Confronted with social challenges, like increasing number of elderly, disabled people, and children whose parents work abroad, the City of Vaslui (RO) started a comprehensive process of rehabilitation of six of the former power plants that were heating the city neighbourhoods. These were transformed into six day care centres right in the heart of the biggest neighbourhoods of the city, serving directly a total of 300 elderly people, 15 young students and their families, and also offering a properly equipped auditorium open for any of the 14 000 students, NGOs or other cultural associations.

Hidden among city blocks of flats, the former neighbourhood power plants that were heating the communist flats, remained one by one without their main utility, since the centralised heating system has become technically outdated, thus, most users gave up on this service and chose individual heating systems. As a consequence of this phenomenon, at a local level, from a total of 27 heating power plants, only 6 are still working. The other 21 nonfunctional buildings, besides their unaesthetic aspect, were presenting a high risk of danger for health and safety of the citizens. Vaslui Municipality sought for solutions to address the identified problems, and in this regard, in collaboration with Vaslui Local Council, started a comprehensive process of rehabilitation and destination change for these locations.

As poverty increases so does the risk of concentration of urban vulnerable and marginalised groups in deprived areas, which are characterised by social segregation, stigmatisation, reduced mobility, limited access to credit, housing deprivation and not only environmental degradation but reduced public spending on its prevention. Addressing vulnerable and marginalised groups has a direct impact on local municipal budgets, due for example to intense use of enabling support services and local benefits/subsidies allocated to alleviate poverty. It is therefore no surprise that combating the related social/spatial segregation was identified by stakeholders at the city level as one of the key priorities that the Vaslui Municipality should target. The proposed strategies are contributing to the socio-economic inclusion of particular vulnerable and marginalised groups. The actions done will allow lasting and sustainable solutions for major societal challenges in the city in general through the establishment of innovative policy frameworks, action plans, pilot actions and follow up activities.

The growing social and economic inequalities are reflected in a reduced quality of urban life. To overcome these challenges the Municipality involved the targeted groups in participatory activities to tackle socio-economic exclusion for defining the best actions and plans to be developed. Development of the daycare centres and the activities performed within were a result of the multiple discussions had with the targeted beneficiaries. The scope was to assure a maximum level of satisfaction of the vulnerable/marginalised groups and integrate them into decision-making processes. These actions are also a result of a broad participatory process undertaken within the development of the critical documents related to sustainable urban development: "Local Development Strategy Vaslui" (2009) and "Pole Metropolitan Development Strategy 2014-2020 Vaslui" (2014). The process involved local government structures, local council and relevant local community stakeholders (NGOs and associations, businesses, public institutions, experts from various fields, ordinary citizens, vulnerable/marginalised groups). The objective was to have a participatory approach in governance and planning, as concerns the exclusion of vulnerable/marginalised groups from social life and economic opportunities, and sustainable urban development. In this way, a common participatory methodology was created which can be successfully replicated in other cities and areas.

If we are talking about the Day centre for elderly „Buna Vestire”, the Day centre for elderly „Sfântul Nicolae”, The Club for retired persons, and the „Prietenia” club, almost 300 persons benefit directly from the investments done, the offered services vary from social and leisure activities, individual and group counselling, social counselling, medical and social assistance, moral and emotional support, and catering services. The cultural centre „Alexandra Nechita”, due to its purpose to offer for free an adequate space for cultural activities, we can say that it serves all of our 14 000 school students, NGOs and the local cultural associations. The day centre for schoolchildren „Bucuria” (Happiness) offers guidance for 15 children and their families.

