On the 4th and 5th of June, Viladecans hosted the URBACT Campus, two intense days spent training municipal technicians and local stakeholders associated with the 17 URBACT transfer networks operating in our country today.
AT THE HELM OF CITIES IN URBACT NETWORKS
The event itself is a continuation of the URBACT Summer University held in Riga in 2016. This year, however, the organisation chose to hold a total of 15 independent URBACT Campuses in some of the European Union member states. In Spain, the country with the second highest representation of transfer networks in the EU, Viladecans was chosen as the leader of the On Board transfer network, where we had the honour of hosting the other participants at Can Xic.
A COLLECTIVE LEARNING JOURNEY
The main objective of this encounter was to exchange experiences, generate knowledge, provide new tools and share projects among the 17 municipalities who are fortunate enough to either have a URBACT “Good Practice” or participate in one of the European Transfer Networks. Through practical sessions with a participative approach led by Mireia Sanabria and Maria Joan Filgueiras, both URBACT lead experts, we were able to address such a range of issues as the importance of working in an integrated, participative way, bearing in mind the opinions of local stakeholders and the difficulties that cities encounter when transferring a good practice.
GETTING TO KNOW ON BOARD AND THE EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION NETWORK
On the second day of the URBACT Campus, two field trips were made to share the projects we are involved in with the other cities. In Viladecans, the leading city in the On Board transfer network, we spoke about the fundamental role of education in our cities, we presented our Educational Innovation Network and we visited La Montserratina school to learn firsthand about some of the projects that are underway.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY IS ALSO PRESENT
Yet education was not the only focus of these field trips. In a route parallel to education, we were able to share with participants the Bee Happy project with a visit to the Bee House, the Passivhaus model at El Garrofer school and, of course, our most pioneering project in energy efficiency, Vilawatt.
SHOWING OFF OUR REGION
We couldn’t let our guests leave Viladecans without sharing with them a bit more about the city’s popular culture and local products. This is why on the two working days, we also carved out time to teach them a bit about ourselves: Vilamut, chocolate, the Vilawatt song and our amazing dune beach, where we held a group meditation session the first night. The challenge involving five questions about the city, in which the participants had to guess some of the unique features of Viladecans with the assistance of locals, also helped not only to have fun together but also to leave our city’s mark on the hearts of those present.
