Description
"The project aims at educating the citizens of Olsztyn and the city administration on the participatory processes. The city administration doesn't use all the spectrum of public participation methods to consult important decisions with citizens, resulting in poor quality of public consultation processes in the city and also the lack of engagment, trust and cooperation between citizens and the administration. A series of educational activities for local government workers (20-25 persons) and city inhabitants (20-25 persons) will be conducted, and community councils (12 persons) - seen as an important link between the city administration and inhabitants - will receive support in the field of activating local community. The next step will be testing consultation tools (prepared by working groups) in one of the city consultations. The working groups will perform their tasks using standards, principles and materials already prepared on the level of voivodeship, so that consultation activities in the whole region are consistent, and work on particular issues is easier. The result will be “Standards for social consultations in Olsztyn “. “
Summary of project results
"In Olsztyn, the dissatisfaction of citizens concerning the methods of conducting social consultations and civil participation was growing - the Olsztyn Civil Budget ended up with intervention of public prosecutors, and the press published many articles criticising the activities of the City Hall in this field. In 2014, the City Hall decided to start cooperation with the European Association for Education and Development PIONIER. The aim of the project was to enhance the quality of social consultations in Olsztyn, increaseparticipation of inhabitants and create a space where inhabitants could participate in decisions on the matters concerning their city. As a result of the project activities, the Standard for Social Consultations was developed and later implemented in the form of ISO procedure concerning conducting social consultations. During 33 workshops, inhabitants, housing complex councillors and city officers were trained in the methods and the practice of social participation. During 12 meetings two working groups developed the Standard for Social Consultations and prepared the material ""How to act effectively?"" that was included in the final publication for local officers and non-governmental organisations. Workshops for the youth were organised, after which the students conducted consultations on the Centre for Youth Volunteerism and Activation. Based on the developed Standard, pilot consultations of the program of cooperation between the City Hall and non-governmental organisations were led. Based on the project experiences, the publication ""Social Consultations in Practice"" was prepared, describing the state of consultations in Olsztyn and presenting developed tools. In the project participated employees of city offices, representatives of housing complex councils, members of non-governmental organisations and inhabitants of Olsztyn of different ages. The partner of the project was the City Hall of Olsztyn. Its tasks included: helping in recruiting members of the project (employees of the hall), promotion of the project activities, expert support in preparing the consultation procedure and implementation of the developed solutions."
Summary of bilateral results