We present: The ten finalists chosen by the jury in the category “community”
COMMUNITY
(In alphabetical order)
Administrative Swap – Baratto Amministrativo
Roberto Del Conte, Mayor of the Municipality of Invorio
ITALY
The economic crisis of the last few years has significantly influenced the labour market by greatly affecting the income of many families who have been struggling to pay municipal taxes. In an effort to enable each household to preserve economic resources for primary needs while at the same time ensuring compliance with taxation, Invorio was the first municipality in Italy to introduce the Administrative Swap in 2015 which is applied voluntarily to citizens who have unpaid taxes. This project allows some taxpayers to settle unpaid fees or other overdue payments by working for the community. Such services may include: cleaning, maintenance and decoration of green areas, squares, streets or urban improvement, recovery and reuse of areas and unused buildings for purposes of general interest.
Athens Coordination Centre for Migrant and Refugee issues (ACCMR)
Lefteris Papagiannakis – Vice Mayor for Migrants, Refugees and Municipal Decentralisation, Athens
GREECE
Refugee support: Athens installs an effective coordination mechanism
In 2015 Athens found itself at the forefront of an unprecedented refugee crisis. Today, as the number of migrants and refugees who will remain in Athens is still uncertain, the city needs to plan for issues ranging from temporary accommodation to refugee integration. With the support of a donation from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Municipality of Athens has established an innovative bottom-up coordination mechanism: the Athens Coordination Centre for Migrant and Refugee issues (ACCMR). The ACCMR coordinates initiatives and programmes implemented in Athens by international / local NGOs, local government and institutions, donors and representatives of civil society, all active in providing services to migrants and refugees. Through working committees with over 140 representatives from 50 partners, ACCMR provides guidance for designing local policies and has become a hub for proposals on the city’s integration projects. Importantly, ACCMR is working to build a contingency plan for potential future migration and refugee inflows.
CIVIC-LINE – A citizen-run innovative public space in a contested territory
Civic Line Collective
FRANCE
Input from ordinary people: citizens collaborate with MPs on drafting bills
Parlement & Citoyens is an association which operates a digital platform that enables parliamentarians and citizens to write bills together. Created in 2013, the site proposes a method of collective intelligence for reflecting on solutions to the problems facing the nation. Consisting of 35,000 citizens and 30 French parliamentarians, the platform has helped create five bills and three parliamentary information reports. In the face of growing distrust between citizens and their representatives, there is a desire to make the process of writing a bill more transparent. Parlement & Citoyens reinforces representative democracy by allowing collaboration between citizens and their representatives on real subjects. Parliamentarians can consult citizens directly on proposed bills and citizens can submit their ideas for bills to parliamentarians.
Communecter / Connect with your municipality – Communecter, se connecter à sa commune
Région La Réunion
FRANCE
Connect and share: an exchange platform for citizens’ feedback and proposals
Communecter (an amalgam of “commune” – municipality – and “connecter” – to connect) is the result of several years’ reflection on how to connect to one’s municipality with the help of digital tools. Created initially at La Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean, its mission is to spread the idea nationally. Communecter was inspired by tools such as Wikipedia to enable each citizen to contribute directly to projects and the governance of a territory (neighbourhood, municipality, region, etc.). Thus the platform is an independent network and a tool for municipalities, associations, companies, and citizens, to propose ideas and projects: a common good to share. The objective is to allow all city players to act together rather than each on their own through a common platform. Mapping your surroundings, meeting people who share the same interests, learning, exchanging ideas … this is what Communecter is for.
First Paris’ donation box – La 1ère boîtes à dons de Paris
Antoinette Guhl. Adjointe à la Maire de Paris chargée de l’Economie sociale et solidaire, de l’Innovation sociale et de l’Econom
FRANCE
Dare to share: a donation box for sharing stuff on the streets of Paris
In September 2015, the association Cap ou pas Cap (To dare or not to dare?) built the first givebox of Paris (place Félix Éboué) together with inhabitants and associations from the 12th district in Paris. A givebox is a cupboard located in public space, freely accessible, 24/7. Anyone can leave or pick up unused items: books, clothes, non-perishable food, etc., with no reciprocity required. Thanks to the growing success of this citizens’ initiative, the Paris mayor’s office and the 12th district mayor’s office contacted the association asking them to set up a large new givebox. During four participatory camps in September 2016, a team of volunteers and inhabitants built the new donation box, inaugurated in October 2016. Since then, inhabitants, local associations and Cap ou pas Cap ? organise activities every week in support of this givebox. The givebox has quickly become a highlight of the sharing economy in and around Paris: every hour about 15 people leave and/or take objects and 50 objects are put into circulation.
