On the 13th of July and the 3rd of August took place the meetings to start “U.R. Impact: Prioritising Social Impact in Urban Regeneration”, a new project in the European programme URBACT, which has the objective to promote a sustainable urban development through the exchange of experiences and the dissemination of knowledge among european cities; the project has a duration of thirty months.

The Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo will have the role of Lead Partner by acting in a network with nine partner municipalities: Biesko-Biala in Poland, Bovec in Slovenia, Broumov in Czech Republic, Mertola in Portugal, Murcia in Spain, Hannut in Belgium, Longford in Ireland, Kamza in Albania and Targu Frumos in Romania.; it’s also provided to work side-by-side with Liat Rogel (Lead Expert), appointed by the URBACT Secretariat.
Each partner in the network, moreover, will work on the project also in a local level: an URBACT local group (ULG) will be fine-tuned for all the cities, with the participation of stakeholders, like local associations.
The purpose is to realize an IAP (Integrated Action Pan) for each municipality, through the cooperation and the constant comparison on a local level and also a transnational level; it will be focus on urban regeneration – and also how to mesure it – and it will pay attention to ecological transition, gender equality and the social inclusion of those who are subject to social marginalitazion. Handbook will also be made to explain about the pratices that the network will find effectives during the project. Indeed, the project includes frequent test of the actions to proble its validity.

So during the kick-off meetings all the partners met each other and had a comparison about the URBACT expectations on the project, the meaning of urban regeneration and social impact, the context of their cities – very useful to discover differences and common elements. Also, they talked about the sustainable development goal and the social return of the IAP.
In the follow months the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo will go to visit every cities in the network, with the URBACT Lead Expert Liat Rogel to truly know the urban context and to estabilish a real cooperation with them. At the end of the Baseline Study visits the Lead Expert and Cinisello Balsamo as Lead Partner will present the Road Map (based on this study) at all the partners. But first, in august, an URBACT Summer University will take place in Malmo, Svezia with all the involved subjects in URBACT’s projects: it will be an occasion to meet in presence all the partners of U.R. Impact, but also a chance to deal with all the partnership funded in the URBACT IV Programme.