<![CDATA[My Site - NEWS]]>Tue, 25 Jun 2024 13:05:39 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[New Case Studies on Activism and Volunteering in Public Spaces]]>Fri, 30 May 2014 14:22:59 GMThttp://c4c.governance.sk/news/new-case-studies-on-activism-and-volunteering-in-public-spacesPublic spaces in post-communist countries have gone through many changes. Decades of forced limitation or even deprivation of private property ownership have resulted in a very individualistic approach, which is characterized by perceiving public spaces as transitional places between work and leisure. Nobody claims ownership of public spaces, neither municipalities nor inhabitants, and therefore they suffer from long-term neglect. Yet, all of these places have a great potential to become inclusive places where people representing various socio-economic groups like to spend their time and socialize.

This publication aims to demonstrate the above through a series of case studies on activism in public spaces in Albania, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. It brings best practice examples of how any neglected public space could be transformed into an attractive and vibrant place reflecting the needs and preferences of inhabitants and potential visitors. The case studies aim to identify decisive factors, which have led to success of initiatives transforming public spaces and providing others interested in reviving public spaces with valid recommendations helping them to repeat the success. They also demonstrate how to encourage citizens to have an interest in public affairs and volunteer for common good, and how to create meaningful cooperation between civil society organizations and municipalities.

This publication is a part of the project City for citizens, citizens for city supported by the Europe for citizens programme. The project endeavored to encourage civic engagement in general, but also with a particular focus on the formation of public spaces. Through a series of participatory events and discussions it has demonstrated that it is possible to create meaningful relations between citizens, civil society organizations, and municipalities, and together contribute to the improvement of the quality and use of public spaces. Some of the urban interventions in Prague, Prievidza, and Tirana mentioned in this publication represent project outcomes and practical examples proving the power of volunteerism, and potential of public spaces, which if well used could transform our cities to vibrant, but safe and enjoyable places to live.

]]><![CDATA[Conference City for Citizens, Citizens for City]]>Wed, 30 Apr 2014 09:21:12 GMThttp://c4c.governance.sk/news/conference-city-for-citizens-citizens-for-cityThe conference organized in KC Dunaj Bratislava from March 24 to March 27 discussed volunteerism, cities, online and offline activism that improves them, and meaningful cooperation between municipalities, private and non-profit sector, and public. It posed different important questions such as How are our cities? What do we know about them? Who identifies himself/herself with public space – municipality, public or is it a no man's land? Who should be involved in decision-making concerning public space? What is the role of an individual and what can s/he change? What data do we have about the cities? How do we work with these data? International and Slovak guests tried to respond these and many other questions.

The conference lasted four days and had very diverse program. First day was mainly dedicated to the project and its outputs. All project partners attended the event and presented their project outcomes. Second day was dedicated to the topic of volunteerism. Some Slovak initiatives were presented, and discussion with the municipalities followed. Local and foreign online tools for improving the cities were presented on the third day. The forth day was dedicated to local Slovak initiative that improves public spaces. Besides presentations there were practical workshops led by experienced trainers. The workshops discussed work with volunteers, communication and creating good and solid arguments for your cause, participatory planning and two legal workshops advised on the topics of illegal buildings and parking.

]]><![CDATA[Pedestrians United Organized a Meeting in Prague ]]>Fri, 01 Nov 2013 15:28:21 GMThttp://c4c.governance.sk/news/pedestrians-united-organized-a-meeting-in-prague On the 23rd of October 2013 the City District of Prague 2 together with the Prague Mothers organized a meeting of representatives of the Prague public administration and citizens who discussed results and efficiency of the portal Pedestrians United (PU) operated by the Prague Mothers. Each and every citizen or visitor of Prague can address their representatives through the Portal and propose changes for public space to become safer, more accessible, interconnected and attractive for pedestrians.

The meeting was launched by the Mayor of the City District Prague 2 Jana Černochová that has successfully cooperated with Prague Mothers to calm the traffic near schools (as a part of the Safe Routes to School Program) ."That is why the Portal Pedestrians United can be seen as a further contribution to improving the quality of life in our neighborhood and  consequently also of life in Prague 2 ", said Černochová.

The purpose of the meeting in the City Hall of Prague 2 was to present results of one and half year service of the Portal and look for an agreement on improving communication between public administration on one side and website administration and citizens on the other side to make cooperation between them through the Portal as effective as possible. Presentations of the Portal users, public administration representatives and discussion revealed that the biggest problem are unclear competencies and a tangle of relations between City Districts on one side and the City resp. TSK (Technical Administration of Communications) on the other. The City Districts are mostly upset that complaints of citizens are often sent to them according to their localization and not according to the  liability to solve them and finance the improvements. City of Prague is an owner of more than 90% of communications, but all the complaints are sent to City Districts that cannot be either solved or financed by them. They argue that they are just the mailmen and the complaints are largely forwarded to someone else to deal with it, which gives an unjustified impression in public that the City Districts solve nothing. Present citizens argued that the clearest way for them to communicate through the portal is to sent their complaints to City Districts, ie. to one place, respectively to one person who would be responsible at least to inform them about the fate of their own initiative regardless of the real liability. All participants of the meeting seemed to agree that the site makes sense because it provides the City Districts and the City of Prague an overview of the defects in the streets, where  citizens feel that "shoe pinches" them and gives citizens the opportunity to participate in improving of the quality of urban life and to learn about how City Districts deal with their propositions. Prague Mothers together with present public administration representatives have agreed that they would adjust the Portal to suit both parties.

