Networks and cities' news

THESSALONIKI HOSTS TWO WORKSHOPS FOR CHILDREN ON HOW TO CREATE URBAN GARDENS

The children of Thessaloniki participated in two workshops organized by Kedith, the agency for the city of Thessaloniki involved in the implementation of RU:RBAN in the Greek city, on the 26th of April and on the 12th May. Both workshops were coordinated by Mrs Argiro Skitsa, teacher and training expert.

A Tale of Two Cities. Transfer Stories from East and West.

Two German cities are currently lead partners in the 23 URBACT Transfer Networks. Altena in North Rhine-Westphalia and Chemnitz in Saxony. Altena shared its best practices on how to develop sustainable initiatives with a minimum of external resource input in the Re-growCity network. Chemnitz shared its good practice of activating vacant buildings in need of refurbishment in the ALT/BAU Network.

Both cities were forced to develop methods to lessen the impact of the severe population loss. Chemnitz, in the east, lost about 25% of its population after German reunification until 2005, most of whom migrated to the west to find employment.  Altena, in the west, has been losing residents since the 1970s. Between 1990 and 2009, the city was subject to a 15% population decline, making it the municipality with the fastest population decline in NRW. How did the two cities experience the transfer process in the URBACT networks over the past two and a half years? Volker Tzschucke, ULG member in Chemnitz reports about both cities.

“Rumourless Cities”, a communication project for diversity and integration – the challenge in the city

Amadora has assumed a strategy of building channels of knowledge and communication within it’s special multicultural context that includes citizens represented by 104 nationalities. Amadora today, draws its identity from the value its ethnic, cultural and social diversity. It is a city that rewrites itself through the resilience of different stories of migration. 

Using action-research methodology, problems were diagnosed and discriminatory content about migrants in the city of Amadora were identified: “did you know that...” outlined a new communication alignment to integration, proximity to its residents, access to opportunities, restoring the truth and valuing the role of the migrant at the economic, social, educational and judicial level for the construction and development of the city.

The implementation of the campaign “Do not Feed the Rumour” integrated in the joint EU/Council of Europe project “Communication for Integration: Social Networks for Diversity (C4I)”, involved a wide local social network.  

The campaign was selected by the URBACT Programme as “good practice” and was subsequently selected as one of 23 networks for the transfer of good practice. Thus, the Rumourless Cities Network (RC) was created, led by the municipality of Amadora and involving five other European cities: Alba Iulia (Romania), Cardiff (United Kingdom), Hamburg - Altona (Germany), Messina (Italy) and Warsaw (Poland).

Cardiff Council – COVID-19 Response

URBinclusion is a project funded by the EU URBACT programme and it is focused on the cocreation of new implementation solutions to reduce poverty in deprived urban areas. Integrated strategies addressing social inclusion will be implemented by the nine partners cities composing the network. This is the network's first newsletter that contains a description of the URBinclusion project, the partner cities as well as past and future steps.

Incubating commons: Gdansk Transfer Story

The main challenge for Gdansk is the execution of inhabitants' rights to the city related to common management of public spaces and local democracy. On one hand, there are a lot of active citizens who get involved in the policy, decision-making processes… but on the other hand, the administrators and citizens are not used to the concept and practice of commoning and co-governance of public spaces. The particular interest seems to impact the common good. The implementation of principles of self-management, cooperation and mutualism, and strengthening individual and collective responsibility makes a big challenge but is also a chance for positive social change.

A transfer story going viral. Bringing the good practice to the sub-urbs and urban green spaces

When 2020 came we felt we were ready and could set about creating our community festival, highlighting the built environment of the neighbourhoods, its character and stories and introducing the radio station and its potential as a social and cultural space the people could claim as their own. Then the Covid-19 arrived. As the society around us came to a halt we wanted a new digital approach to dealing with community and a way to highlight the built heritage.