The Podgórze Space for an Open Dialogue

About this project

<p>As part of the project we will foster dialogue and cooperation between residents and representatives of local government in the Podgórze district of Cracow, and also support residents’ grassroots activity. The project responds to the problem of low culture of dialogue which can be observed particularly in the way public debate is conducted on issues important to the residents or, quite often, in the absence of such debate. The problem exists both on a national level, and in local communities. We have also diagnosed the need for development of a culture of dialogue and cooperation in the Podgórze district, with a population of almost 40 000 inhabitants. The main goals of the project are: strengthening local cooperation at the district level, developing new forms of dialogue between local government and residents, engaging residents in dialogue with local government. As part of the project we will strengthen the activity of residents and local institutions and organizations in undertaking grassroots initiatives and encourage them to engage in dialogue with local government. We will create a District Forum for Dialogue, through which meetings, debates and other events promoting social participation will be conducted. We will develop recommendations for communication and friendly and permanent forms of dialogue between the local government and residents. We will cooperate with members of the Podgórze District Council. The project’s partners will also include Cracow City Hall and Bjerkaker Learning Lab from Norway. We are addressing the project primarily to local leaders, representatives of the District Council and residents of 2 district sub-areas - Stare Podgórze and Płaszów. Bilateral cooperation within the project will help to enrich the activities with lessons learnt from Norwegian experiences of dialogue between public administration and residents (f.i. dialogue development methods).</p>

Bilateral cooperation results

The main result was the use of the partner's know-how (Bjerkaker Learning Lab) and the exchange of experiences between partners. As part of bilateral cooperation in the project, we implemented the following activities: 1. Kick off meeting and online consultation and supervision meetings (a total of 10 online meetings were held) The first online meetings served to clarify the project assumptions, then their purpose was to plan and discuss ongoing activities, with particular emphasis on: recording a video by the Norwegian partner for the project launch briefing; study visit of the partner in Krakow, visit of representatives of the leader and partners from Poland in Oslo, arrangements regarding the course of the Academy of Good Dialogue workshops, with particular emphasis on the part led by Sturla Bjerkaker. 2. Study visits: - Visit of the Norwegian partner in Krakow (28/04/2022) The aim of the visit was to get to know all partners and to familiarize the Norwegian partner with the conditions for conducting dialogue activities by the Krakow City Hall and the District Council XIII Podgórze. - Visit of representatives of the leader and partners from Poland in Oslo (22/08/25/2022) Purpose of the visit: exchange of experiences related to conducting dialogue activities at the regional and local level. In terms of content, the most important benefit of cooperation from our perspective was the study visit to Oslo and the meeting in the Bydel Frogner district (which is the equivalent of our district) - a presentation of activities undertaken at the local level and an accompanying lively discussion. The second most impactful event was the workshop on the study circles method conducted in Krakow by Sturla for the participants of the Academy of Good Dialogue, also highly rated in the evaluation surveys by the project participants.

Project partners

• Bjerkaker Learning Lab Donor project partner· Norway