Collaborative City

Slovakia faces three interlinked challenges that this project addresses in five regional cities — Čadca, Kysucké Nové Mesto, Ružomberok, Partizánske and Poprad.

1. Low interpersonal trust and dissatisfaction with democracy. Trust among Slovaks is at 21.3 % (DEKK 2025), among the lowest in Europe, and 59 % are dissatisfied with the functioning of democracy (Eurobarometer 2025). This erodes the legitimacy of public institutions and weakens citizens' willingness to engage.
2. Fragmented cross-sectoral cooperation. Research (Plaček et al. 2025) confirms that key actors in Slovak regional cities — local government, civil society organisations (CSOs), businesses,schools, cultural institutions and active citizens — operate in isolation despite needing eachother. Municipalities make strategic decisions without authentic bottom-up data; CSOs lackstable partners for systemic change; businesses run CSR activities disconnected from real community priorities.
3. Absence of permanent participatory infrastructure. Cities lack continuous, methodologically grounded spaces where citizens, public authorities and the private sector co-define priorities and act on them together. Existing participatory tools are one-off and rarely produce lasting cross-sectoral relationships.

These challenges are most pronounced in regional cities outside Bratislava, where civic infrastructure is weakest. Demand for the project is documented through three years of fieldwork in our predecessor programme Opravári spoločnosti (Society Repairers — 35 events in 8 cities,738 unique participants, 41 documented cases of cross-sectoral impact), explicit commitments from mayors in 4 of 5 partner cities, and pre-confirmed co-financing from municipal budgets inKysucké Nové Mesto and Čadca (where part of the contribution is covered by the city and part bythe local business sector).

Spolupracujúce mesto (Collaborative City) is a 21-month programme implemented from October 2026 to June 2028 in five Slovak regional cities. In each city we build a cross-sectoral group of 25–40 stakeholders — representatives of local government (officials and elected councillors),local businesses (from small operators to regional employers), local civil society organisations,schools, cultural institutions and active citizens — with deliberate inclusion of young people,seniors, women and marginalised groups.
The project runs in four phases, with cities entering in two waves to ensure team capacity andallow learning to transfer between waves.

1. Preparation and mapping (M1–M6) — formalising city partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding, in-depth mapping of the local ecosystem, recruitment of participants, and a study visit of our core team to Norwegian partner Delbekk Husmannsplass.
2. Naming city priorities (M3–M10) — Workshop 1 (Index of Quality of Life) plus an analytical phase using the Cornerstone Indicators methodology (Dark Matter Labs, applied in 20+ countries) to translate community voices into a visual "city compass" — the Cornerstone Wheel.
3. Developing solutions (M7–M16) — Workshop 2 verifies the indicators and the community co-designs 3–5 concrete projects; Workshops 3 and 4 provide mentoring, expert inputs andprogress reviews.
4. Anchoring and evaluation (M14–M21) — Workshop 5 finalises the city narrative and confirms pairs of local coordinators who will steward the network after the project ends. A final joint workshop in Bratislava (April–May 2028) brings together representatives of all 5 cities and our Norwegian partner.

Direct outputs: 5 cross-sectoral networks, 20–30 community-validated quality-of-life indicators,15–25 community projects, 5 positive city narratives, a methodological handbook and acomparative report — all openly available for replication.

The project delivers lasting results for four groups of beneficiaries.

• For municipalities of the 5 partner cities (Čadca, Kysucké Nové Mesto, Ružomberok, Partizánske,Poprad — indirect reach approx. 250 000 residents): a legitimate, data-supported foundation forstrategic and budgeting decisions. The 20–30 community indicators will be integrated into PHSR(municipal Programmes of Economic and Social Development), grant calls and participatorybudgeting. Cities gain a proven citizen engagement process they would otherwise need to buildwith their own capacity.
• For civil society organisations (local NGOs, community and cultural organisations): regularcooperation with local government and business, networking, partners for their own activities,and the status of co-creators of city priorities. Engaged CSOs join the Bystriny Network (70+organisations) with access to mentoring and brokering across regions.
• For local businesses (e.g. Mondi in Ružomberok): for the first time they receive verified citypriorities and direct connection to the municipality and civil society — shifting their CSR fromrandom donations to targeted support with measurable impact, while strengthening reputationand employer branding.
• For citizens and communities, especially young people, seniors and marginalised groups:meaningful participation in shaping the future of their city, and access to 15–25 communityprojects responding to their priorities.

The project contributes directly to Programme Output 1.2 (Enhanced Civic Engagement). Atnational level, the methodological handbook and comparative report will be actively offered toÚMS (Union of Slovak Towns and Cities) and ZMOS (Association of Towns and Communities ofSlovakia) for replication. Bilateral cooperation with Norwegian partner Delbekk Husmannsplassopens space for follow-up projects in further EEA CSF cycles.