2023 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

17th Edition

Phase 6 of 7

Publication Preparation 18/09/2023 - 06/11/2023

Process phases

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Oeiras- Advisory Board of the Local Safety Contract for Communities and Municipal Neighborhoods - Thematic Forums (CCCLS of Oeiras)

Official proposal

01/06/2023 18:45

Within the scope of the activities developed by the Oeiras Local Safety Contract (CLS), the Oeiras Municipality intends to establish a sharing space that promotes relationships between different partners, in order to allow for the creation of synergies to jointly plan and implement responses focused on the specific needs of people living in the communities and Municipal Neighbourhoods within the priority intervention areas of the Oeiras CLS, namely the Navegadores Municipal Neighbourhood, in the parish of Porto Salvo, and the Carnaxide Municipal Developments.

For this purpose, the Consultative Council of the CLS of Oeiras for Communities and Municipal Neighbourhoods - Thematic Forums (CCCLS of Oeiras) was created, resulting from the successful experience of developing Thematic Groups in which, through the participation of interlocutors representing public entities and institutes and/or decentralised central Government bodies as well as private organizations, residents' associations, among others, in complementary areas of action, effective articulations and synergies have emerged and been produced with manifest results in dealing with concrete situations of people and populations in priority intervention territories. Thus, the development of this experience allows the improvement of the quality of public decision-making, through mechanisms of participatory democracy, promoting multidisciplinary and integrated articulation of the various actors and providing the community with the development of skills of active participation, in a democratic community experience, promoting the joint creation of solutions.

Likewise, this experience promotes the social, economic, and political inclusion of all, making communities aware of the impact of their positions and decisions on the construction of local policies, and thus increasing the coherence of policies for a participatory citizenship.

Under the perspective of a thematic connection, allowing for reflection on objects of common interest, the CCCLS of Oeiras directs its action on thematic areas of intervention, establishing itself in the form of five Thematic Forums ("Multiculturalism, Citizenship and Integration"; "Youth, Associativism and Social Participation"; "Education, Professional Training and Employment"; "Health, Sports and Leisure" and "Safety, Urban Environment and Equipment"). These Forums comprise the reflection, debate, articulation and communication informed by the representatives of services and entities, benefiting from the important contributions conferred by the experience and knowledge acquired in the performance of their work. Thus, the multidisciplinary participation - inherent to these thematic forums - will allow the creation of focused responses on each of the identified problems.

In conclusion, and faced with a social context of multiple vulnerabilities, it is essential to foresee and create new solutions, new paths and new resources for the problems identified. Thus, the innovation of this experience is based on the dynamization of citizen participation and involvement in decision-making, together with different partners, municipal and central state, fostering the empowerment of the community and constituting an organized and active civil society. The community will thus be able to produce development and change, promoting the participation of all community actors and seeking new responses based on a logic of consortium and the creative capacity of citizens, civil society organizations, businesses, local communities and public services.