The Lisbon (PT) Local Development Strategy for Priority Intervention areas provides the city with a range of integrated toolboxes based on a co-governance process.

It organises and brings together a bottom-up participatory perspective that ensures a horizontal and collaborative local approach, to decrease and mitigate social, economic, environmental and urban exclusion and enhance social territorial cohesion. The tools used vary from neighbourhood mapping, a Local Partnerships Programme funding local projects to a bottom-up co-governance model to promote employment, education and social-territorial cohesion. The results were visible at municipality and community levels. 

Between 2011 and 2020 there have been approx. 1100 applications submitted with 392 approved projects selected by an independent panel and more than 600 partners involved. The toolkit helped Lisbon establish its own path, roadmap and goals, and set the civic participation and co-governance as a benchmark to ignite a sustainable Urban Local Development.

This good practice shows a co-construction of policies and strategies, concerning social and territorial cohesion and sustainable urban living, through a participative framework involving the community, sharing with the stakeholders the decisions, commitment and accountability in the implementation of BIP/ZIP Local Development Strategy.

The first tool, BIP/ZIP Mapping, identifies the Priority Intervention Territories of the city, according to the overlapping of Social, Economic, Urban and Environmental deprivation indexes that express the fracture of the city.

The second tool, BIP/ZIP Programme, funds and ignites local community projects aimed to respond to local needs, promoting local organisations partnerships and empowering population to a sustainable urban development.

The third tool, GABIP local offices, develops a co-governance framework involving Municipality, Local Boroughs and all relevant stakeholders and citizens organisations. They promote an articulated response among the political, administrative and technical dimensions with local organisations and community.

The fourth tool, a Collaborative Platform for Community-Led Local Development (CLLD), is a bottom-up co-governance network that develops a global strategy to BIP/ZIP territories and promotes experience, sharing to enhance local partners’ skills.

These integrated tools impact citizens’ participation in tangible local development, offering a holistic approach that covers social, economic, urban and environmental dimensions.

This good practice tackles urban challenges through participative diagnosis processes that identify social and territorial needs in order to eradicate poverty, social exclusion, unemployment and environmental problems.
BIP/ZIP strategy empowers the community to develop an integrated intervention through a bottom-up co-governance model that assures sustainable actions in deprived territories.

This approach is sustained by meaningful actions, assuring that these initiatives promote change with real impacts in the community. This strategy is designed to accommodate the different capability and maturity levels of each community. It is action and results’ oriented, so it can be flexible and adaptable to different realities and experiences. This flexibility is the key to actions and partnerships sustainability.

Other evidence of the sustainability and horizontal integration was the creation in the Municipality of the Local Development Department in 2015, which means the recognition of the local development in BIP/ZIP territories.
Another key factor to achieve a sustainable challenge is the inclusion of local communities and their stakeholders in all BIP/ZIP local development approach. 

This means that when the community is involved in all parts of the process (thinking, decision making, implementation, and monitoring of results), it multiplies the sustainability of the action.

The BIP/ZIP Mapping was submitted to a public consultation to receive civil society, academy and Local Borough contributions on the identified deprived territories. This public consultation had more citizens participation than the equivalent public consultation of the Lisbon Master plan revision.
The BIP/ZIP Program supports activities and projects in BIP/ZIP neighbourhoods, and it’s one of the most participative processes of the city. This Program ignites local initiative, developed in partnership with Local Boroughs, local associations and NGOs, aimed at fostering social and territorial cohesion in Lisbon. In the ten editions of the Program (2020) a total of 392 projects have been approved, gathering 647 entities (214 promotors and 433 partners). These projects generated a total of 2 436 activities developed in BIP/ZIP territories, impacting an average of approximately 107 400 inhabitants each year.
Each annual edition of the Program is presented in a capacity building workshop to share experiences and good practices of previous editions that may be adopted by new candidates and applied in other BIP/ZIP territories.
These workshops have been attended, each year, by an average of 180 associations.
The GABIP local offices gather approx. 20 inhabitants’ associations, 10 of the 24 Local Boroughs and other relevant local actors in the co-governance structures. The development of these projects and initiatives is always promoted by local stakeholders, the community and the Municipality in Co-Governance.

