1. Citizen Engagement project
Volunteer attempt for rebuilding accountabilityamong
authorities and residents in Thessaloniki Greece
4/8/2015
Volunteerteam
Dimitra

2. 1. Introduction. Projectlocation
Thessaloniki(Greek: Θεσσαλονίκη) is the second-largestcity in Greece and the
capital of Greek Macedonia. The city’s Metropolitan Area extends over an area of
1,455.62km2 (562.02sq mi) and its population in 2011 reached a total of
1,104,460 inhabitants; morespecifically, according to the Greek census 2011, the
municipality of Thessalonikitoday has a population of 325.182,whilethe
ThessalonikiUrban Area (the contiguous built up area forming the "City of
Thessaloniki") has a population of 788,952.
According to a municipality strategic plan reform, named Kallikratis, as of 1
January 2011 theThessalonikiUrban Area which makes up the "City of
Thessaloniki", is made up of six self-governing municipalities and one municipal
unit.
Thessalonikihas a rich history spans some2,300 years, as a major hub of business
and culture, fromthe Roman period to the ByzantineEmpire; an important
metropolis by the Roman period, the second largestand wealthiestcity of the
ByzantineEmpire.
Today it is still an importantmetropolitan region for Greece, with an active port, a
respected university, and a robusttouristindustry. Even though ithas the second

3. position among greek cities, accounts only for 8.9% of the total economy of
Greece.
Its population is deeply democratized: active and alert, politically sensibleand
motivated, reacts dynamically to political and socialevents that influence, either
in a local/national level, or international also.
The city, however, has also been affected by the economic and political crises that
haverocked Greece in recent years. Growing unemploymentfroma shrinking
manufacturing sector and a lack of opportunities for young people haveincreased
social needs, while resources to provideservices havedecreased. These
challenges had a strong impactmostly within population. Generally they feel
betrayed by the Statefromcurrentsituation (dramatic income shortage, rising
unemployment, corruption issues, governmentlow responsiveness and
accountability) show indisposition, lack of co-operation spirit, opposition and
reluctance to anything new; additionally they feel disappointmentthat even the
local authorities do not correspond to solvetheir everyday needs (ex. Circulation
hurdles, parking areas, underground venturestopped, public transportation,
bicycles, etc) . Tensions haveled to the rise of extremism, riots, and civil unrest,
and broken down relations between residents and public authorities.
2. The idea of the project
The idea is an incentive generated very recently and is a “bottom-up citizen
/authorities engagement” approach. The main components of ignition are:
Thessaloniki, as a densely populated city; not possessing enough and
protected park spaces which could host pet owners with their pets being
unleashed.
There has been a pet-friendly team which developed the incentive to create
a protected area within a centralpark of the city for the pets to be
entertained unleash. This team found a lot of hurdles during this attempt to
realize the project: even though the idea had wide acceptance there was a
lack of participation; lack of communication with authorities (not
accountableto confronttheneed; unreliable to inform; lacking of any
feedback; delayed responsiveness becauseof bureaucracy ;).
The perspectiveand paradigms aggregated during this course.
In relation to the abovethis tiny volunteer group thoughtmoreintegrately
the city’s main challenges for having basic quality in everyday living: more
specifically, it would be constructiveto startreestablishing accountability

4. among local authorities and residents; it would give morepower to
residents, to act massively, participateand demand their needs
2. Who are the Stakeholders; who are the players
This ventureneeds to be strategically planned; the main objectives are:
Establish trustand cooperation among citizens and authorities (local
authorities and government).
Establish reliable information and cooperation between local authorities
and government
Rebuild community spiritand cooperation among citizens; establish citizens
engagement; improvevolunteerism.
Reliably manage information (concentrateneeds, prioritize, imply and get
feedback)
Cement and builddeliberative communication
Provideincentives to safeguard sustainability of the project
One of the mostsubstantialissues of all the aforementioned – least but not last -
is: funding and resourceallocation.
4. Our primary tactic activities and direct targets:
We used internet technology and built relevantaccounts: facebook and
blog. Our intention is to gain volunteer partners for our ignition plan.
We planned to proceed to municipality executives approach and negotiate
in order to achieve supportto our venture.
We already started - through all this stuff provided, as well as the forum
threads created during this mooc – to specify relevant institution to
provideus either consultation or supportfor elaborating an integrated
strategic approach minimizing failure risks. Also wearetrying to specify
communication technology tools that could facilitate community building
Our initiative scopeis thick engagement; but weshall startwith hybrid
approach;analyzeresults and then proceed further.

5. We intend to prepare open meetings in order to address to our citizens the
freedom to express their needs too. We will use idea rating sheets

6. Itis substantial, to organizeour financial resources too. We will try to
employ crowd sourcing techniques; our intention is to glean donations.
I am sorry I didn’tachieve to finalize my project; I haveto stop it here in order to
submit it.