Coordination Groups
General information
Salaspils is a satelite of Riga the capital of Latvia. A major proportion of inhabitants either work or study in RIGA were 2/3 of the economic activity take place. This explains why inhabitants are not emotionally connected to the city. In the last decade its population has risen from 20,000 to 25,000. Today more than 55% of the city’s population is of non-Latvian origin. NGOS are actively participating in social and public involvement activities
Challenges
1. Education (only two schools in Salaspils) 2. Training, Free time and leisure activities 3. Poor infrastructure 4. Lack of participation in decision making, including youth, to improve the level of well being 5. Inhabitants are not emotionally connected to the city 6. To sensibise the local authorities to the needs of the population, overcoming Soviet customs
Coordination Group
The first step was to create Local Support Group (LSG) which is the main working force in the Project since the beginning in the year 2010. LSG is created by representatives/leaders of local homogenous groups representing respective interest/social group. The Municipality of Salaspils started to collect potential participants through communication channels: announcements on the notice-boards in public houses (as cultural houses, municipal council house, schools etc.), also announcements in local newspaper in both languages – Latvian and Russian, announcements and invitations through the e-mail, post and phones. There are many NGO’s performing in Salaspils, and they all were also spoken.
The Coordination group are composed of members of:
1. Youth-Student Councils 2. Parents 3. Cultural/ sport/religion workers 4. Science Workers 5. Municipality Workers 6. Disabled people 7. Seniors 8. Representatives of rural territories 9. Volunteers
Local Social Cohesion Action Plan (pilot projects)
1. The local development plans have been adapted to meet the needs of the citizens. The decision about constructing a new school was met. They also reached a decision to resolve the problem of high prices for utilities and education for dog owners. 2. Strengthening the informative links in Salaspils 3. To improve communication and coordination between NGOs 4. To renovate the existing social center 5. Creating a blog for the participants of the TOGETHER project 6. Coordination of science week in Salaspils in order to inform citizens about scientific development and give the city a reputation in this field 7. Salaspils city festival- Associations were presented to citizens 8. Day of disabled people- Sensibilize citizens on people with disabilities 9. Family day- Gave awards and nominations- for instance “best mum- best dad”
Golden Key (Support of disabled people)
The initial driving force behind this pilot project was a mother who had a disabled child. She helped to establish a focus group for people with disabilities and one of the issues of ill-being was the absence of facilities for people with disabilities. The issue was raised at a LSG. And the vice- mayor on the LSG decided to respond along with her officer. They allocated a space within the existing council premises; they made a bid for European Social Fund to provide initial revenue funding to the run the center for the first two years ; and by June 2011 the center catering for 12 people fulltime and 8 people par time was established.
Dole Island
This is a peninsula areas on the Daugava River in a mainly rural area with a permanent population of 100 people which rises to 300 people in the summer. A focus group of inhabitants was set up and amongst the shortcomings identified was the lack of a mobile food shop . A Vice Mayor on the Local Support Group took up the issue and founda local shop-keeper who was willing and keen to provide a mobile food shop service to serve Dole Island every Saturday.
Sources:
- URBACT Territories of Coresponsibility Lead Expert’s Report on Meeting Salaspils (April 2011) - URBACT Territories of Coresponsibility Local Action Plan of Co-Responsibility in Salaspils (September 2012)