Between 2011 and 2020, with a total fund of €15,802,212, a total of 392 projects were approved, gathering 647 entities that participated both in the execution and sustainability phases. These projects generated a total of 2 436 activities developed in BIP/ZIP territories, impacting an average of approximately 107 400 inhabitants each year.
The impact is felt on two levels. At the Municipality level, we underline:

• Greater cooperation between decision makers and local stakeholders/partners;
• Greater incorporation of local participation as a model for integrated municipal response;
• A political consensus on the BIP/ZIP concept, methodology and results;
• The creation of a new municipal department fully dedicated to Local Development.

At the Community Level, we underline:

• More transparency and confidence in the public decision-making process;
• More confidence in the municipality;
• Increased interest in volunteerism and active participation;
• Increased local partnerships / networks / cooperation to meet the own challenges;
• Increased local organisation capability to promote initiative/response/change;
• More efficient management of available resources (financial and non-financial);
• A process of co-responsibility, with an extremely high level of appropriation and sense of belonging to the initiatives and results;
• A mutual process (local administration/community) of accountability of the results;
• A high rate of success measured through effectiveness and sustainability of the initiatives and actions.

After being awarded the URBACT Good Practice title, Lisbon was able to create the Com.Unity.Lab Transfer Network to which seven European cities (Bari Italy, Aalborg Denmark, Sofia Bulgaria, Ostrava Czech Republic, Lublin Poland, The Hague Netherlands, Lille Metropole France) were invited which were similarly facing the challenge of dealing with the problems in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. 

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 Lisbon and contributed to the improvement of the Good Practice in the way described above.

In the course of the TN project also the original Good Practice is further improved. Regarding Mapping: a new framework is under development, based on the 2021 census, introducing an Urban Quality of Life Index, testing dynamic monitoring indicators, validating new indicators (COVID and post-pandemic). The map will be an online interactive map, it will show data from the entire city and not only the priority neighbourhoods.

Regarding Grants: the ambition in the coming year is to setup an upscaling version of the grant, which will help to develop the replication of positive projects in new neighbourhoods. Special attention will be paid to ensure that not always the same organisations access the grants as they have reached a higher level of professionalisation. 

There is a thinking going on regarding the co-funding quota which is extremely relevant to define the commitment, involvement and responsibilities of local partners. Whilst 100% funding is relevant for more cultural activities with no business model, a co-financing from local stakeholders can be a means to ensure the economic feasibility of entrepreneurial projects. Nevertheless the co-funding quota must take into consideration the fact that the business is taking place in a priority neighbourhood.

The City of Chemnitz has been affected in different ways by demographic and economic change in the past decades. Vacancies can be found to different extents all over the city and amount to more than 22,000 flats (14 % of the housing stock). Among the most severely affected are the tenement buildings from the industrial era which are mostly privately owned. 
The Agentur StadtWohnen in Chemnitz (DE) offers solutions to the problem of decaying historic apartment buildings abandoned after the 90s. The Agency is a public project carried out by a private company that offers a flexible and proactive approach. By acting as a networking hub, the Agency connects owners, potential investors or users and public authorities for the revitalisation of the historic housing stock of the city. Positive effects are the activation of owners or the change of ownership and the channelling of public grants to places where they can be used most effectively. So far, more than 140 buildings were monitored, for 50 a change of ownership was organised and 40 are currently available for investment projects. 

To further improve the activities of the Agency a survey has been carried out with previous and present owners who cooperated with the Agency. Further sources of improvement ideas are thematic workshops, peer-review sessions, using the outcomes of the ALT/BAU Transfer Network, especially from Transnational Exchange and Learning Activities.
 

Agentur StadtWohnen Chemnitz fills the gap between the different stakeholders that are relevant for the revitalisation of historic apartment buildings in Chemnitz’ wider inner city area. Being initiated and funded by the city’s public authorities, the project is carried out by a long-standing private partner and has the means to act in the public interest as defined by the public procedures and interests of the city. With the assignment to deal specifically with historic and often listed buildings that have been unused for the past decades and are in different states of disrepair, the project acts where the regular real estate market is limited. It takes on a pro-active approach to activate owners towards a development of their property, often through connecting them with potential investors and users that have the means and the know-how to find sustainable solutions. The approach can be broken down into six key topics/steps: 1. Setting up a body/institution responsible to support the reactivation of vacant/derelict buildings and flats 2. Inventory and monitoring of vacant/derelict buildings and flats 3. Publication and marketing of vacant/derelict buildings and flats 4. Contacting, activating and supporting owners 5. Identifying, contacting and supporting potential buyers and investors 6. Connecting and coordinating public and private stakeholders.

