Description
The project's aim is to initiate cooperation between the municipal authorities of Stary Sącz and its citizens in planning local investments. 22 meetings between town authorities and its inhabitants will be organised, and a consultation portal will be created to present proposals for investments financed through participatory budgeting. Also trainings will be conducted for people digitally excluded and for local administration workers, enabling them to participate in communication between the authorities and inhabitants on planned local investments. The project is innovative on the regional scale, combining new ways of communicating with local government, digital education, and participation in municipal management - it is a unique activity in the southern region of Małopolska. A report on the project will be presented during the nationwide conference Cities on the Internet. Localisation: Stary Sącz. Local inhabitants are the recipients of the project. Municipal authorities od Stary Sącz are the partner of a project, they will help organise the meetings and promote the project's activities among inhabitants.
Summary of project results
"Inhabitants of the municipality of Nowy Sącz for long have voiced the need to implement civic budget (BO) that would let them directly influence decisions on the development of the municipality. The local community is active (during local elections the turnout exceeds 50%), and local community meetings gather at least 100 persons in every locality. But public consultations often require participants to come personally to a specific place on a specific time, which hampers broader participation of inhabitants. The aim of the project was to show during the 2nd edition of BO that the Internet is a perfect tool to activate citizens and to build social capital in view of the fact that it gives broad access to information and opportunities to present opinions and initiate activities, and that it can serve as a medium to conduct constructive dialogue between citizens and authorities. The platform for BO implemented under the project is the only one in Poland and enables its users to fully transactionally present drafts that are fully available online and discussed by inhabitants with the help of a moderator. During voting, personal data are automatically verified, and the results of voting are presented in real time. During both editions, 77 proposals were presented, and the turnout was 49 and 31%. A platform for BO was launched that served to present 77 drafts which were voted by 15 000 persons. 38 employees of municipal office were trained, meetings with inhabitants were organised and gathered approx. 1500 persons, 145 digitally excluded persons were trained, one publication was prepared. Under the project, a promotional campaign was conducted, as a result of which every household received information on civic budget; 24 advertisements were published, over 50 press articles were written, 5 radio programs were broadcast and 1 TV relation was presented. In addition, at the end of the project a system for electronic petitions was introduced. Beneficiaries of the project were inhabitants of the municipality of Stary Sącz. The partner of the project was the municipality of Stary Sącz. We also cooperated with local volunteers - lamplighters for digital Poland who trained digitally excluded persons."
Summary of bilateral results