Introducing smart city: citizens’ engagement
Tadeusz Ferenc, Mayor of the City of Rzeszów
POLAND
Pioneer smart city: one-stop shop for public services – helpline – participatory budget
Rzeszów is the first city in Poland to establish External Resident Service Points (ERSP) for easy access to public services. Virtually all official business, such as obtaining an ID, a driver’s licence, or a car registration can be handled there. The ERSPs are situated in four shopping malls all over the city. Since their opening in 2011 over 100,000 cases have been processed. In addition, a helpline is available for telephone enquiries. The operators are well-trained and can handle 80% of all requests on their own, without involving the departments in charge. Since 2013, when it was installed, more than 160,000 enquiries have been handled. To involve citizens in the city’s management, annual meetings with the mayor and the department heads are organised in all of Rzeszów’s 30 boroughs, where residents are informed about the administration’s plans and can put forward suggestions and complaints. Finally, part of the city budget is reserved as a participatory budget: citizens decide what the money is to be spent on, choosing from projects also proposed by citizens.
Online Public Space Problem-Reporting System
Dietlind Grabe-Bolz, Oberbürgermeisterin der Stadt Gießen
GERMANY
Problems in public space: don’t grumble – let your city know
In the city of Giessen, citizens can use an online system to report problems in public space, such as damage or pollution, in just a few steps and to upload an image along with the account. To report the location of the problem, one can log the current location of the device used, specify the street address, or just click on a map. The online platform is optimised for use with mobile devices, so that a problem can be reported as soon as it is noticed. When you report a problem, you will be asked to choose a suitable category; the system then sends an e-mail to the relevant administrative department. The problem automatically has the status “unprocessed”, which changes as the problem is processed. Every time progress is made, the sender of the notification receives an automatically generated e-mail, which also contains a direct link. All problems are published directly after submission, for everyone to see.
Open Gdansk – Otwarty Gdansk
Pawel Adamowicz, Mayor of Gdansk
POLAND
Open data: fostering trust between a city and its inhabitants
Gdańsk is one of the few Polish cities to run an open data programme. It is probably the only city that publishes daily data on its expenses. There was a need for greater transparency and increasing trust between the citizens and the local government. The development of an open data policy initially encountered a lot of challenges, but by now it is a fine-tuned mechanism. Currently, on otwartygdansk.pl various relevant datasets are available on city finances, demographics, public transport, investment and the environment. This helped build mutual trust between the local government and the residents.
Senior Universities, a project to the whole community
Pedro Mota Soares, former Minister of Labor, solidarity and Social security, Member of the Portuguese Parliament
PORTUGAL
Never too late: Senior Universities improve the quality of life of senior citizens
In 2014 the Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security created the legal and financial bases for the establishment of Senior Universities (US) in Portugal. The aim was to improve the quality of life of a growing elderly population. Today there are more than 300 Senior Universities in Portugal with 45,000 students. This work is supported by 5,500 volunteer teachers. The US are supported by public entities or non-profit associations that offer cultural, scientific, social, educational, artistic and sporting activities. The National Network (RUTIS) coordinates all activities by organising various national and international initiatives such as festivals, training sessions, trips, congresses and meetings, as well as giving technical support to the US. The work was continued by the current government, which, at the end of 2016, gave official and legal recognition to US and RUTIS through a resolution of the Council of Ministers, making Portugal the first country in the world to have a regulation for Senior Universities.
Towards Zero Waste – Verso Rifiuti Zero / Tariffa puntuale
Alessio Ciacci, former Councillor for Environment at Capannori
ITALY
Towards more recycling: lower fees to reward better waste separation
Tariffa Puntuale is part of the project Verso Rifiuti Zero – Towards Zero Waste, aimed at establishing a system of rewards and penalties for households and businesses in order to minimise the production of non-recyclable waste. As the first town in Italy to adopt a “Towards Zero Waste” strategy, Capannori launched a project to align waste tariffs with the systems used for energy and water, linking the cost to the amount of non-recyclable waste. This method encourages households and businesses to maximise waste separation, thereby increasing recycling which turns waste into value and gives it a second life. The initiative, conducted from 2007 to 2013, was based on a technical design which combined social and technological innovation and encouraged citizens’ involvement. It started with a pilot project on a small part of the territory to test different technologies and concluded with full implementation in 2013.
