.). Additionally, a free training session is offered on how to use the Citizen Card, favouring the digital inclusion of some groups and connectivity, and minimizing unnecessary trips. To sum up, the Citizen Card plays a key role in the development of sustainable mobility by encouraging behaviours and habits of a healthy life, promoting a culture of energy efficiency and sustainable growth.

The Citizen Card will contribute to sustainable urban living because it promotes and facilitates the use of public transport and other sustainable ways of transportation such as car sharing or electric vehicles. Other uses linked to the promotion of sports and cultural activities are very important to foster integration, good health habits and to avoid social exclusion. The Citizen Card also contains details about users’ socio-economic situations, which allows us to adapt the rates of the different services, contributing in this way to the reduction of poverty.
One of the current aims of the Citizen Card is to work with a holistic and participative approach, because it combines different services that are interconnected and can share relevant information. It also allows citizens to participate and use the services throughout different tools (Citizen Terminals, online, etc.). Additionally, a free training session is offered on how to use the Citizen Card, favoring the digital inclusion of some groups and connectivity, and minimizing unnecessary trips.
To sum up, the Citizen Card plays a key role in the development of sustainable mobility by encouraging behaviors' and habits of a healthy life, promoting a culture of energy efficiency and sustainable growth.

People and legal entities including associations, migrants and foreigners can have a Citizen Card. Currently, there are 363.966 cards held by people and 1.496 by enterprises. Gijón has a population of 272,202 (you can check the data in real time on our open data portal), but people who are citizens and carry out any activity in Gijón can also have a Citizen Card. The city schools also have Citizen Cards to take part in the programming of cultural and sport activities. During the launch phase of the project, all citizen groups were involved. It is worth mentioning the incorporation of participative movements in the development phase. The methodology was focused on the active participation and collaboration of municipal departments in charge of each civic sector (Sport, Education, Social Services, Mobility, Governance and Sustainability) which have been acting as mediators with different citizen groups. Examples of contributors were the associative movements incorporated from neighborhood groups and economic and social sectors of the city, such as architects, engineers, the hotel industry, building and transport enterprises, traders, etc.

Gijon has sought to turn the citizen card into a living element that accomplishes the new needs of the citizens and the city: to offer citizens good quality services, have one card for all municipal actions, improve existing functions and add new ones. It has become an essential tool to the quality of life in Gijon City: "Smart living". Citizens of Gijón, businesses and tourists could access municipal services, allowing a reduction in bureaucracy, time saving, ensuring access to services, promoting policies of social inclusion, sustainability, smart growth and sustainable mobility.

During the lifetime of the URBACT Transfer Network, Gijon has enhanced the portfolio of services and turned the citizen card into the driving force to achieve a smart society for innovative and sustainable city by implementing the following measures:

• Study the use of Gijón Citizen Card with a Commerce loyalty Card to encourage retail trade
• Possibility of including credit linked to Social Services Subsidies
• Access to trash bins with citizen card: policy of tax incentives to recycle
• Access to charging points of electrical vehicles
• Interoperability of citizen cards between European cities. Evaluation of conclusions given by Eurocties Citizen Card Lab
• Communication with urban equipment and facilities (IoT)
• Energy efficiency: streetlights, smart management of equipment
• Advantageous use of data provided by the citizen cards Big data management
• App for mobile devices development
• Appointment management in public offices due to Covid-19 limitations
• Control access to different venues due to Covid-19

The Citizen Card has an average of 32,000 uses/day and around 1,000,000 uses/month.

Gijon led the Card4all Network over 2.5 years, transferring its practices to 5 other cities: Suceava (Romania), Aveiro (Portugal), Clermont Ferrand (France), Jurmala (Latvia), and Sassari (Italy). You can, in particular, check Aveiro’s Good practice here. The approach was based on the 3 learning approaches: Experiential, Reflective, and Contextual support. All these covered topics (I.T integration, standardization, interoperability of Citizen Cards between European cities, business models, governance, data protection, integration with smartphones, web applications, local cross-sectorial services, pool of services to be considered, policy support, and, marketing strategy to reach visibility and a sense of owning) whose outputs can be found in the Final report of the Network available online. Card4all and Gijón as mentor city was also a key contributor to the Eurocities’ Knowledge Society Forum on Citizen Cards.

