Description
The project “Participation - another step forward!" aims at strengthening social dialogue between local governments and inhabitants in 8 municipalities in Małopolska (rural areas and small towns), with the support form the Foundation of Active Places and People and in cooperation with the Norwegian partner. The dialogue will be conducted in 5 fields: introduction of civic budget, developing the brand of the place, management of marketplaces, creating tourist offer and cultural and leisure offer for inhabitants (14 participation processes covering 6 stages: planning, informing inhabitants, diagnosing the needs, participatory workshops, consulting the projects, announcing results). A system of mutual support and exchange of experiences will also be created. In the project, the portal www.wspoldecydujemy.pl will be used - a modern tool to conduct online consultations. The results of the project will be disseminated throughout Poland through a publication and a nationwide conference.
Summary of project results
"The Foundation of Active Places and People initiated the project, having in mind that in small towns and in rural areas, the access to up-to-date methods of social consultations is often limited - they lack the knowledge and specialists in using workshop and Internet tools. The main aim of the project was to strengthen the social dialogue in eight municipalities in Małopolska: Michałowice, Ryglice, Maków Podhalański, Zawoja, Miasto Jordanów, Sucha Beskidzka, Miechów and Kęty, in cooperation with the Norwegian partner (Nordic Institute of Training and International Networking). As a result of the the project, municipal officers together with local inhabitants defined the most important local problems, identified strengths and assets of their localities, and then developed the best solutions. In many cases, it was inhabitants themselves who took the matters into their own hands and became more active citizens of their ""small fatherlands"". In all, 13 participation processes were conducted consisting of six stages: planning, informing inhabitants, diagnosing needs, participatory workshops, consulting the developed projects, announcing results. 24 meetings and worshops gathered about 450 persons, 5 civic budgets were implemented, 8 questionnaire surveys were conducted, 9 thematic teams were started with participation of local inhabitants, and 8 documents summarising the decisions taken were prepared. The dialogue was conducted in five areas: implementation of civic budgets (5 municipalities), developing a brand of the place (2), management of marketplaces (1), developing tourist offer (2) and cultural and recereational offer for local inhabitants (3). In addition, the portal
www.wspoldecydujemy.pl was expanded, as an up-to-date tool for online consultations. Experiences from the project were publicised throughout Poland by a publication and a conference, both titled ""Participation - a jump in local development"". An important role was played by the partners of the project - municipal offices from Małopolska leading activities in their areas (information, inviting to dialogue, project promotion etc.) and the Norwegian partner NiTiN that offered many inspirations, ideas and experiences."
Summary of bilateral results
The bilateral partnership contributed to the project because its participants (MiLA Foundation team and civil servants from local communes involved in participatory actions within the project) had an opportunity to gather information and exchange experiences with Norwegian partners. This gave them new inspiration for their own participatory actions, new ideas and new contacts for future projects. The study visit organised within the bilateral partnership project showed the participants Norwegian experiences in such fields as creating and animating youth councils, creating projects of public spaces adjusted to local needs, fostering local entrepreneurship, involving inhabitants in organising a cultural programme and different events in a library or other cultural institutions etc. Thanks to this exchange 3 new Polish-Norwegian projects have been submitted to EU Erasmus+ programme (two in cooperation with the project leader – MiLA Foundation and the other with Ryglice - one of the municipalities participating in the study visit). According to the evaluation poll realised among the project participants (civil cervants and MiLA Foundation team), the study visit was assessed as very valuable and giving lots of inspiration for new participatory actions.