September 2022

FOCUS ON THE MULTI-DIRECTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITIES

The 4IM Project's Standing Working Group on Social Innovation reviewed the tasks completed and to be completed at a project evaluation meeting in Miskolc, supplemented by a workshop. The Municipality of Miskolc launched the "4IM" project in the spring, funded by the European Union, under the name of "City Initiative for Innovative and Integrated Social Services and the Development of Employment". The Social Innovation Standing Group, which oversees the progress of the initiative and was set up in May by the local partners involved in the project, reviewed the lessons learned over the past months on 6 September in Miskolc. First of all, Dr. Mátyás Domschitz presented on the effectiveness of star-shaped communication at his workshop on organisational development and cooperation. He gave the example of attending a meeting to answer questions such as: "Should I go and talk to the person I know the least? What am I good at? How could we cooperate, what can we do together? How can the problems be solved?" The working group meeting was followed by a session where project partners shared their experiences and ideas. Attila Krabák, representative of the Észak-Kelet Átjáró (North-Eastern Gateway) Association, drew attention to the community-building benefits of "kama", a children's ball game popular in Miskolc for generations. Robin Salter, Head of Communications at AEIDL, also highlighted football as a game of social organisation, with a core value of openness, welcoming and integrating anyone who wants to play. An additional advantage is that these football gatherings can be promoted on social platforms, all the while keeping sensitisation in mind. Tamás Wágner, the community coach of the Bábonyibérc project area, indicated that they try to bring in as much ideas from outside as possible, including the joint football experience. It was also mentioned that the project implementation should address the issues of the registration of the dwellings of the people living in the project area, their physical improvement and the fight against the accumulation of litter. In the latter case, the awareness-raising activities of the Miskolc waste management company and its app could be useful - but to solve both problems, a coordinator will be needed. József Kotics, representing the Episztémé Association, stressed the importance of sensitisation through training and recruitment of partners. He considers the creation of identity, which represents the values of belonging, to be a key issue, as it can have a very positive effect, while, in his view, religion can have less of an impact in this respect. He is convinced that small steps need to be taken to involve people. According to the local Roma municipality, leading by example can be a big help, and families who can inspire the people living in the project area should be embraced. All this while keeping constant contact with schools. Robin Salter gave an inspiring presentation on local development communication: from the example of traffic lights, starting with one-way communication, through two-way communication, to understanding cognitive processes. He presented the encoding - decoding of messages through a situation in which inevitably many different interpretations arise due to the differences of the decoders, the external audience. He also spoke about internal communication, where clear, agreed messages, objectives and coherence are desirable, with the coherent teamwork that goes with them. He advised to map and group the target groups of communication, the existing opinions, ideas, project messages, objectives, communication methods, and partners to work with. Positive keywords in development communication can be: "together, community, hope, better, inclusion, development, harmony, solidarity, happiness..." Inclusive participation will motivate the partners, he added, because if we empower our target group to communicate, we ourselves will become more effective. He also referred to the role of dialogue as a key element, as well as the formulation of problems and solutions, and the importance of allowing targeted groups to develop their own communication paths. Toby Johnson, economic development advisor for community enterprises, gave a presentation on successful social enterprises across Europe. He spoke about principles, legal forms, number of organisations, and economic weight in the EU. These joint ventures can combine several resources, multiplying the impact of the resources mobilised. He mentioned three main types of social enterprises that make up this fast-growing sector: workplace inclusion, social services and ethical trade. The sector is also growing in Hungary, although at a much more modest rate than in Europe. A total of 16 thousand such businesses were registered in 2014, with 73 thousand employees and a turnover of HUF 2.3 billion. Márczis Márta Márta, the project manager, in her methodological presentation, discussed the experimental nature of the project, whose parts, framework tasks and operational areas are also taking shape as it goes along. An own project innovation is the creation of the Resource Centre, the involvement of community coaches, the creation of community action groups, the building of a network of partners, which involves a lot of effort. The 4IM project's core value is to follow the policy and practice of its funder, the European Union, which promotes integrated development. She pointed out that in the implementation they are trying to make the structure as simple and transparent as possible, because it makes the project stronger. She quoted Indira Gandhi: "Be the change you seek!" Dr. habil. Kinga Szabó-Tóth, Head of the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Miskolc, shared the background and data of their surveys of several hundred households in the two project areas, Bábonyibérc and Tetemvár, conducted in the summer with the members of the working group. Read her full report below. The basic objective of the 4IM project is to help people in the most vulnerable situations through various interventions at local and municipal level, by building a network of supporting partners. During its implementation, it will introduce a new pilot social model and develop a new institutional structure that will allow the various public, private and civil partners involved in the project to work together effectively. A further aim is to review sectoral policies and the effectiveness of the various municipal subsidies.

THE 4IM PROJECT HAS ENTERED A NEW PHASE 4IM PROJECT CONSORTIUM MEMBERS SHARED THEIR EXPERIENCES FROM THE PAST MONTHS AT A MEETING IN MISKOLC . On 7 September 2022, the members of the 4IM project consortium summarised their experience in the implementation of the project. Mónika Szakács, Project Manager of the Municipality of Miskolc, highlighted the positive results achieved in communication. Norbert Képes, head of the Resource Centre, said that the priority was to identify services for project participants and to provide various training courses. The Abaújrakezdés Public Benefit Association reported that a new colleague is helping the community action groups. Annamária Nagy-Korodi, Project Manager of the HÁRFA Foundation, highlighted among others the organisation of capacity building workshops and staff training, the national dissemination activities, the operation of the communication working group and the creation of the visual elements of the project. Márta Márczis, the project's technical manager, presented the changes in the design of the contact points and announced the good news that a service liaison colleague will join the field team. Andrea Klára Varga, Deputy Mayor of the Miskolc Municipality responsible for human affairs, called the background work carried out by the Resource Centre and the activities of the community coaches extraordinary. She added that the municipality is planning public space improvements in both project areas. In Bábonyibérc, they want to create a community space, and in Tetemvár they intend to contribute to the successful implementation of the project by installing sports equipment.

