On 28th and 29th of May 2019, the fourth meeting “Best Practices for the Depopulation Control Action Plan” within the project “Challenges of Regional Centres: Depopulation Control, Development –best practices” (DeCoDe) took place in Łódź, Poland. Lodzkie Region, a Partner of DeCoDe project hosted the meeting for partners and local representatives of academia, administration and non-governmental sector from eight countries: Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Romania, Italy, Denmark and Spain.
The project is financed under the European Union programme “Europe for Citizens”.
The project aims to create an international, sustainable network of European cities to share their experiences on depopulation processes and their impacts, and to find solutions to reduce depopulation.
In Łódź, the project participants were acquainted with depopulation situation of the Lodzkie region, with a focus on changes in statistical data, migrations, and regional economy. The chosen polish best practice was presented by the representatives of the Regional Centre for Social Policy.
The important part of the 4th International Partner Event were two study visits planned for the second day of the meeting – one in the TULI LULI pre-adoptive center and hospice for children and second in Lodzkie Cultural Centre.
An important part of meeting was the thematic session on exchange of experience between partners, as well as a debate on the structure of action plan, and work on the structure of Depopulation Control Action Plan. The session was chaired by the team of researchers for the Faculty of Regional and Social Geography at the University of Lodz. The partners agreed to form a common understanding and definition of the best practice since for each one of the partners presented activities and implemented actions are of different scope. This clarification might be needed as an introduction to the future Action Plan.
To finalize the event the participants were invited to the Lodzki Culture Centre (ŁDK), one of the oldest cultural institutions in the Lodzkie Region that has been operating since 1953. ŁDK as a regional institution co-organizes many cultural events in communes and districts.
Next project partner meeting is planned in Daugavpils, Latvia in November 2019.
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