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The Power of Investment in Small Cities: Keeping Residents and Attracting New Talent

Small cities across Europe are at a crossroads. Many are seeing young people leave for larger urban centers, chasing better job opportunities and lifestyles. This phenomenon, known as urban shrinkage, threatens the vitality of these communities. Investments create new job opportunities, support local businesses, and improve the quality of life. When people see their city as a place with potential, they’re more likely to stay—and others are more likely to move in. Attracting investments into small cities is a huge challenge. How to attract investors? Where to find them? What should we offer? How to distinct good investments from the bad ones. And what does it even mean? 

Municipality of Vratsa organized the third ULG meeting under the "BiodiverCity" project

On 11.11.2024, the third meeting of the URBACT local group was held in the Municipality of Vratsa within "BiodiverCity: Communitybased approaches to foster urban biodiversity" project. The purpose of the meeting was the joint planning of the upcoming activities that should be implemented on local level within the project. Some of these activities include the organization of URBACT festival, as well as small-scale pilot actions, such as afforestation in the neighborhoods of the city of Vratsa and the planting of a forest using the Miyawaki method.

URBACT Campus Deutschland: Auf dem Weg zur Umsetzung der Integrierten Handlungskonzepte

Wo stehen die aktuellen URBACT-Städte der Aktionaplanungsnetzwerke mit ihren Integrierten Handlungskonzepten (Integrated Action Plan, IAP)? Wie können sie ihre Maßnahmen weiter ausdefinieren und verfeinern? Und schließlich: Wie können sie den Integrated Action Plan umsetzen, finanzieren und dabei alle relevanten Akteure einbeziehen? Mit diesen Fragen beschäftigten wir uns beim Nationalen URBACT Campus vom 14. bis zum 15. November 2024 in Leipzig. 

Šibenik’s Green Agenda: Driving Climate Literacy Through URBACT Collaboration

How green is your IAP? These days, when the development of the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) is in full swing, most of the URBACT IV networks face the same challenge. We all know that, to be sustainable, our IAP must be “green”. But what that means in real life? Why is that important? How can we convince our ULG partners to give up some simpler and cheaper project ideas and follow the harder path? All thes questions were tackled on URBACT Croatian national campus, held in Zagreb, 24th and 25th of October. Climate literacy workshops have become a kind of standard today. But just few years ago, it wasn't a case. Here is the story from Šibenik. 

Teenagers and the City: How Youth Shape Public Spaces through Creativity, Sports, and Social Connection

Public spaces hold a unique value for teenagers, offering a stage for recreation, cultural expression, and social interaction. Across various studies, these spaces have been shown to play a significant role in the mental, social, and physical development of adolescents. Teenagers often engage with public areas like parks, squares, and even neglected or abandoned spaces in ways that differ from adults, repurposing them as places to express their identity, engage in physical activities, and cultivate peer relationships. This article explores how teenagers use these spaces, how they shape urban aesthetics, and why policymakers need to adopt a more passive approach to observing their behaviors.

Street Sport and Tourism: A Path to Urban Regeneration and Youth-Centered Travel

Street sports such as skateboarding, 3x3 basketball, breakdancing, and rollerblading are increasingly becoming a driving force for urban regeneration. These activities are transforming underutilized urban spaces into vibrant social and cultural hubs, fostering local community engagement and attracting a new kind of tourism. This fusion of street sport and tourism is creating unexpected tourist flows to lesser-known cities and "unusual places," places that would not typically be considered tourist hotspots.