The Municipality of Guimarães participates in the URBACT Cities4CSR project, recently approved by the EU, in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility. By participating in this initiative, the Municipality of Guimarães introduced the “Guimarães Marca” seal, thus promoting the region’s companies in an international level.
Within the scope of this program, a meeting to conclude the 1st Phase and preparation of the 2nd Phase took place on the 4th to the 6th of February, with the participation of all the cities involved. In this project, in addition to the city of Guimarães, the cities of Milan (Italy), Nantes (France), Bratislava (Slovakia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Budaors (Hungary), Molina de Segura (Spain), Bratsa (Bulgaria), Kekava participate (Latvia) and Rijeka (Croatia). The second phase takes place between the years 2020 and 2021. Each of the cities discussed in group, their action plans and collaboration strategies. These meetings were accompanied by international experts and members of the European Commission’s URBACT Secretariat.
At this meeting, Guimarães presented a proposal for the development of an innovative digital platform such as “Virtual Social Market”, which harmonizes digital with the economy and the social aspect.
In a first phase and aggregating the companies associated with “Guimarães Marca”, institutions linked to the Local Council for Social Action and other associations, it is intended that with this platform these actors can match supply with demand within the scope of good practices related to the area corporate social responsibility. Subsequently, the aim is to extend this project to all local companies and associations.
The use of new technology and information tools allows, in addition to facilitating contacts, to collect information about interactions, needs and the availability of help in order to create an information structure that allows monitoring and framing these actions in the systems management concepts. smart. In the context of these types of projects, the exchange of experiences and knowledge between the various participating cities allows, through a participatory model, to develop the skills in each of the partners.
URBACT projects were designed with the objective of promoting sustainable urban development models, contributing to the EU 2020 global strategy. The URBACT Operational Program aims to promote the creation of city networks for the sharing of knowledge and experiences, allowing the development solutions for the problems and challenges that arise in urban areas.
As Guimarães is a Municipality with a strong business vocation, companies are seen as a force of prosperity, contributing significantly to our success. Based on this assumption, the Municipality of Guimarães intends through the URBACT Cities4CSR project to create strategies that allow local companies to improve their vision, civic involvement, knowledge sharing in various areas such as social inclusion, education, health and innovation, culture and public space, sustainability, among others), linking them to the community and to local social associations and institutions.
