Reggio Emilia Municipality and ALDA with the project “Citizens of Reggio Emilia, for example” at the exhibition of the Summit of Europe’s Regions and Cities

ALDA with the Municipality of Reggio Emilia (I) will participate with the project “Citizens of Reggio Emilia, for example” at the exhibition promoted by the Committee of the Regions on the occasion of the Summit of Europe’s Regions and Cities that will take place in Copenhagen on 22 and 23 March 2012.
Alda will be represented at the Summit by Mr. Dobrica Milovanovic, Vice president, and Mr. Alfonso Aliberti. The Mayor of Reggio Emilia, Mr. Graziano Delrio will be speaker at the workshop on: “Greener urban strategies: Rio+20 and the role of cities and regions”.
In the picture: Alda Vice president Dobrica Milovanovic, with the President of European Commission Josè Barroso.
The exhibition, entitled: “Beautiful, green, smart and inclusive: Colourful cities”, will give to about 30 Regions and Cities the opportunity to showcase their best practices in four thematic areas of urban development: architecture and town planning; innovation and smart specialisation strategies; respect to energy efficiency, transport and sustainable development; inclusion, social innovation and employment.
The exhibition will also be put up at the Committee of the Regions’ premises in Brussels in May 2012 and will be open for the public to visit during the Open Doors Day.
The City of Reggio Emilia, in cooperation with the Forum of the Third Sector, has developed this pilot project entitled “Citizens of Reggio Emilia, for example”, with the aim of strengthening municipal social capital and promoting a more inclusive city.
Launched in 2008 with a census on citizens best practices, it became a unique tool through which citizens started to realise how social capital ties were very well developed even in their own neighbourhoods. This experience stimulated hundreds of associations to become directly involved: in the last two years 700 projects have been proposed to promote solidarity, cultural activities, city mobility and territorial valorisation. In order to continue the promotion of a “community welfare”, Reggio Emilia launched in 2011 a municipal volunteering service that gathers all the volunteering opportunities offered at the local level, reaching more than 400 volunteers.
Today, the project represents the backbone of the “Europeans for example” project, aiming to bring together and promote good practices using a bottom-up approach based on the fact that social capital is a characteristic of the community. The project “Citizens of Reggio Emilia, for example” also has a European aspiration, developed together with ALDA, to bring this successful experience to a European audience.