The integration of vulnerable and marginalised groups into social life and economic activities has a huge impact on the Vaslui Municipality. It generates costs in terms of direct loss of productivity and contributions to the public purse or through side effects such as increased social tensions, probability of poor health and socio-spatial segregations. Vaslui Municipality is in a unique position in Romania to address this challenge with the new governance tools and strategies. It wants to enhance mechanisms to take decisions that are closest to most citizens. As the EU gradually moves out of the economic crisis it should be remembered that almost half of the EU's population lives in cities and that urban agglomerations are the main drivers for innovation, competitiveness and economic development across Europe. Vaslui therefore has a key role to play in creating and supporting the right conditions for innovative actions in a Romanian context that lead to more and better social and economic integration of communities at risk of exclusion.

The Municipality of Udine  has developed an urban practice focusing on the use of play as a flexible, innovative place-making paradigm to Develop an equitable and democratic society. Play is used as a vehicle for addressing healthy lifestyles and energy awareness; it fosters the inclusion of migrants, the involvement of elderly people and promotes a better relationship between parents and children. Playful places such as the Municipal Toy Library and its public park, the Energy in Play annual fair, the Traveling Toy Bus, World Games Day and Pi Day, have contributed to the improvement of urban places in Udine and raised awareness of health, energy and sustainability issues.

The “Playful Paradigm” initiatives is part of a comprehensive strategy that the Municipality has been implementing for more than 20 years under the umbrella of the Healthy Cities Project (World Health Organization), the European Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, while being the  leading city of the Italian Playful Cities Movement (GIONA). From 2013 to 2015, Udine was the Lead Partner of the URBACT Healthy Ageing Project, tackling a topic, which particularly concerns its population (Udine has an old age index of 217), where playfulness has been an important aspect.

The solution proposed stems from using ‘games’ as a flexible and innovative co-creating place-making paradigm, in addressing the needs of an actively ageing, energy aware, equitable and democratic society.

Evidence shows that it is easier to learn and establish relations through playing, because cultural differences or physical and cognitive deficiencies, or mere unawareness, can be easily compensated by emotional reactions.  The experience in Udine started with tiny temporary educational initiatives such as the Ludobus (a mobile toy library a project promoted nation wide in the early 2000s), which then has been permanently turned into a The toy library, an intergenerational meeting point in the city center. The toy Library has welcomed since 2013 by 40 000 visitors becoming the actual hub of q rich programme of play-related initiatives the city has launched e.g. CamminaMenti – Move your minds run in community centers for dementia prevention and inclusion of elderly people, the Energy in Play annual Fair, the World Games Day, Pi Day, Darwin Day, The library of living books, etc. Because of this experience in 2017 with the support of Regional Funds, Udine launched the Italian National Games Archive establishing the first Italian classification of traditional and modern games, relying also on crowd sourcing in the coming years. Most recently, Udine has launched a project to fight gambling by promoting a toolkit of “healthy” games replacing “slot-machines”, the latter more and more invading bars, pubs and restaurants hooking the population especially in deprived urban areas.

Overall, the municipality has adopted a light touch policy based on “playing” that crosses all departments and programmes giving a new twist to the concept of social inclusion, education and place making that is a novelty for many European cities.

Health, energy and literacy awareness are pursued through playful initiatives aimed at developing a sustainable urban living, fostering learning attitudes, and enabling citizens regardless of age, ethnic origin, income, gender orientation or ability. The playful paradigm, which integrates top-down policies and spontaneous bottom-up actions called also “middle-out approach” in the Udine URBQCT good practice, triggers collateral initiatives akin to co-generative welfare. The holistic feature of games naturally induces an integrated and participative approach. This paradigm has allowed Udine to boost the many existing grass-root initiatives which promote sports, physical activity, healthy and eco-friendly lifestyles, channeling them towards the overall health and sustainability goals of the municipality and involving all citizens, not just militants.
The practice has thus achieved a vertical integration between different levels of government. Health and sustainability have become the 'lingua franca', i.e. the universal language, for carrying out city health and energy diplomacy, thus establishing relations and building partnerships with stakeholders within the city (non-profit organizations and public-private sectors), but also with other cities and regional and national authorities e.g. the creation of the National Games Archive, and the many transnational network Udine is involved in.

