4 lessons on capacity building for city makers

Between April and June this year, a series of bespoke 2-day workshops called URBACT Campus were rolled out. The aim? To guide the Good Practice and Transfer Cities in ongoing networks by providing practical knowledge and the chance to experiment with new working methods.

Each Campus took place at national or sub regional level with National URBACT Points hosting the sessions and involving all cities in their respective member state.

15 Campuses were organised across Europe, each Campus consituted 4 blocks run over 2 days

Day 1: How to work in an integrated and participatory way and reduce obstacles to transferring good practices.
Through world café discussions, the most prominent barriers were explored, participants improved their understanding of the transfer process and acquired skills for problem solving.

Day 2: The importance of reflection, capturing and sharing knowledge and facilitation techniques.
Exercises included ice-breaking, group work to self-assessment integrated approaches, stakeholder analysis mapping and creating short videos. Plenty of time was dedicated to informal networking and conversations that started in the working sessions continued long into the breaks.

URBACT Campus in stats

• 15 Campus training events
• 141 cities
• 447 individual participants
• 25 countries represented
• 49% participating for the first time in an URBACT event
• Satisfaction level over 4 out of 5 across the board

Details of the UK and Ireland Campus are available here.

Full article by Sally Kneeshaw here.