URBinclusion 4th Thematic Seminar in Trikala

The meeting took place at the “Tsitsanis Museum and Research Center” of Trikala and the participant cities were introduced to the local context of social economy, through the presence of social enterprises with both local and national impact (such as “Sociality”, “Dioratikotita”, “Institute of Entrepreneurial Development”, “CommonSpace”, “ANKA Development Agency SA”). In addition, special notice was given to the relationship of the URBinclusion main strategic challenges (1. Integrated approach, 2. Participation (involving stakeholders), 3. Monitoring and evaluation, 4. Financial innovation and 5. From strategy to implementation) and the local context in Trikala, both on the social economy perspective, as well as from the ROMA integration’s point of view.

At the second part of the seminar the discussion moved further to the project’s Final Conference planned in Barcelona, Spain on the 27th and 28th of March 2019 and more specifically at the recommendations the politicians/cities’ representatives will address to the different actors and involved entities on the project’s main topic (urban deprived areas, urban regeneration and social inclusion). The project’s two Lead Experts (Anamarie Vrabie and Lorenzo Tripodi) agreed to proceed with the drafting of the recommendations paper (called “Manifesto”) in collaboration with all partners in order to be agreed and published during the Final Conference and the relevant politicians’ workshop. In addition, further discussion took place among URBinclusion partners with regards to the specific project deliverables such as the Operational Implementation Framework (OIF) and the videos from each city to demonstrate their case example, while the city of Barcelona had the chance to present theirs ones in order to get initial feedbacks.

In terms of on-site visits, the Trikala local team guided the partners to locations such as the ‘’Trikala Social Cooperative’’, they visited as well the target area via a city tour by “Polis” social enterprise, while at the end of the meeting, all participants, underlined the importance of the partnership and the exchange of knowledge and experience, even though each city has a different challenge to face and a different problem to solve. For this reason, it was agreed the importance of the network of cities to continue collaborating closely even after the end of URBinclusion project.

The 4th URBinclusion thematic seminar was dedicated to our Fernando Barreiro, the spiritual key expert of the Network who passed away.