We are pleased to present our third catalogue of Cities to Cities #3: a catalogue of good practices of Slovenian cities for sustainable urban development. The catalogue presents 15 out of the 29 good practices of Slovene cities selected after an open call in the fall of 2020.
At IPoP, we are in contact with many Slovenian municipalities and are often impressed by the solutions that municipalities come up with while facing challenges in the field and in caring for the quality of life of their citizens. Over time, we have come to realize that the practices of Slovenian municipalities are no less inspiring than the good practices of URBACT, and that a better knowledge of them could benefit other municipalities in Slovenia as well. Last but not least, the context in which these practices developed is probably much closer to Slovenian municipalities than those from more remote cities across Europe.
Good practices offer solutions to different challenges Slovene cities are facing, from encouraging sustainable mobility to the management of construction waste, planning playgrounds together with children, solving the space constraints of cemeteries and the inclusion of vulnerable groups.
The catalogue is intended primarily for Slovene municipalities, so it is written in Slovene. But we do believe these good practices can be interesting for other cities around Europe, so we have written a short English description for each good practice.
Slovene cities had the opportunity to present their good practices at our online Good practice fair Mesta mestom, organised in April 2021. At the event, we wanted to ensure the exchange of good practices and experiences of cities with relaxed presentations and conversations.
The event took place on the Hopin online platform, which enabled the active participation of participants and a new experience of virtual events. On the main stage we heard the stories of Ljubljana and its experience with the transfer with its good practice Čebelja pot, as the leading partner of the URBACT network BeePathNet and Idrija in the RegrowCity network, which transferred good practice city living room from the German city of Altena.
Selected good practices of Slovenian cities which are included in the catalogues Cities to Cities # 2 and Cities to Cities # 3 were presented at the fair. Cities with good practice discussed their experiences and provided information on their good practice with a small group of interested participants. In this way, participants were able to get concrete information about the practice, which will help them decide whether this practice is suitable for their local environment and what are the first steps for its implementation or they just got some new inputs and inspiration for their work.