Over the years, Udine has implemented an integrated strategy for promoting physical, mental and relational well-being as well as ecological awareness in all policies. This approach has been applied by capitalizing on spontaneous bottom-up initiatives, building trustful alliances and partnerships within the community. In the Playful Paradigm approach, municipalities do not only act supportively of bottom-up suggestions and initiatives, but as catalysts of a broader societal engagement: the Municipality of Udine plays the role of social broker and mediator, facilitating networking among local stakeholders, and gently nudging their often idiosyncratic vision into a more coordinated, systematic and strategic framework. City health diplomacy plays a crucial role in this process, negotiating different interests towards a common goal, thus also avoiding the silo syndrome. The inter-sectoral participatory process is witnessed in Udine by the comprehensive programmes developed and co-created over the years, catalyzing and engaging a great number of different stakeholders. The whole-of-government, whole-of-society and health-in-all-policies approaches promoted by WHO within the Healthy Cities Movement was the inspiring principle.

Results have contributed to the improvement of urban places, and to awareness about health, energy and sustainability, with programmes and initiatives co-created using playing as the main paradigm. All these engage more than 3000 people per year.
Associations from the private and public sector are engaged to co-design and raise awareness on energy efficiency, reducing CO2 emissions through initiatives in the main squares of the city. A wide range of offers is at hand for everyone in community centers, Move your minds (CamminaMenti), university, public library, municipal Toy Library.
Non-profit and for-profit organizations offer music therapy, laughter yoga, anti-ageing games and creative thinking for combating cognitive decline and solitude. World Games Day: over 50 associations, small enterprises revolving around playing in all its different facets. Pi Day begins a little before 16.00 hrs on March 14 and brings together associations, individuals, schools to foster mathematics and scientific literacy. "You don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing": workshops for health/social professionals improve the quality of life of elderly people. Energy at school, healthy eating, and food waste programmes: school programmes for educating children on sustainable consumption, carbon-blue-water-footprints, and healthy food. Eco-orienteering: different population groups experience the city by exploring cultural, social and historical aspects of places through treasure hunting.

The Playful Paradigm Transfer Network led by the Municipality of Udine demonstrated how much play could help cities to improve their capacity to leverage on health, wellbeing, and social innovation. The process of transferring within the network started with the lunching in different localities the simple project of the Ludobus, a colorful bus carrying games from the Ludoteca -the games library- all around the city. Using this project as leverage to link up other initiatives game oriented that could involve different sector of public life and education (see the toolkits produced during the lifetime of the network).

The 2020 pandemic situation during the lifetime of the network pushed towards integration of the digital environment in the built and physical spaces. By the end of the project, and with the limitations of the lockdowns, Udine tested a new approach to engage citizens and small groups of tourists through a virtual urban game inspired by        an ancient game with dice and pawns exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of the city. The scope was to increase the knowledge and experience of cultural heritages and those historic urban places, more or less visible, which witness the history of a city/region/country.

The Municipal Council of Volunteers (MCV) is a stable participatory governance structure that helps coordinate the activities of volunteers, creating synergies among them and enhancing the capacities to reach out groups of the population which need additional support beyond the existing public welfare and social system. The MCV is intergenerational, it is open to everyone in the city and it is a powerful approach to maximise social support especially in small and medium size cities.

