Gen-Y City Project as part of the EU URBACT III Programme
European countries, as well as individual regions, are looking for new ways to increase their competitiveness and innovation through smart specialisation and ways to support new business models. Activity in innovative and creative sectors is concentrating in Poznań, which means that many companies focuses their activities with a high added value. Startups are increasingly popular among young people. With this in mind, and taking into account the migratory trends in Poznań, we are looking for ways to create optimal conditions for the development of the personal and professional lives of these young people. To achieve this, it is necessary to first of all diagnose the needs of the Y generation, develop new channels of effective communication with them and develop tools whose implementation in the City’s policy will make it an attractive place to live and work in. One way of solving these problems is to implement, together with foreign partners who identify similar problems in their cities, the international project “Gen-Y City – Get into the swing of the City!” as part of the EU’s URBACT III programme, which the City of Poznań has become the leader of.
The project is carried out in partnership with 11 other cities: Granada (Spain), Wolverhampton (United Kingdom), Klaipeda (Lithuania), Daugavpils (Latvia), Genoa (Italy), Kristiansand (Norway), Bologna (Italy), Coimbra (Portugal), Nantes (France), the Economic Development Agency of Sabadell (Spain) and Toruń (Poland).
Jamie Sims from Great Britain became the expert of the Gen-Y City project. He is a highly qualified manager specialising in business strategies, service development and project management in both the public and private sectors.
Creating cross-sectoral networks in each of the participating cities serves to facilitate the implementation of the project’s goals. By connecting young entrepreneurs, the public sector and social organisations, they are expected to develop and implement the policy of supporting the innovative and creative sector. Additionally, URBACT Local Groups are established in the cities, which include representatives of local governments, the academia, business environments and representatives of the Y generation. Local URBACT Groups develop a catalogue of proposed solutions to local problems – the so-called Local Action Plan. It will include concrete solutions to the problems faced by young, creative people of the Y generation. This will allow Poznań’s authorities to know what actions they have to take to meet the needs of these people and thus support various modern undertakings.
The Forum is a part of the project named “Gen-Y City – Get into the swing of the City!”, financed under the URBACT III programme