Tropa Verde is a multimedia platform set up by Santiago de Compostela (ES) to encourage environmentally responsible behaviour. Using a game-based web platform, citizens can win recycling vouchers and exchange them for rewards from the City Council and local retailers.
The project started after a 2015 survey showed that many inhabitants were reluctant to recycle due to habit and a lack of information. In under two years, recycling had soared: more than 115 local sponsors had delivered 800 rewards, from hotel accommodations to beauty treatments. Citizens received these gifts or discounts in exchange for 16,000 "recycling actions" in social and civic centres and green points.
There were also workshops, street actions and other promotional activities. School campaigns have collected thousands of litres of used cooking oil and 3,299 electric appliances. Today, Tropa Verde is active in at least six cities.

Tropa Verde is a multimedia platform that aims at promoting recycling and environmental responsibility among the citizens by rewarding good environmental practices; increasing recycling rates; promoting the environmental awareness of the citizenship applying gaming and rewarding techniques. It uses a game-based web platform at where citizens can exchange recycling points for rewards from the City Council and local retailers. The website connects the elements necessary to achieve the objective: the places where citizens can dispose of waste and where they will be rewarded if they do so (green points, civic and social centres, recovery points, etc.), and local businesses that collaborate by providing gifts or discounts, such as retailers, restaurants, outdoor activities and shops. For successful implementation, all players are required. Tropa Verde is led by Santiago de Compostela, developed by local technology company Teimas Desenvolvemento, and now adopted by more than six cities.

Tropa Verde directly aims at encouraging and increasing re-using and recycling, bringing up significant savings for the cities and contributing to efficiency in the use of the resources and to the improvement of environmental quality, fully in line with the objectives of the EU2020 Strategy and its Resource Efficiency Flagship Initiative. Its benefits are clear for the municipalities and other stakeholders:

• It encourages re-use and recycling, facilitates efficient waste collection, and reduces waste disposed, which brings savings for the councils.
• It facilitates compliance with the Waste Framework Directive and Circular Economy related Directives, allowing increasing rates of reduction, reuse and recycling of waste.
• It facilitates recycling, increasing the number of collection points for some waste products that are especially difficult to collect, such as used cooking oil or electrical and electronic equipment.
• It reduces the environmental impact and the costs associated with waste management.
• It has a positive impact on the citizen behavior, as it offers direct rewards to environmental responsible actions.
• From a political perspective, thanks to its innovative and participatory approach, it offers a great potential of visibility of the environmental efforts carried out by the municipalities

There is a strong involvement of local stakeholders in the development and implementation of the practice in Tropa Verde. The collaborating entities in this project are: Santiago's City Council; civic and local social centres; Urbaser, the municipal solid waste (MSW) management company; and Teimas Desenvolvemento, in charge of the technological side of the project as well as the promotion and the marketing plan. Local sponsors include retailers, restaurants, shops and other businesses; and the citizens of Santiago de Compostela. Schools participate in environmental education campaigns.

Tropa Verde has been implemented in this city since 2015 with great success: 4065 users in 5 years, with 29 recycling points located throughout the city and issuing vouchers; over; 150 sponsors; 2,302 rewards offered; more than €15,000 in prizes and rewards; over 15,168 vouchers given; close to 2000 Facebook followers; more than 820 Twitter followers; and over 1500 rewards delivered. There have been several workshops for children: Recycle, Reutilise and Play with Tropa Verde to commemorate the European Environment Week and two school campaigns "Recycling at school is rewarded". The campaign consists of the collection of used cooking oil and electrical and electronic appliances involving 20 different educational centres, with a total of 2,416 students. In the school campaigns, a total of 2,356 litres of used cooking oil and 3,299 electrical and electronic appliances were collected. From the beginning of the initiative, the involvement of citizens towards recycling has been highly increased, with a higher volume of visitors at the waste collection points. Tropa Verde's initiative has improved environmental quality and, consequently, the citizens’ quality of life, while at the same time promoting the local economy.

Santiago de Compostela led the Tropa Verde Network over 2.5 years, transferring its practices to 5 other cities: Guimarães (Portugal), Dimos Pavlou Mela (Greece), Urban Community Nice Côte d'Azur (France), Opole Agglomeration (Poland) and Zugló (Hungary). You can, in particular, check Zugló ‘s Good practice here. The approach was based on 2 stages: the Core transfer learning stage (Understanding and adapting), the mature stage – Reuse (testing), covering the stages followed by Santiago for its own process.