Register for the URBACT workshops during the EURegionsWeek!

This year the 18th European Week for Regions and Cities goes online from 5 to 22 October 2020.

Within this framework, the URBACT Secretariat and URBACT networks will organise the following online sessions. Register now to learn more about the URBACT programme and future orientations, gender equal cities, housing, social integration, placemaking and urban shrinkage. Registrations close on 27 September 2020.

What URBACT has to offer to EU cities?

Workshop organised by the URBACT Secretariat, 13 October, 16.30-18.00, through ZOOM. Maximum capacity: 150 people
For more information and registration click here. 

Here's an interactive session dedicated to representatives of small, medium and big local governments across Europe. Through examples of city transformations, this session will first focus on URBACT's features that bring positive results at local level.

URBACT cities and Secretariat will present and discuss with participants how a city can identify, transfer and adapt sustainable solutions when cooperating with other EU cities; how city staff and elected people can strengthen their skills in planning and implementing actions; and how cities can benefit from URBACT knowledge on urban development.

The session will also give the floor to participants to share their own views and ideas about how the URBACT programme could evolve and improve its offer to EU cities in the near future.

What tools and methods to design local strategies?

Workshop organised by the URBACT Secretariat, 15 October, 09.30-10.30, through ZOOM (code: 15QA1554V). Maximum capacity: 150 people
For more information and registration click here.

Do you want to design and implement local policies in an integrated and participative way?

This session will provide concrete tools and methods for city representatives on how to analyse problems, how to plan actions, how to find ressources, how to implement actions and measure results. How to involve stakeholders and communicate throughout these steps will be also discussed. 

Following a short presentation of the new URBACT Toolbox, ask any questions to the speakers about your challenges and what you can do to overcome them.

What does gender equality means at local level and how to achieve it

Participatory lab organised by the URBACT Secretariat for Young Elected Politicians only, 13 October, 11.30-13.00, through ZOOM (Code: 13PL1344V)
For more information and registration click here. 

This session will give insights and tools from front runner cities on why and how to integrate a gender perspective to urban policies. Topics of discussion will include gender sensitivity in data collection, public spaces, awareness-raising, and representation. Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss in an interactive way concrete actions that can be taken at city level towards gender equality.

How to implement the right to housing?

Participatory lab co-organised by Urban Innovative Actions initiative and URBACT, 14 October, 09.30-11.00, through ZOOM (Code: 14PL1273V)
For more information and registration click here. 

In the last months, governments across Europe invested unprecedented efforts to keep safe those at risk with Cities implementing exceptional strategies and measures to keep everyone housed. In some cases, this nearly reduced homelessness to zero. However, in the aftermath of the emergency peak of last spring, long-term affordable, adequate and dignified solutions become a mandate that cannot be blinded.

In 2020, UIA and URBACT are exploring how cities can design housing policies and practical solutions to implement the right to housing. The goal of this session is to exchange about the cities engagement, their experiences in practice while pushing the agenda on the right to housing in Europe and to enrich the EU Urban Agenda work further. Participants at the session will have a space to share their inputs on affordable housing and their (current) situation.

Interregional cooperation 2021-2027

Workshop co-organised by ESPON, Interact, Interreg Europe, and URBACT, 13 October, 11.30-13.00, through ZOOM (Code: 13WS1294V)
For more information and registration click here. 

Are you interested in networking, exchange and learning, strengthening your skills in policy-making, and applying research and tested knowledge at local and regional levels? Then meet the representatives from the four pan-European Territorial Cooperation Programmes - ESPON, Interact, Interreg Europe and URBACT. Get to know what the next generation programmes have to offer you. You will learn about the orientation of each of the four programmes and understand how you can benefit from their activities.

Small towns fighting long-term decline

Workshop organised by the URBACT city network Re-growCity, 7 October, 11.30-13.00, through ZOOM (Code: 7WS1581V)
For more information and registration click here. 

To deal with shrinkage, Mayors and elected officials of small EU towns will share their strategic re-envisioning, their experience of creating a forum to coordinate civil-society-led action (NGO Platforms), and how to deal with vacancies in centrally located retail premises through short-term, low-risk lease arrangements (Pop-up Shops).

Shifting narratives in public innovation

Workshop organised by the URBACT city network InnovaTo-R, 7 October, 14.30-16.00, through ZOOM (Code: 7WS1572V)
For more information and registration click here. 

Bringing innovation to the core of public policy means considering human resources as the key to making experimental approaches effective and impactful. The session will include framed stories where creativity and imagination become tools to influence behaviour, activate alliances and create opportunities. At a time when our creative endeavours are deeply grounded in the scarcity of resources, the outcomes of collective efforts can be disruptive.

Playful paradigm to re-think cities

Participatory lab organised by the URBACT city network Playful Paradigm, 8 October, 11.30-13.00, through ZOOM (Code: 8PL1616V)
For more information and registration click here. 

This lab will present examples of promoting a playful activities to foster social inclusion of the most marginalised, to boost healthy lifestyles and to promote sustainable placemaking.

How to weave a collaborative city?

Participatory lab organised by the URBACT city network Urban Regeneration Mix, 8 October, 14.30-16.00, through ZOOM (Code: 8PL1612V)
For more information and registration click here. 

Discover the “WOW effect” of participatory tools of 5 EU cities (Lodz, Braga, Bologna, Toulouse, Birmingham) with similar revitalisation challenges addressed in 5 different ways, tailored to their resources. Then, follow their paths: people-based approaches in shaping the future of an inclusive city

Positive narratives on integration

Workshop organised by the URBACT city network Rumourless Cities, 12 October, 09.30-11.00, through ZOOM (Code: 12WS1620V)
For more information and registration click here. 

Cities across Europe have been developing strategies to address the rise in xenophobic populism and hate speech reinforced by traditional and social media, which often act to increase segregation and deepen divides. The key to this has been developing a city-wide approach combining strong political leadership with grassroots action and campaigns by dispelling misinformation and rumours and deconstructing stereotypes. The aim of this workshop is to share innovative political strategies and case studies developed by cities that are part of Rumourless Cities, an URBACT Transfer Network.

Driving Climate Action in Cities

Workshop organised by the URBACT C-Change network, 22 October, 09.30-11.00, through ZOOM (Code: 22WS1317V)
For more information and registration click here. 

This workshop will look at how the arts and culture sector can lead on climate action and engagement in cities and how cities can support this process. It will cover the approach to sector collaboration in Manchester and its C-Change partner cities and examples of sector support measures - such as carbon literacy training. It will give participants the opportunity to think about what role they or their cities could play in supporting cultural collaboration, action and engagement on climate in their cities.

National urban networks towards urban agendas

Workshop moderated by the Italian National URBACT Point, 13 October, 09.30-11.00, through ZOOM (Code: 13WS1257V)
For more information and registration click here. 

Cities and metropolitan areas participating in European urban networks and programmes, such as URBACT, Urban Innovative Actions and the Thematic Partnerships of the EU Urban Agenda, are bringing fresh visions and perspectives with their projects at national level. Many national networks of cities participating in these programmes are emerging, with a view to fostering the impact of innovative cities in urban debates and enhancing their contribution from the bottom-up to the definition of integrated urban agendas in the new programming period 2021-2027