In addition such projects with a similar focus as „Ladíme Prahu“ (We are tuning Prague) of the Insitute for City Development and "Link for the Mayor " of the Slovak Governance Institute in Bratislava, from which Prague Mothers took over an Internet tool for Pedestrians United were  presented to the audience of the meeting.
 
After lunch Prague Mothers made a “sighteseeing tour“ for participants in the streets of the City District of Prague 2 to show a real impact of this Internet tool for citizen´s participation on life in the City of Prague. For instance the City District of Prague 2 installed along the FN building (University Hospital) pillars, which prevent cars to park deep into the pavement and thus ensure wheelchair users and parents with prams sufficient space to move around on the sidewalk. „This measure based on citizen´s complaint submitted through the Portal is an excellent example how Pedestrians United can benefit themselves and the City“, concluded the initiator and project manager Petra Syrová of Prague Mothers.

The presentations form the event are below: 
]]><![CDATA[Playground in Tirana Created with Kids]]>Wed, 30 Oct 2013 09:22:41 GMThttp://c4c.governance.sk/news/playground-in-tirana-created-with-kidsPicture
Public spaces in Albanian cities over the past 20 years, have been transformed into parking lots, cafeterias & bars, or piles of uncollected waste. More often than not, they are also transformed into additions to existing buildings, or multistory buildings. Along with the public space, gone are the chances for people to stay in them and socialize, play, or simply watch the world go by. Today, children and the elderly make for two of the most vulnerable groups when it comes to lack of public space.

In order to showcase that community willingness is enough when coupled with commitment, creativity and recyclable materials, Co-PLAN and POLIS University  under the City for Citizens, Citizens for city project financed by the EU, decided to build a playground for children and a modest recreational area for the elderly.

POLIS University students, together with architects, urban planners and engineers, with the support and collaboration of the Municipal Unit 11, Tirana, worked for three weeks to produce a multifunctional, colorful playground. The project built on children’s wishes, and suggestions from the residents of the area, which were then transformed into practical games produced by the students and specialists. The project relied on the use of recyclable materials, such as tyres and wooden pallets, all of which are very easy to find.

]]><![CDATA[Happening in Prague Celebrated Walking]]>Wed, 16 Oct 2013 13:13:59 GMThttp://c4c.governance.sk/news/happening-in-prague-celebrated-walkingPicture
„We like walking and we need it as well,“ confessed pedestrians and cyclists participating in a happening organized by the Prague Mothers organisation in cooperation with the organization Krocan in the Klicov forest in Vysocany, Prague. The happening aimed to highlight walking as an alternative for outdoor movement as well as for short distance transport in the city. „Walking has many advantages. Besides being good for body and soul, it also saves you money for tickets - or for the gym,“ Jarmila Johnova from Prague Mothers says.

 



Families with childrens, who have visited the Klicov forest despite light rain, are fans of walking and of the park itself. As the answers to following three questions proved, both walking and park are interconnected and supplement each other.

Is walking important for you? Why so?
It turned out that most children and adults walk because they enjoy the movement for various reasons: “So that I’m not lazy,” a small girl said. “Because I am a sportsman,” claimed proudly one of the boys. “You get to know people and your surroundings,” the youth wrote. The adults found different reasons, such as that it’s relaxing for them, calming them down, they do it for health or against stress, because they consider it important for their life, or simply because they enjoy it.

What is acceptable “walking distance” for you?
“Our pedestrians” state that the time between 15 minutes to 4 hours and distance of 1 to 5 km is OK for them. It’s worth noting that most of the “inner-city” streets in Prague are shorter than 5 km. Therefore, it would be possible to walk down those streets at least time to time, only if…

What would make walking in the city more pleasant for you?
The trick is that the pedestrians are missing something. Most of them agreed that in order for the walks down the streets to be more pleasant, they don’t want to be disturbed, among others by “cars and noise”. What would they appreciate? “More green areas, cleaner sidewalks, fresh air and fewer barriers.” “If the cars made less smoke, if there was no poo on the sidewalk,” children said openly. Pepik misses several things on the street: “Ice cream, pool and trees.”