Since 1974, with the Turkish occupation of the northern part of Cyprus, Athienou has a special status with its urban area being within the buffer zone ( 80% of its rural area occupied by the Turkish army,) and thus being isolated from other urban center in the Cyprus Island. At that time, many people were in need to restart their lives after the occupation and volunteerism was one of the main tools to rebuild social ties. Athienou today still suffers from isolation and constantly see a resource in the volunteering collaboration between its citizens. Today, voluntarism is well rooted in the social life of the city, institutionalised in 2012 with the creation of a Municipal Council of Volunteers (MCV). Chaired by the Mayor, the MCV counts 48 members elected by the community (local organizations, political parties, parents associations, church and sponsors) . The duty of the MCV is to understand, and offer support, to social problems affecting the inhabitants of the Athienou, especially those most vulnerable. Its work covers different thematic areas such as elderly support, care, life long learning, nursery, energy efficiency, climate change et al. The MCV is currently organised around 4 main projects: 1 the Kleanthios Elderly Home, 2. The Konstanileneion Center for Adults with initiatives related with occupational activities for isolated people and day care activities. In close collaboration with the welfare committee, services are offered with little or no cost to individuals in need, such as food preparing, home-care, and healthcare.3. the Municipal Nursery Center which has a capacity to offer high quality nursery services to 100 babies and infants. Approximately 20 percent of the families that benefit from these services are monitored and receive help by the Municipal Welfare Committee and 4, the Social Welfare Committee. This latter, chaired by the Mayor and with a close collaboration with the Social Welfare Office and the Ministry of Education. Funding comes from individuals, private companies, organised groups and local and/or national authorities.

A key sustainability factor of the MCV initiatives is the intergenerational approach. Children participate in volunteering activities, and this investment at a early age makes them familiarise with a culture of volunteering which will be carried out from generation to generation. For instance, Children in Athnienou pay regular visits to the elderly home in order to attend joint entertainment activities. At the same time, volunteers visit regularly schools engaging kids in storytelling initiatives while encouraging the volunteering engagement.

Vertical integration begins with the volunteers working for MCV, in close collaboration with the municipal authorities. The MCV is under the District Coordinating Council of Volunteerism, which is under the National Coordinating Council of Volunteerism, the National Welfare Office and the Ministry of Labour. With regards to territorial integration, the MCV of Athienou covers the Athienou Municipality and is part of a national network of Volunteering Councils. These efforts also include activities towards environmental sustainability. The MCV members are highly aware of environmental issues and have set a strategy that includes renewable energy sources.

The MCV architecture is based on the active participation of organised groups within the community. Any citizen can be a member and/or volunteer and the MCV offers a frame for people to assume an active role in support of others depending on the volunteer attitude, skills, professional expertise and time availability. Although, volunteers take the decisions, the committee operates under strict standards, it reports for its actions and it is audited by the legal authorities. The MCV also employs certified staff, dedicated to providing professional support and training of the volunteers. The total number of volunteers exceeds 200 at any given time. The Municipal Council of Volunteerism is composed of 48 members from local organisations and approved by the volunteers. There is a close collaboration with the Welfare Office of the Ministry of Labour, where a budget and sustainability report is submitted annually for additional governmental funding. The president of the Council is the mayor of Athienou. Every programme has an 11-member Coordinating Committee. The president of the Committee is also a member of the Council. Many of the volunteers provide their expertise for the programmes.

Despite its long standing tradition of volunteerism in the city, the main barrier today is the low engagement of volunteers in the age group between 25 - 45 years old, and to further address the challenge to reach out the whole population especially people most in needs. The main concern of the improvement plan of the city of Atheniou was therefore to update the work of the MCV with actions involving the youths and specific target groups such as people with disabilities, youth and young professional, and parents of toddlers and school age children. As result from the improvement plan adopted in the Volunteering cities network, the municipality adopted the MunicipalYouth Board, which promotes the ownership of actions by the younger population. Social media have been an important tool for improving this action, as much as the collaboration with school teachers, family of students providing manuals and resources on how to engage in volunteering activities. Another important step was to create stronger linkages with the private sector trough social corporate responsibility achieved by branding the good practice of volunteering.

