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ACCURE

 

 

 

Improving the ACcessibility of CUltural and REcreational services: Cities for People

 

 

 

 

PROJECT PLAN

1.9.2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

Content:

 

1. Relevance

2. Objectives

3. Core activities

4. Expected results and outcomes

5. Partners and geographical area

6. Roles of the partners

7. Duration of the project

8. Total budget

9. Contact

 

 

1. Relevance

 

Equity in city planning is the factor that attracts more attention nowadays. Needs of different groups of people should be taken into account. Specially needs of elderly and disabled people, as well as families with small children and people with different kinds of diseases shall be fulfilled to ensure the equal opportunities in the access the services in the city. A lot has been done in this field. However, the access to the culture and recreation is still limited for many of vulnerable groups. There are three main reasons for that.

 

Firstly, there are technical barriers which do not allow people with special needs to access the galleries, museums, beaches or take part in cultural and recreational events. The problems derive from poor city planning, poor use of existing guidelines by the city planners, ignorance of personnel and lack of knowledge and experience in this field. Moreover, there is a lack of special routes or guidance created for disabled people to walk or run. Many of cultural institutions are located in historical buildings which are difficult to reconstruct in more accessible way. Moreover, there is a lack of guidance in sign language in museums and galleries and lack of sufficient marking on the beaches and recreational areas.

Second problem is the ineffective marketing of cultural and recreational services for people with special needs. Insufficient visibility is the result of lack of experience in this particular type of marketing which limits the access of interested groups to cultural and recreational services.

Finally, some of cultural and recreational services are not tailored according to the expectations of people with special needs. The sculptures, paintings, other pieces of arts and recreational areas are not prepared to meet the desires of disabled, blind, deaf people. The art and architect schools do not provide enough trainings about this issue which limits the recipients of art.

 

Increased access to culture and recreation will equalize the opportunities of different groups of people and results improving level of well-being among the groups with special needs, better quality of their life and greater social cohesion. In addition, the living environment would become more attractive and finally the touristic offer will be complete, serving not only more healthy people but also social groups with special requirements.

 

 

 

2. Objectives

 

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to better well-being and health of citizens and greater social cohesion in the partner cities.

The project’s specific objective is to improve the accessibility of cultural and recreational services in the cities of Turku, Tallinn, Jūrmala and Pärnu by developing the knowledge and experience of city planners, people responsible for cultural, recreational and touristic services.

 

 

 

3. Core activities

 

Project activities bring together four cities from three countries with different level of development and implementation of accessibility policy in order to gain knowledge and share experience and know-how among the cities and produce the results, which are universal and applicable in the cities, around Europe. The activities of the project will be implemented simultaneously in the partner cities and will include wide cross-border consultation and exchange of experience.

The project is divided into five Work Packages:

1/ Training on accessibility and investing in missing equipment;

2/ Collecting and mapping information about accessible places in project cities;

3/ Joint cross-border promotion of accessible places;

4/ Supporting of the idea of accessibility in the project area;

5/ Production of Handbook on Accessibility in Cities.

 

 

During Work Package 1, firstly, an international training (I) for core groups of people in each partner city (cultural, recreational and touristic personnel, city planners and events organizators) will be developed and realised by the representatives of the project cities and national experts on accessibility. The training includes presentations and examples of methods and materials of realised projects, practical examples and principles on accessibility. Finnish expertise will be shared with the partners from Estonia and Latvia and training will provide support to the specific local needs and expectations in the partner cities. Secondly, the core group in each city organises pilot trainings on accessibility for ca. 40 persons in their own city. Methods and materials from the international training will be tested and the evaluated, and results will be included in the Handbook (WP 5). Additionally, in WP1, cities will invest in the missing equipment to increase the accessibility of places crucial for the tourism promotion, e.g. ramps or equipment for disabled swimmers. Those solutions will be examined by disabled people and feedback will be collected to develop the good practices in that area. Thanks to all WP 1 measures, the accessibility in the cities will be increased and innovative thinking about city planning will be developed.

