Municipalities today

The municipality of Dobrich hosted the third main meeting of the Re-Gen project, part of the URBACT IV Program. The Deputy Mayor in charge of "Strategic Development and Economy" Pavel Pavlov and the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Sports, Education and Youth Activities in the Dobrich Municipality, Nicoleta Ivanova, welcomed the representatives of the Municipality of Verona, Italy - a leading partner in the project, the representatives of the Secretariat of URBACT, as well as all participating partner municipalities.

Re-Gen is a European network of cities within URBACT that aims to support sustainable urban development and social inclusion by engaging secondary school students. Young people between the ages of 10 and 18 will be involved in turning abandoned public areas into urban stem centers.

The actual workshop to present the progress on the preparation of Integrated Action Plans (IAP) and on the creation of Urban Local Action Groups (ULG) was held in the building of the Youth Center - Dobrich. The institutional building, recently renovated, is a good example of a working youth space, full of content and providing many activities (such as art, science, non-formal education, volunteering, etc.) to the young citizens of the region.

A facilitated plenary discussion was held with all partners focusing on the key factors delaying or accelerating the process of developing Integrated Action Plans (IAP), specific elements and opportunities for future improvement. Some partners shared their good examples related to the creation of an urban local group (ULG), support for networking and identification of the biggest risks and potential steps to avoid. The first day of the 3rd workshop ended with a masterclass for partners focused on service design methodology and planning tools led by Liat Rogel, Ad hoc expert.

The second day of the event was held at Kliment Ohridski University and began with a traditional Bulgarian dance, in which the guests were invited to join. The topics of peer learning and the planning stage, sharing test results, sharing the overall logic of the IAP were discussed. The next activity of the program was an open basketball lesson conducted by the sports club "Unstoppable" and a demonstration match between the teams of SU "Kl. Ohridski" and CSU "Leonardo da Vinci". The participants also visited the pilot sports ground of the project, located in the inter-block space between the two schools. After that, the partners took part in the final part of the festival "The Apple", where students, assisted by an architect, presented their vision for the transformation of the disadvantaged urban area into a multifunctional sports space.

The final part of the program was spent visiting sports complexes and infrastructure for informal sports activities, including the skate park, which was the most interesting for the guests. The working meeting officially ended in the youth center, with participation in the traditional culinary youth competition.