News from our cities and networks

Playful Paradigm educating cities

Quick updates from the Playful Paradigm network, including Portuguese partner city Lousã presenting their URBACT work at an event of the Portuguese Territorial Network of Educating Cities on ‘Playing in the Educating City’.

Strategic sustainability goals

The Estonian and Croatian cities in the Global Goals for Cities network share their visions of how the UN Development Goals will be brought into action locally: discover “Tallinn, green and global” and Ozalj, “a place for healthy and comfortable life”.

Young town hackathon

Balbriggan, Ireland, is looking for ways to deal with the economic, cultural and community challenges of huge population growth. Supported by the iPlace network, the town asked its young residents for ideas – by organising a local hackathon.

Preventing homelessness

See Glasgow (UK) tackling homelessness through prevention rather than increasing the need for interventions, such as night shelters. Glasgow shared its work to end homelessness city-wide with its ROOF network partners on a peer-learning visit.

Cities and responsible business

Here’s the latest CITIES4CSR network newsletter, in seven languages! Insights from partner cities Bratislava (SK) and Budaors (HU), and more news on municipalities improving Corporate Social Responsibility and local private sector partnerships.

On-screen energy awareness

Find out how Urb-En Pact network partner Alto Minho (PT) is working with teachers and students to use ‘gaming’ in schools to help raise awareness about energy transition. A successful URBACT Small-Scale Action.

Videos: Green construction in the Netherlands and Slovenia

Enjoy visiting two cities in the URGE network. In Utrecht (NL), which aims to be “100% circular” by 2050, see this circular building hub where wood and other materials are sorted and prepared for re-use. And in Maribor (SI), new benches with bike racks have been produced with recycled metal, wood and concrete, thanks to a trial re-use plant for construction materials and other waste.

Read our publication for stories from cities understanding, adapting and re-using URBACT Good Practices: Good Practice Transfer – Why Not in my City?

We hope you enjoy this URBACT city news round-up. If you have any news to share from URBACT cities, or ideas for more stories on sustainable urban development, get in touch!

URBACT promotes sustainable, integrated urban development, supporting exchange and learning between EU towns and cities. Since its launch URBACT III has enabled the creation of 83 networks involving 454 cities from 28 countries. Almost half of these cities have populations of under 100 000. Ongoing projects include Action Planning Networks, Transfer Networks, and National Practice Transfer Initiatives. Meanwhile five networks are transferring urban solutions from UIA projects, and another is localising the Sustainable Development Goals.