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Practice Details

Title of Practice:	“Nice city, Nice Citizen” Training Festival
Year:	2017
BPTag:	Promising Practice
Reference Number:	IRN420-17
City / Town / Village:	Kashan
Region:	Asia & Pacific
Country:	Iran
Has this practice been submitted previously?	No
Previous Title:
Address:	TELEPHONE:+989133621563
Name of Contact Person:	Mohammad Ali Faraji
Email of Contact Person:	ccia.kashan@gmail.com
Summary:	The cultural- educational and multipurpose festival of “Nice city, Nice Citizen” is a fruitful event, being held every year in summer weekends. It is a beneficial gathering for families and children and teaches them the most essential citizen concepts in various subjects including health, respecting for citizenship rights, recycle training, city transportation, etc. It is organized and held by the participation of NGOs, executive institutions and citizens with special disabilities (including the blind and deaf) as well as native artists, so that it can act as a field college and promote the citizens engagement and foster the native talents in different subjects including music, theater, creative entertainments, etc. Moreover, some citizen handicraft exhibitions are held beside this event and are widely welcomed by participants. More importantly, for the purpose of evaluating the feedback, the citizens are given some survey forms and asked their opinion about the weaknesses and strengths of the program and also some other suggested solutions about the city issues and concerns to be kept as a reference in decision makings.
Key Dates:	Key Date 1: 09/20/2013 Policy making and decision taking process Key Date 2: 05/01/2014 Providing a comprehensive plan regarding Citizenship Vitality Systems Key Date 3: 07/01/2015 To hold the first edition of "Nice City, Nice Citizen" festival Key Date 4: 06/25/2016 To hold the secon edition of "Nice City, Nice Citizen" festival Key Date 5: 06/25/2017 To hold the third edition of "Nice City, Nice Citizen" festival
Norminating Organization Details
Name of Organization:
Contact Person:
Type of Organization:	Non-Governmental Organisation

Partners:

There are no partners defined yet.

There are no categories defined yet.

Narrative:

Situation Before the Initiative Began:

Population density in the outskirts of the city required more services in the cultural and constructional areas to improve their social participation while improving their social vitality. Locating in a far distance from the central parts of the city and poor access to the main entertainment centers caused that citizens bear unusual costs. In order to enhance the citizenship vitality, psychological health, life satisfaction, pleasant life style, and prevent from social harms, especially in the youth, this cultural project was planned and held in one of the city's most deprived areas , addressing a population of about 50,000 people, in order for the families to spend their summer leisure in a more beneficial way.

Establishment of Priorities:

Being held every year in summer weekends, this program was arranged in a way that it can cover a wide range of citizen groups. Anyway, the cultural content of this practice addresses, in the first place, children and the youth. The educational, while amusing, episodes of the program are welcomed by a great number of citizens. They are consisting of music, theater, some interesting competitions appropriate for different age groups along with the awards for the winners, creative entertainments, etc. Sometimes we invite the deaf or the blind artist groups to present a show or sing a song. There are some subject- oriented painting competitions for the children appropriate to the national and international events, including Peace World Day, Photography world day, etc. Participating in these competitions, while fostering their creativity, the children learn about the main subjects and concerns of the world.

Formulation of Objectives And Strategies:

Aimed to develop marginalized regions, promote citizens spirit and participation, detect talented people, increase social vitality, consolidate families ties, remedy urban harms, engage citizens in solving concerns, etc , Center of Communication and International Affairs of Municipality of Kashan in cooperation with some major executive institution and organizations and NGOs planned to launch a great cultural festival in three consecutive years.

Mobilisation of Resources:

Following a public call on, Center of Communication and International Affairs of Municipality of Kashan, as the main executive entity, organized and held this festival with close cooperation of executive institutions such as Kashan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Kashan Department of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Kashan Department of Water and Waste Water, together with the participation of NGOs such as The Deaf Community, The Blind Community and some native artistic and cultural institutes, headed by the young people.