Athienou has greatly invested in transferring its methodology of organising volunteering activities at municipal level. The transferability study highlighted 5 elements of transfer in the governance model,intergenerationality, involvement of young volunteers and corporate citizenship. The overall strategy of the transfer plan is to enhance the volunteerism sustainability cycle as described in the Transfer Network proposal and the Transferability Study:

1. Volunteerism greatly contributes to the increase of the quality of life and the progress of the community.
2. The intergenerational interaction within the volunteering activities guarantees the sustainability of this volunteerism tradition in the communities
3. Bigger engagement and participation of stakeholders increases the effectiveness of the actions and programs that sustain the quality of life and the social evolution.

The methodology has been shared through a guide for transfer resulting from the networks partner cities activities. All cities in the network adopted the Athnieou approach and have been able to launch small scale practices in the lifetime of the network.

Over five years of collaboration, citizens and representatives of the urban government elaborated a holistic strategy for the future urban development of Korneuburg (AT). First, an urban mission statement with common values and goals for sustainable development was formulated. On this basis, the “Masterplan Korneuburg 2036” was developed, comprising more than 100 implementation measures for nine fields of urban life. These are: urban planning, economics, education, mobility, energy, participation and communication, social issues, leisure and quality of living, as well as culture.
Finally, a charter for citizen participation, i.e. an agreement on future collaboration, was elaborated, building the groundwork for long-term collaborative structures and collective action for future urban development. Besides the tangible project outputs, the process contributed considerably to an open and trustful atmosphere and shared responsibility for urban life. The whole process was accompanied by an interdisciplinary team of external experts and scientists.

1. Visionary urban development goals: in close collaboration and in a creative process, citizens, representatives of urban government and external experts developed a common orientation (urban mission statement) for the cities’ future development. It is now binding for future urban decision-making and helped to create a common identity. A broad participatory process ensured a high social and political acceptance of the vision.
2. Long-term strategy for implementation of development goals: it was obvious to everyone involved that the mere elaboration of a common orientation wouldn’t be enough to undergo a meaningful urban transformation process. Thus, specific steps of implementation, based on the formulated development targets, were elaborated. The resulting master plan for future urban development comprises implementation measures for all dimensions of urban life (short-, mid- and long-term measures).
3. Building resilient structures and securing future dynamic development: as the trusting collaboration was a core success factor, a charter for future citizen participation was elaborated. With this, the urban government commits itself to a regulatory framework for long-term urban co-management between the city and its citizens. The centrepiece of the charter is a steering committee that supervises the implementation and dynamic adaption of the master plan and the mission statement as well as long-term citizen participation.

The project started with developing goals for sustainable urban development by illustrating a picture of how the city – being sustainable in all segments of urban life – should look in future. The mission statement and master plan take into account all dimensions of urban life (urban planning, education, mobility, economics, energy, participation and communication, social issues, leisure and quality of living as well as culture), and thus differ from other urban development strategies, which often focus on spatial planning or economic development. They build on a holistic view of urban life, including knowledge of the citizens and also considering the inseparability of issues. While elaborating these development goals and implementation measures, it became obvious that political, environmental, and social conditions may change over time and that it is at least as important to design flexible and adaptive instruments (dynamic documents) as well as learning structures and institutions, which allow for ongoing adaption to changing frameworks. A close collaboration between all urban actors (citizens, civil society, political and administrative representatives) ensured a high quality of the development process, and allowed for a profound learning process among all participants. The agreement to continue this collaboration ensures learning structures for the future. Today, the city is just beginning to take steps towards networking with other cities on the national level.

As this profound urban development process (now ongoing for more than five years) traces back to a citizens’ initiative, the participative approach is a centrepiece of the process. Citizens and municipal actors were equally represented in a steering committee, as well as experts from different disciplines. The quite exhaustive undertaking comprised more than 45 meetings in the steering committee and approximately 50 meetings in sectoral working groups. The more surprising it was, that fluctuation among people involved was quite low. All participants, who voluntarily committed themselves to the project for such a long period, spent by far more time and effort on the project, than their regular obligation would have required. It is more than just a case-related participatory endeavour, but rather laid the foundation for long-term urban co-management. The process can be characterised by a trustful collaboration on eye-level, allowing for creativity and intense social learning processes. With implementing the charter for citizen participation and a long-term steering committee, acting as an advisory board for the city council, the city committed itself to future urban co-management.

