Jasło is one of the cities currently facing a whole host of challenges in terms of further development. One of them is the development of coherent measures that will allow full use of the city’s potential as a base for the development of local entrepreneurship. This past Tuesday (November 7), Jasło residents shared their opinions on the matter with experts in the field of place strategy development. The workshop on the future of Jasło was held at the GEN Science Generator.
– We want to create the city for us. Not for me as mayor, but for all its residents, who see their future right here. Hence, we decided to invite a wide group of residents to participate in this workshop, especially young people. We have a lot of experience in implementing participatory projects, especially with young people. Young people have their own ideas about the city where they would one day like to stay and live. We want to put these ideas into practice,” argued Ryszard Pabian, Mayor of Jasło.
Developing a city’s action plan that is properly tailored for future years and tailored to the needs of its residents is an extremely demanding task. Mateusz Zmyślony, who has vast experience in creating effective development strategies for cities and regions, knows this very well (he has authored development strategies for nearly a hundred Polish cities). As part of his lecture, which was an introduction to the issue, he presented the main assumptions of the development strategies for Bielsko-Biała and Pleszew as model examples, which to some extent can serve as a reference point for the development of plans for Jasło. The theses delivered by the expert were listened to attentively by an audience of several dozen people, including high school students, local entrepreneurs and local government employees, led by Ryszard Pabian, mayor of Jasło.
A key element of the meeting “Potentials of the city as a base for the development of local entrepreneurship” was a workshop, during which city residents could share their ideas on city development. Under the watchful eye of experts (Mateusz Zmyślony and Jakub Perkowski), the citizens of Jasło made a comprehensive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of their city. The workshop was carried out within four thematic blocks: education, culture, tourism and economy. The workshop part of the event was followed by a summary.
According to Mateusz Zmyślony, the key to properly defining the directions of any city’s development is to forge its new identity, with close reference to the history and heritage of its residents. He also argued that none other than the residents of Jasło should take on the responsibility of designing their city anew. It is Jasło residents who must come up with a city that will be a good place to live, not only for them, but above all for future generations of Jasło residents. Therefore, the local government should listen with great attention to what its ordinary citizens have to say about the development of Jasło.
The workshop “Potentials of the city as a basis for the development of local entrepreneurship” is implemented within the framework of the project “Jasło – my city, my home”, financed from the funds of the EGO Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 and the state budget.
