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Creative Cities is an international project designed and managed by the British Council. It shares experience across Europe on the ways creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation can help to improve people’s lives - making cities better places to live, work and play.
Sixty five European cities have so far taken part in one or more of the hundred forty events organised by the Creative Cities project. These events have attracted more than fourteen thousand participants, with a further fourteen million reached online and via other media.
The British Council is managing the project in partnership with a range of cities and organisations active in developing innovative approaches to city policy. Individuals taking part in project events will develop new skills and build new contacts across Europe. Cities which join the project network will have an opportunity to establish competitive advantage for themselves and attract creative talent, and in so doing set the foundations for future economic growth.
The Creative Cities project will be run until the beginning of 2011 in the UK, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.
The three core project strands are: Future City Game, Urban Ideas Bakery and Urban Forum.
Future City Game generates new ideas on how to improve the quality of life either in a specific area within a city, the city as a whole, or in response to the common challenges facing cities around the world. It is a two-day event involving city inhabitants from diverse backgrounds, representing different disciplines and led by a trained games-master.
Urban Ideas Bakery builds skills and shares experience on how cities ‘bake ideas’ – that is turn them into practical solutions. It is a problem-solving and planning process that puts people at the centre of social innovation. It includes a two-day international event engaging social innovators and experts from across Europe and local community representatives.
Urban Forum is a series of international conferences and workshops that bring together young professionals, community leaders, and city partners from across Europe to debate on the role that creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation play in urban development.
In addition to the three strands, the project provides platforms to enable young social innovators in Europe to keep in touch with the project and each other:
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In 2008 the British Council launched the European element of its global climate change programme, “Challenge Europe”. This is a three year project aiming to accelerate change to a low carbon future. It brings together ambitious young people from 15 European countries who want to make a lasting impact on climate change. It enables these ”Climate Advocates” to improve their knowledge of climate change issues and provides them with a platform to develop innovative and practical projects to reduce carbon use.
For more information:
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In collaboration with leading experts from across Europe and Africa the British Council developed an innovative intercultural leadership programme that engaged people in issues of concern both on a local and international level. The project was called Intercultural Navigators.
In Norway we successfully recruited 30 participants to the Intercultural Navigators programme in 2009. In addition to training modules in Oslo these Navigators were offered opportunities to network with fellow Navigators across 16 other European countries.
The Intercultural Navigators project has now been merged with Active Citizens. For more information please see http://activecitizens.britishcouncil.org/
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The MIPEX is a reference guide and fully interactive tool to assess, compare and improve integration policy. It measures integration policies in all EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland, Canada and the USA. Using over 200 policy indicators it creates a rich, multi-dimensional picture of migrants’ opportunities to participate in society.
MIPEX is an important tool as the number of “third country nationals” (legal immigrants) living in the EU today is 20 million, and rising. While immigration is an important part of the solutions to Europe’s economic, demographic and competitive issues, setting effective legal and political frameworks for integration is a challenge. To shape and improve effective integration policies, it is essential to have comparable information and fact-based dialogue.
The third and most recent edition of MIPEX was published on 28 February 2011. It was launched in Oslo, Norway with the seminar “Nationality Contra Good Citizenship” on 21 March 2011. British Council partner for MIPEXII and MIPEXIII in Norway was KIM ( www.kim.no )
Visit the fully interactive MIPEX homepage with all results: www.mipex.eu
For information on future editions on MIPEX please consult Migration Policy Group in Brussels.
The MIPEX III is produced as part of the project: Outcomes for Policy Change, co-financed by the European Fund for Integration of Third-Country National
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