Transnational Seminar in Siracusa

On day one, it was opened by the Mayor of Siracusa Mr Francesco Italia.

“Trust and knowledge between public sector and citizens are the key elements of each city's development”,

admitted the Mayor in his opening speech.

In the experts’ session Active NGOs Lead expert Levente Polyak highlighted the importance of the topic, expert Daniela Patti advised on different financial instruments of EU to support social economy activities. URBACT Programme expert Laura Colini shared her experience about the social innovation initiatives in Barcelona (E) and URBACT expert Christian Iaione (Civic eState and LabGov, Rome) led session on sustainable and democratic innovations in cities, talking about urban commons, co-governance, co-city methodology and social innovation.

It was followed by country groupwork session, during which project partners’ cities worked on spatial management models and governance structures in their municipalities.

In the afternoon, cities presented their Vox-pops videos. Lot of experience will be shared soon!

Next, ULG members presented their case studies and took part in problem solving workshops. For instance, the umbrella organization from Espoo (FI) stated the problem of having 15 years old operational concept, which should be revised to ensure successful operation of organization. Youth Center in Dubrovnik (HR) pointed out the lack of communication between different public sector departments about social value of civic projects as a key challenge to be solved. Building the trust between civic and public sector is still relevant for Brighton and Hove (UK), while Santa Pola (ES) admitted the lack of communication between NGOS and finally, the neighborhood Brasa in Riga (LV) stated its challenge- how to keep up a real estate as an accessible civic space, requiring finances for both- utilities and human resources.

Participants of the Transnational Seminar worked in 3 groups to provide ideas for presented challenges so that network partners could bring solutions back home.

On day two, the morning started with the site visits where participants of the Transnational Seminar visited House of Citizens - a place meant for civic participation in La Mazzarona neighborhood.

Then the participants explored Youth Center located in Graziella neighborhood, Old town - Ortigia. The group was introduced its operational model and its future development plan.

Site visits were concluded by returning in the Urban Center, the venue of the meeting, where Nunzio Marino, representative of Siracusa municipality, gave presentation about operation model and challenges of the municipality in cooperation with NGOs.

After the inspirations of the site visits participants got involved in discussions on the challenges City of Syracuse are facing in Peer review session. A Peer Review session focused on the governance issues of Siracusa’s new civic spaces, like, how to find public spaces available; how to share responsibilities and costs between public and civic sector while co-managing the spaces? Useful potential solutions came up during the discussion.

ACTive NGOs network is in the middle of its transfer journey. Lot of experience, knowledge gained so far and being already transformed in action. Therefore, afternoon was devoted to Mid-term review session, during which the participants were able to share their learning experience after implementation of the project during the first year. The session was led by ACTive NGOs Lead expert Levente Polyak. It was a benefit that Céline Ethuin, URBACT Project & Finance Officer was with us during this session, advising on Programme requirements and responding to our comments.

The second day of Transnational Seminar was concluded by the Project Steering Committee meeting, during which project progress and a time plan of next activities were discussed.

In total, more than 45 stakeholders participated in the 3rd Transnational Seminar “Governance, communication and decision making” in Siracusa.

Many thanks to our URBACT experts Levente Polyak, Daniela Patti, Laura Colini, Christian Iaione and Céline Ethuin for bringing knowledge to ACTive NGOs network.

Great experiences shared by ACTive NGOs partners within those 2 days which was surrounded by unforgettable hospitality and care of our hosts – City of Siracusa!