The project has developed from a citizen initiative to a broad participatory process, involving all groups of urban actors. It ended in a long-term collaboration agreement between citizens and the municipal government and generated considerable self-reinforcing tendencies over time. Each and every step gave an impetus for further development and for searching ways to consolidate newly evolving ideas and structures. In the mission statement, the vision of a new cooperation culture between citizens and municipal government was identified as a central pillar for future urban governance. Thus, when elaborating the master plan, the issue of participation became a cross-sectional topic considered in implementation measures in all of the nine fields of action. Finally, a collaboration agreement, including rules and quality criteria for future citizen participation (Korneuburger charter of citizen participation), secures the commitment of all parties to share responsibility for future urban development. In all project phases, citizens collaborated on eye-level with representatives of the municipal government in a very open and trustful atmosphere. Although the mayor’s party even increased the overall majority within the local council at the middle of the project, they continue to focus on cooperation and consensus between all political parties and urban actor groups. The process noticeably changed the understanding of how to govern and develop the city towards shared responsibility.

Sustainability and resilience of urban systems heavily depend on the ability of urban actors to interact, deliberate and collaborate as well as to continuously adapt and transform their institutional structures. Allowing for long-term and reliable but flexible and forward-thinking collaboration among citizens, politicians and municipal administration seems necessary to build networks of adaptive capacity. Of course, as each and every city has its own identity, frameworks and prerequisites, we don’t think, that there is a “one fits all” solution, which can be applied for all urban locations. Nevertheless, cities may connect themselves and learn from each other’s experiences. Based on this understanding, the Korneuburg way of urban development might inspire the design of long-term collaboration agreements. It provides knowledge about crucial issues when designing co-management strategies and offers experience in moving beyond traditional forms of case-related citizen participation. Also in terms of holistic strategy-building for urban development (master plan) the city may offer empirical know-how. Experiences with the development of scenarios as a basis for strategy building (guided by scientific experts) may as well be of interest for other cities.

Longford Town and County (IE) faced immense problems associated with a high number of unfinished housing developments – with health and safety risks including unlit streets, unfinished roads and improperly connected sewage. Longford County Council established a dedicated multi-disciplinary team tasked with addressing this issue within the county. The team was delegated powers authorising it to agree with developers on finishes within the development.
This ensured a one-stop shop and a consistent approach across all housing developments. While legal action was sometimes required, the team adopted a collaborative approach at all times, working together to find a solution to resolve the issues. This collaboration included working with developers, receivers, banks and residents of estates whose living conditions were directly affected. The end result was to improve the quality of life for residents and to establish pleasant places where people wish to live, work and visit.

Longford County Council was faced with an immense problem in terms of the scale of the unfinished estates within the administrative area of the municipality and had amongst the highest number of unfinished estates per head of population in the country. The good practice comprised of: • Establishment of a dedicated multi-disciplinary project team, the first such team in the country, comprising; • Ensuring the team had the authority to agree with developers on finishes and certify all works were completed to standards required by Longford County Council; • Establish a list of priorities and updating that regularly; • Obtaining good legal advice - which fed into National Guidance; • Engagement with stakeholders at all levels and at all stages, including developers, receivers, financial institutions and residents, but also the Department of Environment at national level; • Open communication and integrated approach by the Municipality - it was very important to keep all stakeholders informed throughout the process; • Calling in financial securities - using legal means where necessary but adopting a collaborative approach, rather than adversarial where possible; • Establishment of a Strategic Planning Group where needs of the area surpassed physical works.

