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Description
Open Jazdów is the community of the Warsaw settlement of wooden Finnish houses, offering a social, cultural and ecological public program. Public consultation run in 2014 revealed the need for a development of a co-governance formula for the settlement. Inhabitants of the Jazdów made it clear they would like to keep the community open and accessible to all citizens of Warsaw and expressed willingness to look for ways to co-govern the settlement. Therefore the aim of the project is to develop long-term methods for co-governing the settlement. By working together with the city we would like to ensure the settlement’s development goes beyond infrastructure investments, and includes important social issues such as climate change, cultural participation, and the the problem of minorities’ discrimination.We will address these needs through workshops for the inhabitants of the settlement in order to draft a mutual vision of the governance model between different groups within the community. The consultations will involve experts specializing in urban common spaces, community building and legal aid in order to guarantee our goals are within reach and our solutions meet the most current regulations. During the second stage of our project we will conduct at least five workshop sessions with civic servants and administration officials working for the city of Warsaw in order to design a formula for a long-term collaboration between the people living in the Jazdów Settlement and the city. We will monitor introduction of the ideas and the model. We will create a publication describing our project and organize a nationwide conference focused on city co-governance in order to share our accomplishments and begin a widespread debate on that particular model of urban communities development.
Summary of project results
The 2014 public consultations on the functioning and future of the Jazdów Settlement in Warsaw demonstrated the need for a formula for joint decision-making on the directions of the estate''s development. The residents reported the need to maintain the accessibility of the Jazdów Settlement for all residents/kids of Warsaw and to look for solutions for co-management of this part of the city. The needs for finding such solutions go beyond the currently available participatory tools such as consultations or participatory budgeting. Working with the city, we wanted to ensure that the development of the Jazdów Settlement was not only focused on investment and renovation activities, but also addressed socially important issues (climate change, cultural participation, the problem of minority exclusion).
We responded to these needs by organising a consultation workshop for the estate community - organisations and residents - in order to refine a shared vision of the co-management model and the issue of the decision-making capacity of various groups operating in the area. In the second stage of the project, we held seven workshop meetings with the officials of the City of Warsaw, at which we planned a long-term formula for cooperation between the estate community and the city. Subsequently, our discussions with the city authorities were based only on investment plans, in addition to the lack of prior arrangements. As a result, we organised several workshops for the entire community of the Settlement, after which we brought together a coalition of partner organisations to form the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Jazdów Settlement. It was intended to operate at the Social Communication Centre of the City of Warsaw. We also prepared a proposal for a legislative initiative of the Warsaw City Council on an agreement to introduce a model of cooperation between the city and our organisation. We collected the required number of signatures.
In addition, we have launched a consultation and information campaign on the spatial development of the Jazdów Settlement.
We have managed to reform the way the Open Jazdow Partnership operates, as well as setting goals for the future. This has enabled our community to function in a more effective way. In addition, through project activities, we have been recognised as an important partner in consultation and decision-making on the Settlement.