The project helps to mitigate effects of urban processes that are unsustainable. By strengthening Chemnitz’ inner city through the concentration and support of developments in the existing central neighbourhoods, the urban structures are valorised. This way, the reuse of historic housing stock helps to save resources instead of promoting suburban sprawl. Dense and mixed-use urban structures reduce distances and encourage alternative means of transport. What is more, the successful outcomes of the project help to preserve the intrinsic qualities of those quarters and help to overcome the negative image of neighbourhoods such as the Sonnenberg. The provision with moderately priced and appropriately equipped housing for families, elderly people or marginalised population groups strengthens social coherence and reduces the ground for conflicts of different sorts.

The scope of the project is to activate owners, private and public stakeholders to save, restore and reanimate buildings. It can be described as a networking hub between persons, groups and authorities that have an interest in this goal. Starting and keeping communication going around the objects is the core of the project’s activities. The agency is the only instance that connects the threads from all different sides: • the relevant departments in the city government (e.g. urban planning, fund management, building control, preservation, finance and tax, public relations), • the different owner constellations (private owners or ownership groups of different sizes and local/national /international backgrounds, public housing company, unappropriated), • the potential investors and users (professional real estate developers, grass-roots housing initiatives), • additional stakeholders in the neighbourhoods and civil society.

The Agentur has become the central collector and distributor of information on the buildings through continuing communication with official partners from different segments of urban government and the informal, pro-active approach to the owners, local initiatives and players in the real estate market. While the city government has been able to achieve many of its goals, there is also room for improvement concerning the objectives, especially in light of a changing real estate market and migration patterns in the city and the dawning of gentrification processes known from other cities in Germany. Although Chemnitz has become interesting to investors and developers from outside the city, investments in the housing market or the field of rehabilitation of historic buildings and flats from local companies and citizens are still rare and the owner-occupier ratio is comparatively low. Thus, there is only limited involvement in the cultural and social aspects of housing and neighbourhood development. On the other hand, the share of local investors and users from Chemnitz is increased. Their investments in the rehabilitation of Chemnitz’s historic building stock has safeguarded important cultural heritage and attractive living space. Their engagement has promoted activities for the benefit of the neighbourhoods in a more sustainable way. From this it follows that the target of the agency should be reconsidered. In the context of a changing real estate market in Chemnitz, the agency should support investors from Chemnitz, self-users and housing projects as future owners and investors. To achieve that, improved public relations are needed to raise awareness and communicate the tasks, strategies and services of the agency to stakeholders (owners, investors, administration) and the public. This should generate a better understanding and cooperation among the stakeholders. In the future efforts will be taken to adapt consulting services to “new” target groups, e.g. collaborative forms of housing and sheltered/inclusive housing forms through social institutions. The activities of the consulting service will be extended by relevant basic information about available subsidy consultancy and administration. The targets of the future work of the agency (e.g. housing projects, empty plots, single flats etc.) will depend on the allocation financial resources, with reference to the corona-related austerity. More use of GIS use could improve the services of the agency and the management of buildings, plots and related services in the administration.

A strong demographic decline and thus numerous vacancies in the old neighbourhoods are typical for former industrial hubs and towns distant from the economic centres in their countries. The lack of communication between the public authorities, often unavailable or unable owners, and the very diverse group of potential investors and users, is a problem that is visible to different extents in almost any city. The ALT/BAU Transfer Network focused on alternative strategies in central and historic districts of European cities to activate unused and decaying housing stock resulting from demographic, economic and social change. Based on the experiences from Chemnitz’ URBACT Good Practice “Housing Agency for Shrinking Cities” (Agentur StadtWohnen Chemnitz), the network transferred experiences that proved successful to proactively connect administrations, owners, investors and users to initiate sustainable and resource saving development. Under the leadership of Chemnitz the following partner cities were involved in the ALT/BAU Transfer Network: Riga Latvia, Constanta Romania, Vilafranca del Penedes Spain, Turin Italy, Seraing Belgium, Rybnik Poland.

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.