Process:

This project, like all of the urban projects, faced some unpredictable problems, the most important of which were solved and some others remained unsolved yet. The main challenges plus the solutions devised for each one can be mentioned as follow:
- The shortage of funding resources. It was resolved by engaging private sector and receiving sponsorship.
- The weakness of content of programs and the risk of getting monotonous. In order to cope with this problem, we called on the university researchers and creative young authors to formulate amusing and fruitful content.
- The problem of obtaining some permits for extracurricular activities from supreme institutions. We solved this problem by engaging them in the process of project and providing more beneficial interactions.
The event is organized in such a way that individuals, communities and organizations can not only participate in public polls, but also formulate their proposed content or undertake programs appropriate to their own abilities and creations. Moreover, the context of detecting talents and the prosperity of their capabilities has been anticipated for the citizens, aiming at promoting their self-esteem and sense of belonging to the city.

Results Achieved:

Local communities are the most appropriate platforms for sustainable urban development. Since, the present plan deals mostly with the citizens, it encompasses benefits such as collective and inclusive participation, greater choice for local residents, social justice, equal opportunities, fair distribution of facilities, etc, all of which are crucial social indices to fulfill sustainable development.
In terms of cultural development, the educational content and the participatory context of this festival trains the youth in such a way that, while fostering their creativity potentials and talents, empowers their understanding to be accountable in creating a sustainable future in different aspects and keep the native values from being forgotten. It makes the contexts for citizens to have the choice of critical thinking and present their effective proposal and participate in the critical urban decision making.
From the other impressive benefits of the educational content of this festival, we can refer to the training lessons the citizens can receive in terms of reducing dependence on non-renewable resources (air, water, land, energy, etc.), and changing production and consumption patterns and technology. e.g. composting, recycling etc. The recreation- based content of this program involves beneficial points, especially for women and children to learn about the appropriate consumption patterns.
Today, the development of urban management and the adoption of modern management is the management of urban affairs for the purpose of sustainable urban development. Since the sustainable development requires the inter-institutional perception, the participatory nature of this practice creates a systematic thinking in a way that the main institutions of the city cooperate in a synergistic way in order to approach the main values of sustainable development.

Lessons Learned:

There are a variety of considerable lessons learned from this experience, the most important of which can be mentioned as follow:
- To learn that citizenship festivals are key instruments in decision making and directing targeted cultural activities in urban areas for the flourishing of talents and social participation
-To understand the positive role that knowledge, indicators and best cultural practices can play in supporting the formulation of urban policies, evaluations and decisions
- To find out that how to coordinate participatory programs with specific needs and priorities of the city in order for responding to urban challenges and using present opportunities
-To learn that the city is meaningful when there are the citizens and in order to achieve the objectives of sustainable development it is crucial to consider the structure and content in urban decision making
- To notice the important role that the coordination of cultural innovative approaches and citizenship indices can play in the promotion of citizen educations and empowering them, especially in marginalized areas

Transfers:

The original idea of this project has benefited from the operation of a few metropolises, though, it has tried to create a completely different design from the very beginning stages, applying creativity and diversity of content, and publish it in various performance reports and special letters for the cultural managers of other cities to use, while holding cultural weeks aimed at introducing and sharing experiences in the field of cultural events.

Related Policies:

As a result of this practice, the following policies were taken in municipal level:

-Development of human-centered spaces and walking pathways

-Development of public sport

-Observing the rights of the people with disabilities when constructing urban projects

-Support for knowledge based native initiatives

-Expanding Urban Campaigns

-More attention to respect for citizenship rights

-Policy making to enhance citizenship and social vitality events

References: No. Title Source Author Publication Title Volume Number Date Page Number 1 Ctizen Vitality in Educational Festival of "Nice City , Nice Citizen" Sialk news paper Mojtaba Fatehi Ghaem Publication 12 July,20,2016 4 Edit 2 Citizen Educational Festival Started (Nice City, Nice Citizen) Isfahan Emrooz News Paper Ebrahim Ghorbani Isfahan Emrooz News Paper 2716 July , 18, 2016 4

Supporting Material:

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