The problems faced by Longford County Council affected the social, economic and physical environments of the town and county and its inhabitants. The good practice sought to address environmental issues, e.g. sewerage issues, health and safety issues, and making estates that had been deserted and abandoned by developers viable and attractive places to live, thereby protecting the environment and improving the quality of life for residents. The work of the Unfinished Estates team, in addition to the physical works to bring the estate back to a standard fit for purpose, was also to give those residents a voice, to listen to them and take their concerns on board in the development of Site Resolution Plans and to ensure at the end of the process that they had an improved quality of life. The Unfinished Estates team meant that there was a one-stop shop for both developers and residents, ensuring strong communications throughout the process both locally and nationally. Site Resolution Plans were drawn up using an integrated and participative approach, ensuring all voices were heard. The team adopted a collaborative approach when dealing with these. The Elected Members also had an important role in informing the process. The development of a Strategic Working Group in a specific area further ensures integration and a shared response to problems, supporting the many families that experienced problems due to the conditions of their area.

The Longford County Council Unfinished Estates team established a file for each unfinished development it addressed and kept records of all communications, including minutes of meetings, with the various stakeholders involved in the process. This record clearly sets out all the communications, how they were involved in the various stages of developing the Site Resolution Plan, the ongoing work on the site and any arising issues as work progressed. A very positive and public acknowledgement of the participatory approach was evidenced in the judge's comments concerning the case of work at Edgeworthstown; he noted that the town is underpinned by a very committed and astute local group that has an impressive list of achievements. But it was the strategic and collaborative approach adopted that really impressed the judge.

From an environmental and economic point of view, these estates were a blight on the landscape. People living in them lived in constant fear due to health and safety concerns, roads were not finished, public lighting was not installed, sewerage was not properly connected and there were areas of estates that were still building sites, with exposed unfinished developments and open holes presenting serious concerns. All of these priority issues, in terms of health and safety in particular, have been dealt with. These areas, which once were no-go areas in many instances are now attractive places to live and provide a safe environment for people to go about their business. On a social level, it has ensured that estates in which people were living in fear are now good quality places to live. This affects the quality of life of the residents. The team has helped establish residents associations, many of which have continued even after the Local Authority completed work in the area. The authority provides support and a social outlet for residents, many of whom may have been new to an area. Establishing a Strategic Working Group to address issues in Edgeworthstown has had a significant impact on the residents of the town through better integration, improved services and support and an improvement in the infrastructure in the town.

This initiative would be very interesting for many other European cities. There are many cities and towns throughout Europe who have experienced a decline in construction and more abandoned areas, particularly those that suffered most due to the economic crash, e.g. Spain, Portugal and Greece. However, outside those countries there are also many cities where particular areas may have suffered similar problems, albeit not at the scale to which Longford did. Longford County Council's approach to dealing with the issue, identifying priorities - ensuring open communication between all stakeholders at all times, providing a one-stop shop for contact, having the power of decision-making within the team to ensure that matters were dealt with in a timely manner - can be applied to many different examples of unfinished developments across a broad spectrum. It has also been very important to identify areas of particular problems and establish a Strategic Working Group and focus on that area. This clearly illustrates that the team did not solely focus on the physical issues within estates but also looked at the impact on people's lives and how the work they do can improve the quality of life for those people.

Schiedam is situated near Rotterdam, in the Netherlands' most densely populated urban area. With a predominantly low-income population of 78,000, Schiedam decided to promote upward social mobility by improving its housing stock and facilities, encouraging talented, economically successful citizens to stay in the city. 
In 2010 Schiedam seized the opportunity to use the roof of a 2.5 km motorway tunnel to relocate sports facilities and redevelop their former sites. Schiedam was "unlocked" in close cooperation with citizen groups and sports clubs, as well as private companies, to ensure the feasibility of plans produced in the participative process. It also minimised public financial risks and was combined with a smart procurement strategy and room for private initiatives. 
This programme supports social cohesion and inclusion by developing new multifunctional sports facilities while adding 640 sustainable dwellings to facilitate local housing for citizens.