 

Work Package 2 focuses on the mapping and collecting information about the accessible places in all project cities. Mapping will be made according to the standards agreed on the international partner meeting (II), where the core groups of the project cities will discuss the issue (eg. what information is needed and how it should be presented), share the experience from each other and gain know-how of the existing possibilities and systems. Mapping includes all accessible places in the cities, also places with new equipment, purchased in WP 1. In Turku the mapping done few years ago will be updated. Collected materials will be available in local language and translated into English. Each city will create information for a local map to be combined with others (WP 3). The information will be used in the joint cross-border touristic promotion of accessible places, which will be held in WP 3.

 

Work Package 3 focuses, firstly, on publishing a combined brochure which includes information about accessible places (WP 2) and information about special focuses for disabled people (WP 1) in project cities. Secondly, a cross-border website will be designed and promoted. Associations of people with disability will disseminate the information in addition to the partner cities. All information is also included both on the touristic and administrative websites of the cities. Tourist information employees will be trained how to inform about the possibilities for people with special needs.

 

Local policy makers i.e. people organizing cultural and recreational activities in the cities, politicians as well as local communities will be informed about the project activities and results during the local final conferences and events held in each city during Work Package 4. In practice, these conferences will be organized for local leaders with the attendance of representatives from other partner cities (international meetings III). The aim is to exchange the experience in cross-border cooperation on accessibility improvement, share the lessons-learned from the project and highlight the importance of similar actions and innovative city planning. On the other hand, events for city residents will be organized in order to promote the idea of accessibility among local communities and to inspire future actions. Those events will be organized locally but in wider cross-border concept promoting the accessible places in all partner cities and the equipment purchased in the WP 1.

 

At the end of the project, all materials, evaluated by disabled people, experts, local leaders and policy makers will be collected in the Handbook on Accessibility in the Cities which will be completed during the Work Package 5. The book will include the lessons learned from the pilot actions, tested training materials, conclusions and suggestions for city planners, personnel working in cultural and recreational services as well as in tourist information offices. The book will be published on the website and may be used for any city interested in the improvement of the accessibility. It will be available free of charge only for non-commercial purpose. Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association will disseminate the results in the whole Baltic Sea Region area and among the European Healthy Cities Network.

 

In conclusion, the core activities develop the accessibility policy in the cities and Baltic Sea Region. The project brings together, in cross-sectoral co-operation, city planners, people working in cultural, recreational and tourist departments, artists and people with special needs to share their knowledge and experience at the local and international level. Commitment of local level policy and decision makers guarantees the commitment of the stakeholders to the project and its results. Operating on international level ensures the best possible quality and universality of the outcomes.

 

 

4. Expected results and outcomes

 

As the result of the project:

1/ accessibility in the project cities will be improved by building the capacities of the personnel working in city planning, cultural, recreational and tourist departments by trainings and by investing in the missing equipment;

2/ all accessible places in the project cities will be mapped and information about them will be available in local language and English;

3/ joint cross-border promotion about accessible places will be done by common brochure and website, and this information is also disseminated through city touristic and administrative websites as well as associations of disabled people;

4/ principles and examples of accessibility will be promoted among the policy makers and local communities;

5/ Handbook on Accessibility in the Cities, collecting all information from the project, lessons learned, cross-border experience and feedback will be published.

All results will be visible on the local level in the partner cities as well as in the whole Baltic Sea Region. Cross-border cooperation will ensure the high quality of the project outcomes thanks to the transfer of knowledge, know-how and common developing of project results.

 

In the long term perspective project will contribute to the development of the dynamic and attractive societies in Baltic Sea Region. First of all, the cities will be better prepared to take the needs of the special groups into account in city planning, cultural, recreational and touristic services as well as in the actions of artists. Secondly, social cohesion, accessibility and equal opportunities will increase in cities. Finally, the possibilities for touristic marketing (website, maps) between the partner cities and within the Baltic Sea Region will be improved.

In addition, the strategies of European Union will be fulfilled in the area of health and culture. The results will be widespread in Europe which means that the project does not have only local and regional dimension but highly supports the policy of EU in the area of equality in whole Europe.

