Portugal
City of Cascais: Cascais Ambiente, EMAC - Empresa Municipal de Ambiente de Cascais, E.M., S.A.,
12-01-2019
12/01/2009 - Ongoing
16th.
The Neighborhood Tutor is a program that allows citizens to actively participate in the process of improving the quality of life in their neighborhood, collaborating to create a faster and more efficient neighborhood service.
One of the most important goals is in fact "To achieve greater levels of equality in participation".
Active citizenship has always been part of Cascais' strategy: the development of the region would not be possible without the inputs of the population and, therefore, the municipality has developed initiatives to mobilize citizens: everyone, regardless of their origin, gender or age has a voice in the life of the municipality and can speak out at one of the events created for this purpose (participatory budgeting, environmental volunteering, youth or sports associations, neighborhood associations, etc.). This program has reinforced this political will, allowing all residents to become active agents of change.
In addition to this objective, we also highlight the following ones:
By involving the population in the life of the municipality, we not only make them aware of their active role as citizens, but we also raise awareness about respecting and sharing public space with neighboring communities.
Citizens over the age of 18 residing in the Municipality of Cascais, either individually or representing associative movements, the business world, and other civil society organizations.
In June 2023, 210 persons were active Neighborhood Tutors.
Cascais is a Portuguese town, part of the district and metropolitan area of Lisbon with an area of 97.40 km², is subdivided into 4 parishes, and has about 214,158 inhabitants of 136 different nationalities.
The Municipality of Cascais has been making a significant investment in the development of participatory mechanisms development of participation mechanisms, some of which have received significant national and international national and international recognition.
In 2009, the municipality was looking for a way to get closer to the daily lives of its citizens, to understand their expectations of local government and their concerns. As it was not possible to place employees in all parishes of the Municipality of Cascais, the idea arose to request the help of...the citizens themselves! No one better than them could report the concerns of their community and/or suggest improvements in their neighborhoods.
To this end, Cascais Environment decided to first talk to neighborhood associations to find out if there was interest in this initiative: the enthusiasm was immediate and so the Cascais Tutors project was born.
At first, the tutors were only limited to reporting situations related to urban cleaning and waste collection, but gradually the program grew, as did the number of tutors and the areas of intervention. As such, the program was a pioneer in Portugal.
The tutor is a privileged interlocutor between the local population and Cascais Ambiente/municipal services. Its mission is to monitor, in its area of residence that it oversees, the state of urban cleanliness, waste collection, maintenance of urban green public spaces, play and recreation spaces, sidewalks, sidewalks, lighting, public safety, parking , abandoned vehicles on public roads, stray animals, among other situations.
Whenever there are problems in these areas, the tutor, due to his ease and proximity to Cascais Ambiente and other services within the scope of the Municipality of Cascais, communicates the report of the situations to these organic Units. The resolution of requests is around 99% on average.
Tutors also participate in actions for cleaning and conserving nature, planting trees, raising awareness of the correct separation of waste, also contributing to the enrichment of a better and greater environmental awareness among their peers, among other actions. Finally, they ensure the maintenance and preservation of 93 playgrounds and play and recreation spaces, 31 community gardens, 3 vineyards, 3 community orchards and 133 ha of green areas.
In June 2023 there were 210 Neighborhood Tutors, covering 95% of the municipal territory. Since the program was launched in 2009, the Tutors have made more than 12,700 requests for intervention, with a resolution rate of more than 98%.
In this way, the municipality seeks to promote synergies between the municipality and the residents of the Municipality, involve, inform and sensitize citizens in the monitoring of their neighbourhoods, gardens and beaches and solve, more quickly, the problems identified.
The program also aims to achieve other objectives such as promoting public participation which, in turn, makes it possible to sensitize citizens to the respect and sharing of public space. Making people aware of their active role as citizens in the decision of managing the territory, identifying, debating and prioritizing projects for the municipality, and promoting the sharing of views on the problems and needs of the territory is one of the main premises of the project.
In general terms, the program instills in the community the concepts of Sustainability and Environmental/Social Responsibility, pillars that are fundamental to make "Cascais, the best place to live for a day, a week or a lifetime".
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