Barcelona presents the Citizen Assets programme for community use and management

Framed within the Civic eState project, the Barcelona City Council has shared with city partners (Naples, Amsterdam, Ghent, Gdansk, Prešov and Iași) the Citizen Assets Programme. This program was launched in 2017 with the objective of coordinating and providing social criteria for the transfer of spaces and the management of municipal services to community projects promoted by non-profit entities in the city.

In the meetings the Transfer Network had in the past year, municipal representatives and activists shared the different legal measures and strategies that are carried out to guarantee and promote the recognition and consolidation of new forms of relationship between the institution and the community initiatives in the development of “urban commons”.

Community management for the asset commons

The Citizen Assets Programme recognizes the growing demand for community management of public facilities and services to develop projects aimed at the common good. The program's work plan is based on the coordination of the different instances of the Barcelona City Council with the creation of the Citizen Assets Board and establishing social criteria for the transfer of municipal assets for community use.

The establishment of these criteria has been the result of a process of work and collaboration with the community spaces of the city. This process has resulted in the “Community balance”, a tool for self-evaluation and monitoring of projects promoted by citizen initiatives.

The conference has also had the participation of the Ateneu de 9 Barris, the Casa Orlandai and Can Batlló, as examples of reference of citizen initiatives that develop projects of community management of municipal spaces in the city. Other public-communitary projects in the city have also been presented, such as the Barcelona Energy operator, the platform for citizen participation decidim.barcelona and the development of frameworks for public-community management of services from social and solidarity economy projects.