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Description
1) Opoczno is unique in rich ceramic industry traditions, and lavish and distinctive folk culture.The following have been identified as the town’s major current issues:- Poor local entrepreneurship and innovation levels,- Demographic problems, chiefly involving young people’s migration to large cities,- Poor condition of the natural environment, inferior air quality is a particularly significant problem,- Poor public space quality,- Restricted openness and accessibility of public administration structures.
2)The main activities of the projet:Stimulating entrepreneurship and proposing development perspectives for the young,Implementing innovative activities based on circular economy principles with intent to develop competitive advantages for the town of Opoczno, Activities to boost energy and a sense of identity among local residents: a recognizable globally local town with a strong, locally grounded brand – forming an Opoczno Regional Culture Centre – “Res Opocznensis” / Launching a “RES OPOCZNENSIS” Programme to Develop and Promote the Culture of Opoczno.
3) The goal of the project is to open Opoczno up to 21st-century challenges by:
- Supporting the development of entrepreneurship, especially in the young and professionally inactive community
- Improving the condition of and caring for the natural environment
- Stimulating social activity and social participation, and integrating the local community while boosting its identity.
4) Partnership will bring to our project the exchange of experience and know-how in:
- areas of supporting and developing young entrepreneurship and engaging in collaboration with local government and business partners.
- building durable, universal and multi-sectoral partnerships and good practices in the strategic planning of sustainable municipal development.
- developing intergenerational bonds and methods of disseminating tradition, especially in the young community, alongside efforts to build local identity.
Summary of project results
Social problems
KEY PROBLEM: Unfavourable demographic and social trends
- Decrease in the number of inhabitants;
- Migration of young people;
- Low level of social and cultural services;
- Low level of social activity;
- Lack of social dialogue;
- Lack of clear identification and attachment of the inhabitants to the city.
Economic problems
KEY PROBLEM: Declining attractiveness of Opoczno as a place to work and do business
- A declining proportion of young people running businesses;
- Lack of sufficient knowledge and experience to run a business from scratch;
- Declining levels of business innovation and diversity;
- Declining availability of human capital: employees, high turnover, lack of stability;
- Low level of identification of entrepreneurs with Opoczno.
Spatial problems
KEY PROBLEM: Inconsistent, non-functional public spaces of poor quality with limited accessibility for different user groups
- lack of effective strategic and long-term planning of urban spaces;
- Low level of public activation in the area of urban space development;
- Insignificant participation of public consultation in spatial planning;
- Low involvement of residents in participatory processes;
- Unattractive, non-functional and poorly developed city spaces; 6.
- Low level of aesthetic and functional attractiveness of the city;
- Lack of use of spatial potential resulting from historical and natural heritage; 8;
- Problem of accessibility of the city space for all users (including the disabled and seniors);
- Lack of sufficient greenery in public spaces.
Environmental problems
KEY PROBLEM: Poor quality of life and ecological safety in Opoczno
- Poor air quality
- Poor quality of public space related to natural capital;
- Poor water quality, poor ecological condition and lack of access to the rivers Drzewiczka and Wąglanka;
- low quality of public services;
- Low level of knowledge about environmental challenges and the circular economy.
The project aimed to address all of these challenges by fostering greater public engagement, modernising city services, enhancing economic opportunities, improving environmental quality, and strengthening administrative processes.
‘Opoczno 2.0 - a new opening: Opoczno - an ecologically safe regional centre for entrepreneurship with a recognisable brand and a strong sense of local identity of the residents’ project rolled out a variety of activities across different areas.
For Opoczno, participation in the Local Development Program was a chance to take a fresh look at the city''s potential and spur it into action, in line with defined needs, as well as the most important challenges - which undoubtedly include:
- the necessity of taking actions to ensure a good living
- environment in the face of advancing climate change
- ensuring stable economic growth,
- reaction to unfavorable demographic trends.
The project implemented measures to stimulate entrepreneurship in the municipality, especially among young residents:
A key element of the city''s development was to provide young people with the prospect of a high quality of life in the city and to open up opportunities to build their careers in the city. Programmes of entrepreneurship and creativity workshops for young people and mentoring workshops were implemented, as well as competitions for new business ideas among young people.
The municipality set up a Public Business Council at the Mayor of Opoczno, whose collaboration with the local government allows them to create policies together for the economic development of the region.
The Urban Circular Economy Laboratory OPO LAB was a project aimed at developing an action plan for the city of Opoczno, which will integrate Opoczno into the trend of cities actively seeking solutions to the challenges of the 21st century, primarily in terms of adapting to climate change, efficient and resident-friendly use of public spaces, and the protection and rational use of resources. The action plan developed within the project aims to facilitate the acquisition of partnerships necessary to secure funding for the utilization of identified endogenic potentials, the improvement of environmental quality, or the optimization of the city''s investment processes and public service delivery.
One of the main resources of Opoczno, identified in the process of developing the Local Development Program, is cultural heritage and social capital in the form of folk artists and traditional musicians.
The sense of regional identity has a significant impact on strengthening the potential arising from this area. Folklore and folk heritage understood in a broad sense, encompassing many resources, provide significant developmental opportunities related to building the Opoczno brand recognition on a large scale.
Thanks to the Norwegian Financial Mechanism funds, a comprehensive program for promoting Opoczno''s folk heritage was implemented as part of the Opoczno 2.0 project. In its implementation, in addition to the Opoczno Commune, four national partners were involved: the T. Sygietyński Municipal Cultural Center in Opoczno, the Stefan Janas Public Library in Opoczno, the Regional Museum in Opoczno, the WYGramy Opoczno Association, and the Norwegian project partner, Sunnfjord Municipality.
