City supporting units – challenges for district and household councils
Moderators:
Barbara Marchwicka, The Gdynia Social Innovation Laboratory, the Vice-President of Gdynia-Orłowo District Council
Michał Guć, Vice-President of Gdynia
Time: 2. Day (Friday, June 3.), hrs 10:45-12:15
Format: experience sharing with elements of discussion session
Appointing district and household councils is simultaneously a method used in supporting citizens’ activities, and a tool for diagnosing the needs of local communities. Councils can have different organizational forms depending on intention of local governments. In some cities they mainly have administration roles (local offices). In other cities they are seen as a supporting platform for citizen’s activities in favour of the local environment.
This session is an invitation for representatives of local authorities to share different tools available to citizens provided by these organizational forms. We will discuss how supporting units could serve the purpose of fulfilling basic needs of a neighbourhood community: security, environmental protection, improvement of aesthetics, renovation works, investments and facilitating access to education, culture and social aid.
The session will begin with talks on how Gdynia activates its citizen participation and what tools they use to support citizens. It will be presented by the district council representative Barbara Marchwicka, and the local executive power representative Michał Guć. Each representative will share their perspective and provide an opportunity to get to know the inner working of supporting units along with the City Council. In this session you will be able to learn the intention behind every tool and how it is used in practice.
We shall rouse a joint discussion on the good and bad aspects regarding the functioning of supporting units within local governments.
We invite those who have experience in: city council appointment (grassroots activities as well as work of local authorities), informal citizen groups, city councilmen, organizations for democracy, and civil society development.