The good practice offers the following solutions:

• Efficient spatial integration of main national infrastructure;
• Substantial mitigation of air pollution and noise compared to the effects achieved by a traditional approach to motorway construction;
• Improved urban green areas that are well connected to the rural areas outside Schiedam by walking and cycling routes;
• Stimulating a healthy, active life style by building new and multi-functional sports facilities with added features like physiotherapy, a childcare centre and a (1,200 pupil) dance school;
• Vital sport clubs organising activities that contribute to social cohesion and inclusion;
• Development of 640 new, all-electric apartments and houses that contribute to a sustainable, differentiated and higher quality housing stock;
• Retaining higher income groups in the city by improving public facilities and housing stock;
• Supporting a local housing career for Schiedam citizens as a contribution to upward social mobility.

Schiedam in Motion is an example of a sustainable and integrated approach to tackling urban challenges, both horizontal and vertical. The approach is horizontally integrated because it covers multiple dimensions of public policy, i.e. sports, public health, social cohesion and inclusion by enabling local housing careers. The vertical integration shows a multilevel governance approach through the interaction between the national, regional and local levels of public administration. The package deal about the building and local integration of the A4 motorway was the result of a 40-year history of deliberation between local, regional and national governments. Since its start in 2010, Schiedam in Motion has interacted closely with public and private stakeholders for their input and commitment to a feasible and sustainable plan and decision-making process. A lean procurement strategy was designed in which transactions with developers were limited to the sale of land. The contracts contained very little detailed and formal requirements about the development itself, other than the general rules of the municipal zoning plan. This proved to be successful in mobilising market creativity and keeping a high pace in the process. With investments, capital and running costs as well as savings for long-term maintenance and renewal, Schiedam in Motion is fully integrated in the municipal budget for the next 30 years.

The evidence of the participatory approach is (among other things) to be found in reports to the city council with recommendations of consultation groups of citizens and sports clubs as a result of several years of periodic meetings with these groups. There are also reports to the city council with advice and propositions from private companies (developers, building companies) about the redevelopment of the former sport sites in an environmentally sustainable way. Early engagement of citizens in the new developments and their production of written reports (recommendations) resulted in adaptations of plans and an effective contribution to the final development. Furthermore, the participation process was provided with the findings of expert groups who advised about the latest trends in sport (how it will be organised, what are the consequences for new accommodation).

Schiedam is a member of Eurotowns, the European network for medium-sized cities. We realise that this practice addresses issues that many European medium-sized cities face:

• How to optimise the use of limited space in densely populated urban areas;
• How to combine public health demands (air pollution, noise) with spatial development tasks and ambitions like the integration of large (national) infrastructure;
• How to engage citizens and other stakeholders in an early stage of development, thereby ensuring commitment to new developments and mobilising their ideas and creativity for the continuity of the process, as well as the quality of the final plans;
• How to facilitate social cohesion and inclusion and use investments in sports, housing, public health and green recreational areas as a means to do so. In March 2017, Hastings Borough Council (UK) visited Schiedam to learn from the Schiedam in Motion experience. They proved the transferability of the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mo5NGo9D8k

Schiedam is a member of Eurotowns, the European network for medium-sized cities. We realise that this practice addresses issues that many European medium-sized cities face:

• How to optimise the use of limited space in densely populated urban areas;
• How to combine public health demands (air pollution, noise) with spatial development tasks and ambitions like the integration of large (national) infrastructure;
• How to engage citizens and other stakeholders in an early stage of development, thereby ensuring commitment to new developments and mobilising their ideas and creativity for the continuity of the process, as well as the quality of the final plans;
• How to facilitate social cohesion and inclusion and use investments in sports, housing, public health and green recreational areas as a means to do so. In March 2017, Hastings Borough Council (UK) visited Schiedam to learn from the Schiedam in Motion experience. They proved the transferability of the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mo5NGo9D8k

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).

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. .