Project results:
- -Stimulating entrepreneurship and offering development prospects for young people.
Key elements of municipal development include providing young people with prospects for a high quality of local life and opportunities for local career development. Delivered:
- An entrepreneurship development strategy was developed
- A Public Business Council was established as part of the administrative structure reporting directly to the Mayor of Opoczno,
- within an administrative structure directly reporting to the Mayor of Opoczno,
- Designed and conducted workshops on entrepreneurship and creativity workshops for young people,
- A mentoring program for future business leaders was designed and implemented,
- competition for innovative start-ups was developed and implemented.
- „Miscellaneous market”
This responds to the challenge of creating high quality, accessible public spaces and also of introducing as much landscaped greenery as possible into these spaces. The area also responds to the challenges of: improving the state of the environment and the city''s ability to adapt to climate change, improving transport accessibility and creating a coherent system of internal and external transport links, Developing and making appropriate use of cultural potential, Exploiting the tradition of ceramic production, Strengthening Opoczno as the centre of a functional area.
Construction of a multifunctional area of urban space making use of Opoczno''s natural resources - location in the basins of the Drzewiczka and Wąglanka rivers.
The created high-quality public space fulfils recreational, leisure, educational and natural functions. In an area of more than 2 hectares, playgrounds, recreation areas, walking boulevards and bicycle paths were created, as well as areas for social and educational events.
Implementation of innovative activities based on the principles of a circular economy with a view to developing competitive advantages for the city of Opoczno
As part of this series of projects, we addressed specific challenges related to the principles of a circular economy for cities, with particular emphasis on zero waste strategies. This involved designing partnership initiatives around issues important to the city, such as air quality, quality of public space, improving energy efficiency in all urban areas, public transport and the position and place of Opoczno among Polish urban centers. We delivered:
- Regular expert forums were organized to discover good practices in construction based on the circular economy,
Partnership initiatives related to problem areas for the city were designed and implemented, such as: air quality, quality of public space, improvement of energy efficiency in the commune, public transport, Opoczno''s place among Polish urban centers and other challenges appropriately diagnosed in the partnership formula
Expert thematic workshops on implementing a circular economy in the Opoczno municipality, attended by employees of the Opoczno City Hall, employees of municipal companies, project partners: representatives of the Sunnfjord municipality, representatives of entrepreneurs, including the Social Business Council under the Mayor of Opoczno, representatives of the cooperating City of Tomaszów Mazowiecki, representatives of the national partner municipalities of the OPOCZNO 2.0 project, and representatives of the University of Łódź.
As part of the project, the following were implemented:
- embroidery, weaving, ritual art, dialect, and tradition workshops music and handicraft workshops – in which participants became acquainted with the handicraft creations of Opoczno folk artists.
- vocal workshops, which were attended by all age groups.
- interest group activities related to the cultivation of folk culture in the form of permanent groups.
- organization of regional education lessons in kindergartens in the form of interest groups –
- The Opoczno Commune organized study trips for members of the Rural Housewives'' Circles and folk artists to other cultural regions in Poland o learn about and exchange experiences in the field of cultural heritage, community activities, and forms and methods of preserving cultural heritage.
Two editions of the Opoczno International Folklore Festival 2022 and 2023 were held as part of the project.
The event is always hosted by the Representative Song and Dance Ensemble of the Opoczno Region Tramblanka.
The aim of the Festival is to promote the resources of international culture with particular emphasis on the heritage of the Opoczno region. The festival was attended by folk ensembles from: Algeria, Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia and Poland.
Activities promoting and popularising the cultural heritage of the Opoczno region within the Opoczno 2.0 project have resulted in the Opoczno Regional Museum submitting an application for the Opoczno folklore to be entered on the UNESCO National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
As part of the Opoczno 2.0 project, a position of social dialogue inspector was created within the structure of the Opoczno City Hall. In its assumptions, this function was supposed to involve initiating and organizing public consultations in various forms on matters significant for the Opoczno Commune. In order to streamline participatory processes, a Social Consultation Platform has been implemented, and updated consultation procedures have been developed, which are now characterized by a high degree of flexibility and adaptation to the needs of residents.
The project has brought a new perspective to the development of the city - accessibility, inhabitants, co-determination, ecology, climate change adaptation, revitalisation, entrepreneurship. Through coordinated action in the environmental, cultural, social and institutional dimensions, Opoczno is creating an attractive and welcoming environment for its inhabitants to live, work and develop. The balance between these dimensions is crucial to achieving a sustainable and balanced development of the city.
Summary of bilateral results
As part of the project, we conducted six study visits as part of bilateral cooperation, three at each of the Partners. The cooperation covered the environmental, economic and cultural heritage dimensions. The added value was the good practices developed as part of bilateral cooperation, which brought benefits within the institutional dimension. In the environmental dimension, the action was aimed at developing circular economy solutions in the city in the dimensions of the Municipality''s operation. In the economic dimension, the aim of the cooperation was to learn about the good practices of the partner from Norway in the field of supporting the development of local entrepreneurship: job fairs for young people, business incubator. The cooperation also consisted in facilitating the establishment of direct contacts between Polish and Norwegian entrepreneurs. As part of the social dimension, Opoczno presented the richness of local folk culture to its partners from Norway: joint workshops, celebrations and events were carried out. In all of the above dimensions, we use good practices and experiences that the Partners share with us during workshops, study visits (in situ) and on-line meetings. The Municipality of Opoczno plans further cooperation with Sunnfjord in the area of senior policy.