Providing training relevant to the local job market is one way in which the Ashfield Skills Centre is boosting employability in a region hit by the demise of the coalmining and hosiery industries. By working alongside employers, the centre proactively seeks to overcome skills shortages through high quality vocational courses.
de | frThe Transporte a Pedido project set up a transport network with more than 70 routes, over 1 300 stops and frequent services in Médio Tejo, a sparsely populated part of Portugal’s Centre region with few public transport options. Passengers book in advance, either online or by phone, and routes and schedules are adjusted daily. Vehicles – mostly taxis from 30 local operators – only serve stops from which trips have been booked. Payment rates are based on distance travelled, up to a maximum of EUR 4 per trip – cheaper than normal taxi journeys.
ptThe Socially Integrative City programme is a recognised example of good practice in community-led neighbourhood regeneration. Institutionalised at a national level, it has been in place since 1999, experimenting with integrated participative development in deprived urban areas. The unique and innovative nature of the Quartiers-management programme lies in that fact that, through a top-down process, the Berlin Senate facilitates a bottom-up participatory process. The experience of the Körnerkiez in Neukölln shows why neighbourhood policies still matter in the discourse about social cohesion in sustainable cities.
de | frBy upgrading the physical environment and enhancing the integrative role of the city centre of Pazardzhik, this EUR2.45 million project aimed to promote inclusive growth in the region. The renovation of the city centre opens up equal access to different social groups (vulnerable ones in particular) both to urban space and to the resulting economic, social and environmental benefits. Some 96 small businesses with 5 000 employees, 2 263 inhabitants of Roma and 4 860 of Turkish origin, and about 6 000 disabled citizens are benefitting from the project, together with the 25 000 inhabitants of the centre and the overall city population of 78 000.
bg | frThe project consists in replacing a highly polluting old gas-fuelled district heating boiler by new biomass-based equipment with lower emissions and more stable production and selling costs. It is located in a distressed neighbourhood of the city of Chambéry, France, which is the subject of an ‘integrated urban development programme for renewal’. The project has been designed and implemented by the Société Chambérienne de Distribution de Chaleur (SCDC). This private company provides heating and hot water under a 30-year contract with the city council. The project forms part of a jointly designed heating development strategy based on the transition from fossil to renewable energy as part of the local climate plan.
frThe Micro Finance Institute promotes entrepreneurship among economically deprived women by helping them come up with a business plan and then get the funding to make it happen. Nearly 110 women representing 25 nationalities and varying educational backgrounds participated, with 16 of them starting their own businesses.
fr | svIn the socially deprived parts of the Portuguese cities of Porto and Gondomar the ‘Seniors in Motion’ programme has implemented a range of integrated activities to promote the social inclusion, health and wellbeing of the ageing population.
fr | ptInnovative technology in the form of an intelligent walking system - or I-Cane - could help the growing population of predominantly elderly people suffering from visual impairment remain socially and economically active.
fr | nlFollowing heavy reconstruction efforts after World War II, community participative planning has a long tradition among the population of Saint-Nazaire. Since its creation in 2001, the metropolitan council is radically transforming its approach to urban development, from its eco-district redevelopment to being an eco-city of the 21st century.In the Certé neighbourhood, north of Saint-Nazaire, its approach is to reorganise the urban space by creating a better social mix with a denser building pattern in order to maintain affordable prices, and above all, to meet the need of local people for the central location of all public services. The ERDF is contributing to the depollution of the adjoining wasteland, the renovation of a sports hall and the renewal of streets and footpaths.
frThanks to a range of mobile applications developed specifically for the blind and visually impaired, more people than ever can now enjoy the Düsseldorf region while on holiday in Germany.
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