 

 

 

5. Partners and geographical area

 

The Lead Partner of the project is City of Turku (Finland) and the partners are City of Tallinn (Estonia), City Of Jūrmala (Latvia), City of Pärnu (Estonia) and Baltic Region Healthy Cities association (Finland). The geographical area covers four local authorities and one NGO in the Central Baltic area. See Picture 1.

 

Commonly observed and identified challenges of the partners are problems of access to cultural and recreational services both in big and historical cities like Turku and Tallinn as well like in small costal towns like Jūrmala and Pärnu. Although the principles and practises of accessibility are more implemented in Finland than in Baltic States, the cities share the same challenges to make the cultural and recreation services available for everybody. Project supports the existing co-operation of partners on international, national and regional level with organizations dealing with accessibility, like associations representing people with special needs or organizations of artists.

 

In the preparation of the project the Baltic Region Healthy Cities association has been a link between the partners combining and compiling the ideas from the partners into a project plan. The association coordinates WHO’s (World Health Organisation) network of Healthy Cities in the region. It supports the cities in policy making and planning processes, when the cities aim to promote healthy choices of people and their cities to be healthier. City planning and service production are key elements towards these goals.

 

The project activities include four cities, but the project results will be not limited only to partner cities. The combination of partners coming from three countries and cities with different sizes and different level of development in promoting accessibility supports the applicability of the results in other areas in Europe. Thanks to the participation of Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association and its networks, the project results will be distributed to the whole Baltic Sea Region and Europe.

 

Picture 1. Map of partner cities

 

 

 

6. Roles of the partners

 

The City of Turku / Cultural Services Office is the lead partner of the project. It has the overall responsibility of the project management, administration and finances. Turku and Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association, the Finnish partners, will employ two people to carry out all tasks of project coordination. Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association is in charge of the communication between the partners and dissemination of the results of the project and final publication. It will be responsible for ensuring the high substantive level of the project meetings and trainings.

 

The partner cities (Turku, Tallinn, Jūrmala and Pärnu) contribute to all project’s core activities, for example, to the trainings, production of maps and handbook on accessibility. The primary target groups (core group) in the partner cities are city planners, staff working for cultural, recreational and touristic departments of the cities (administration, galleries/museums, recreational facilities etc) and artists in each city. A half-time coordinator will be employed for each city. Additionally all partner cities nominate five people into the core group to coordinate the work in their cities, participate in the international meetings and trainings. This core group of people coordinate, plan and carry out the project activities at the local level.

The core groups are responsible of ensuring the sustainability of the outcomes and results by involving relevant politicians, policy and decision makers responsible of organizing cultural and recreational activities in the cities for disabled people / people with special needs (secondary target groups)

 

Final beneficiaries of the project are all people with special needs: disabled people, elderly people, families with small children, people with different kind of diseases and all residents of the cities. As the matter of fact that the results of the project could be widely spread in Europe thanks to the WHO Healthy Cities Network, the group of final beneficiaries in not limited to the citizens of cities participating in the project.

The cross-border significance is a core value of all activities during the project. Interested groups will be involved in various stages of the project ensuring the relevance of the project actions to their needs and expectations. Transfer of knowledge, know-how and experience enables the completion of the project with quality results which contribute to the greater social inclusion in the project area. The project links to the European Capital of Culture 2011 programmes in Turku and Tallinn by contributing to the accessibility priorities in both cities’ programmes and projects.

 

 

 

 

 

7. Duration of the project

 

30 months (June 2010 – December 2012)

 

 

 

8. Total budget

 

Total budget of the project is 800 000 euro.

 

Personnel costs                                                                                                    520 000 euro

Office costs                                                                                                          45 000 euro

Travel and accommodation                                                                                   30 000 euro

Arranging meetings, training, events                                                                     15 000 euro

Other costs, incl. materials, communication, handbook, equipment                                           190 000 euro

 

 

 

9. Contact

 

Ms. Heini Parkkunen
Executive Director

Baltic Region Healthy Cities Association
mob. +358 50 559 0249
heini.parkkunen@marebalticum.org