To improve pedestrian paths and sidewalks is the mission of the Chodci sobe website (Pedestrians for Themselves). At this website, powered by the Prague Mothers organisation, Prague pedestrians can identify the problems they face. “We found out that citizens don’t believe in effectiveness of this tool, as they do not have the best experience with public administration,” Johnova from the Prague Mothers says. “Thanks to the website, approximately 800 complaints were made by Prague citizens, 120 of which we managed to solve.” We tried to persuade visitors of the Klicov forest not to give up on cooperation with local government and public administration and give it a second chance. “When the citizen wants nothing, he gets nothing,” Johnova says.

The pedestrian happening in the Klicov forest was a part of the Festival of Trees organized annually by the organisation Krocan and visited by many Vysocany inhabitants. The event with the character of an intimate neighbourhood festivity includes fire, roasting and home-made cakes. The visitors took part in a “battle game” within which they fulfilled various tasks. Besides questions with pedestrian topic, they also guessed how long it takes for various artificial materials to fall apart in nature, got to know and recognise types of trees.

Na konec si všichni chodci vystřihli z odrazového materiálu svou stopu, již v Klíčovském parku nechali zářit do noci. „Chtěli jsme tak zviditelnit své přesvědčení, že každý, kdo po městě chodí, zanechá v jeho krajině svůj otisk,“ vysvětluje Dana Balcarová z o.s. Krocan.

At the end of the event, all the participants cut out a shape of their foot out from a reflecting material and left it to shine into the night in the Klicov Park. “We wanted to visualise our belief that everybody walking down the town leaves an imprint,“ Dana Balcarova from the Krocan explains.


Photo by the Prague Mothers 



]]><![CDATA[Interventions on the Playground in Bratislava are Welcomed by Both Grown-ups and Kids]]>Wed, 02 Oct 2013 13:14:26 GMThttp://c4c.governance.sk/news/interventions-on-the-playground-in-bratislava-are-welcomed-by-both-grown-ups-and-kidsPicture
Slovak Governance Institute (SGI) along with municipality Bratislava – Nove mesto plan to contribute to positive changes of the playground at the Osadna Street in Bratislava in upcoming months. To know the needs and preferences of the visitors of the playground and reflect these in the planned interventions SGI organized planning participatory event on September, 26 from 10:30 am to 6:00 pm.






We chose comparative method as our research method. Our aim was to compare the individual needs and preferences of the target group at the playground (its visitors), as well as to identify group preferences based on age and gender of respondents, and if relevant, the number and age of their children. In order to gain the data we needed, we chose individual semi-structured interviews with the playground visitors - mothers, fathers, children, seniors, groups of nursery pupils and elementary school pupils from nearby nursery and elementary school at the Česká street. 
 We asked them questions from a unified questionnaire, but also gave them space for their own suggestions and recommendations.

In general, the playground is perceived in a positive light. The visitors are overall content, especially with its size and amount of green areas. They say they are happy to have it. During the interviews, we did not perceive any latent conflict. 
People have suggested several financially non-demanding and easily implemented changes that will make the playground more attractive. When it came to less demanding interventions, they suggested repairing benches, creating a chalk drawing table at the wall, covering for the sandbox and fitting the wooden pallets around the sandbox in the front part of the playground or stocking the tennis table and growing new trees in the back part of the playground. Among more demanding interventions mentioned, a drinking water fountain, roof above the sandbox and new playground elements would be welcome in the front of the playground and a new surface for the ball games pitch and ice rink during winter months would be appreciated very much. 


Most interventions will be realized in spring 2014.  


]]><![CDATA[Skotna Park in Prievidza is Ready for a Long-awaited Change]]>Mon, 16 Sep 2013 13:13:46 GMThttp://c4c.governance.sk/news/skotna-park-in-prievidza-is-ready-for-a-long-awaited-changePicture
The initiative Parkotvor supported by the Europe for citizens programme and the Intenda Foundation aims for reviving the Skotna Park in Prievidza, Slovakia and transforming it with a help of locals reflecting their preferences.   

The Skotna Park in Prievidza is located next to the Dlha Street (under the Marian hill) and is the widest greenery near the city centre. The name of the park refers to the old name of the area under the Marian hill as many people tend to fall on its steep slope especially in the winter (the Slovak term for these falls is “skotenia” therefore the name Skotna). 


Photo by Zora Pauliniova

Nowadays the park is not fully used in accordance with its potential. There are few park benches, small coniferous forest, and a few fruit trees as a reminiscence of gardens that used to be here. There are several ping pong tables which used to be a part of a bigger playground in the past. The initiative Parkotvor created by young locals with different professional backgrounds decided to revive the park. 

The kick-off event was organized on Friday, 13th of September. The event started with creative walks for kids in the park, continued with an informative guided tour for the wide public on past, present and future of the park. The most crucial part of the event was the public discussion with citizens, activists, architects, and representatives of the Prievidza municipality led by experienced facilitator Ing. arch. Zora Pauliniova. The main aim of the discussion was to identify citizens’ needs and preferences in the park.  

The event was received with great interest of citizens among different age groups.   

In the following months the organizers will create a report collecting the suggestions for the park improvements and later on they will try to implement some of these suggestions.  
]]>