CityToolBox Erasmus Project

Project Title

CityToolBox

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

CityToolBox.net (CTB) is an online learning platform that encourages citizens to take action in the city. It supports young people to gather the practical know-how to start up citizen-led initiatives. The toolbox gives local agents in urban areas the opportunity to share their own community projects and learn from others. This way they become self-employed protagonists in the city, in line with the motto ‘CIY – Change It Yourself!’.

CTB collects examples of ‘best practices’. On the platform, initiatives share their community projects by filling out a simple form. They explain how their project was created, funded, communicated and executed. Their expertise is translated into hands-on ‘tools’: clear steps that anyone can use to start a similar bottom-up activity in their own neighbourhood. The toolbox contains all relevant information for a successful project: funding possibilities, important legal frames, communication strategies, or simply anything to not forget. Citizens around the world can easily access the tools and apply them in their own local context.

CTB aspires to bring together like-minded people in an online network of bottom-up initiatives. Young entrepreneurs, engaged neighbours, creative practitioners and city enthusiasts exchange ideas and experiences to broaden their awareness for challenges in the city. An increasing number of projects and organizations that tackle urban problems in a bottom-up manner have come up in the past years. Such initiatives make use of local cultural and socio-economic diversity, rethink urban decision-making processes, create attractive public spaces, and generate resilient and inclusive economies. By sharing knowledge with each other, small-scale local projects can have a big scale impact on the urban areas of Europe.

Europe is one of the most urbanized continents in the world. The number of people living in cities keeps growing rapidly. This provides opportunities for experimentation and innovative thinking. However, it also causes challenges such as unemployment, child poverty and ethnic segregation. Among the consequences are urban inequalities, loss of social cohesion and spatial conflicts. Several European cities have tried to tackle such urban problems in a bottom-up manner but with limited success. Young people nowadays learn how to organize a city top-down, and city administrations do not offer the adequate knowledge and skills to actively involve them in urban planning.

CTB aims to close this gap. It reacts to the current need for participatory planning and community involvement in European cities. The platform allows future urban professionals to acquire practical knowledge in the field of citizen-driven activities. As such, CTB mobilizes young citizens to become agents of urban change and build a city, that is created and sustained by citizens and there for enjoys greater acceptance and identification.

The Beta Version of CityToolBox was launched in May 2017. CTB is now fully functional providing more than 25 tools and a fast growing community. The network just teamed up with the MitOst, Actors of Urban Change network in order to create common future activities such as the first CTB Lab in Athens.

The project was initiated by: KUNSTrePUBLIK e.V. in Berlin (Germany), House ! Society (Hiša!) in Maribor (Slovenia), Place Identity in Athens (Greece), Open Territory Foundation in Lublin (Poland), In Places in Zagreb (Croatia) and 4is Platform for Social Innovations of the University of Aveiro (Portugal)

Within the CTB project the following main activities have been executed:
– Development of the CTB Online-learning platform (www.citytoolbox.net) with Beta Launch in 2017 and improvements until project end in July 2018
– 2 Multiplier Events (Berlin, May 2017 and Aveiro, May 2018)
– 3 Transnational Project Meetings (Maribor, April 2016, Berlin, May 2017 and Aveiro, May 2018)
– Evaluation activities (lead by 4iS)
– Communication and dissemination activities (lead by Place Identity and KUNSTrePUBLIK)
– Project and financial management (all partners, lead by KUNSTrePUBLIK and Support by HISA)
– Networking activities by all partners

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 124540 Eur

Project Coordinator

KUNSTREPUBLIK E.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

• HISA! DRUSTVO ZA LJUDI IN PROSTORE,SOCIALNO PODJETJE
• ASSOCIACAO DE ANTIGOS ALUNOS DA UNIVERSIDADE DE AVEIRO
• MJESTIMICE
• PLACE IDENTITY GR- CLUSTERS
• FUNDACJA TEREN OTWARTY