First Workshop-lab, Haidari

Last 24-25th February 2010, Haidari organised the first Workshop-lab in the framework of NeT-TOPIC thematic network. The aim of this internal meeting was to put together the local strategies of the network partners in order to consolidate the Local Support Groups and Local Action Plans.

After the first year of the Implementation Phase especially focused on the work of the network sub-themes at project level, in 2010 a special attention will be paid to the local activities. Apart from the transnational exchange activities (among cities from different European countries), every URBACT II partner has to set up a Local Support Group which is made of local parties directly concerned by the subjects the project covers. This group regularly meets to take part in the development of a Local Action Plan. The main aim of these two new elements of the URBACT Programme is to ensure a real local impact of the URBACT projects.

The workshop provided to project partners and some representatives of all Local Support Groups the opportunity to meet and discuss about the evolution of their Local Actions Plans and the Local Support Groups, as well as to reflect on some of the sub-themes dealt at project level.

The Lead Expert moderated the first day session where project partners and ULSG representatives had the opportunity to inform about their local activities and to learn from the other partners’ experiences and suggestions. Partners also carried out a joint reflection about how the network themes dealt at project level are expressed and applied at local level. The workshop aimed to be an interactive working space where every partner got some added value from the interaction among them so that they could learn and enrich the actions in their cities.

On the second day, after the presentation of the ULSG activities of the host city and the preliminary structure of the Bank of Urban Transformation Processes (final output of the project) by the local project coordinator in Barakaldo, Mr. Luís Rodríguez, partners had the chance to visit those areas in Haidari relevant for the project purposes as well as the main urban transformation operations.