Community survival or destruction?

Community development in the slums of Miskolc, Hungary

AEIDL is the EU-level partner in the 4IM project, which is developing an integrated way of delivering welfare services to slum areas in the Hungarian town of Miskolc. Its conference in September examined what life in these segregated areas is like, and how to improve it.

Miskolc is a town of 160,000 in the north-east corner of Hungary, 60 km from the border with Slovakia. A trade centre since mediaeval times, the town grew into a coalmining and steelmaking centre in the 19th century, but this industry has now largely closed down. Its long, handsome, car-free main street, off which branch numerous side streets and alleyways, has largely been renovated, but is today eerily quiet: much of the commerce has emptied out into shopping centres and peripheral supermarkets owned by global brands.

Blighted neighbourhoods

The town is home to a sizeable minority population of 7000 Roma, most of whom live in one or other of 16 slums – densely-populated disadvantaged areas somewhat misleadingly called ‘segregated’ – dotted among the more general mid-rise blocks of flats. These present a very different picture from the town centre: the roads are unpaved, and the single-storey houses, end-on to the road, lack running water – which residents fetch from shared blue standpipes – or mains sewerage. Their populations are quite mixed – some Roma, some not – but share the fact of poverty. In the face of it this is odd because many have jobs – but these tend to be ‘off the books’, often as building labourers or cooks. Many residents are not even officially living there, but are still registered in their family’s home villages. They thus do not qualify for official help.

The population is in steady decline. Those who can find an opportunity elsewhere emigrate, and as they cannot sell their houses, simply leave them empty. They are immediately pillaged by their erstwhile neighbours. Other residents eke a living by collecting rubbish, sorting through it for saleable items – and then dumping it wherever they can. The municipal council does not collect this rubbish, and so rats proliferate in the unsightly empty plots.

The result is a marginal world where everything is decline: population, sense of community, living standards, health. The only thing that is rising is the average age of the inhabitants. In the past, the right-wing local government's solution was to force residents to move out of some of these neighbourhoods and demolish the buildings. Meanwhile, no improvements are made. However Miskolc town council, opposition-controlled since 2019, believes in integration and avowedly aims to make the town “a place for everyone”. It has gone into partnership with the city of Košice (85 km away in Slovakia, but with a large Hungarian-speaking population), the university and two NGOs to integrate the city. The European partner in the project is AEIDL, which works mainly on sharing the results throughout Europe.

A new welfare system

The 4IM project (Initiative for Innovative Integrated Interventions in Miskolc) has won some €850,000 in finance from EaSI to pilot an integrated welfare system in two of the town’s slum districts, Bábonyibérc and Tetemvár.

4IM builds on previous groundwork, in which local associations such as Abaújrakezdés have nurtured the first initiative to create Community Action Groups (CAGs) in the two communities. From the beginning of the 4IM project, these small active groups have been extended and strengthened with the help of the Social Innovation Resource Centre. This is a newly established managing body to coordinate the project activities and, as it is planned, to coordinate city-level integrated interventions for social inclusion in the long term. The Resource Centre has organised a number of self-help activities which have cleared rubbish and repaired road and wells. This work is now to be complemented with the development of an integrated approach to delivering welfare services within the municipal authority. The project is guided by the town’s Social Innovation Standing Working Group, and two Neighbourhood Coordinators are soon to start work as the residents’ access points to the city’s social and employment services. The project aims to bring at least 300 local residents into or at least closer to the labour market.

Community coaches play a key role. One line of attack is to keep more of the residents’ money circulating within the neighbourhoods. Tetemvár already supports a local shop, so the Bábonyibérc CAG is gestating the idea of opening one of their own. Both communities, Tetemvár and Bábonyibérc, dream of establishing community centres, possibly in containers. The main stumbling block at the moment is how to afford a connection to the electricity grid. Another idea is to capitalise on residents’ building and cooking skills.

How slums arise

In September 2022, the 4IM project held a conference in Miskolc town hall to take stock and plan its continuing activities. Under the guidance of facilitator Mátyás Domschitz and AEIDL’s communications trainer Robin Salter, members of the town’s Social Innovation Standing Working Group and the project workers learnt about the drivers of exclusion, thought about what inclusion means, mapped the population groups and their interrelationships, carried out role plays, formulated communication campaigns, and resolved bottlenecks in progress. Among the most interesting contributions was that from Kinga Szabó-Tóth from Miskolc University, who described the background to the bad conditions in the town’s segregated areas.

Slums don’t happen by themselves, she said. People move into town from rural areas, and use the segregated areas as stepping stones before they move elsewhere. So you can’t just abolish them at the stroke of a pen – if you were to demolish them, the same conditions would arise elsewhere. People are in transition. They live there in the present, and don’t plan for the future. Things are tolerable for the time being. Hence there is little sense of community and little communal activity. Some residents, particularly widows, have few friends and live isolated lives. But most people have someone they can turn to for help and could borrow €50 from in an emergency. The top spending priority is mobile phones.

A survey carried out over the summer looked into residents’ motivation, bonding, mental health, skills and resources. It discovered that “weak links” or bridging social capital – connections with people from different walks of life – are very important, and play a particularly important role for children. A surprising finding is that the populations of the two pilot areas are highly differentiated: there are middle-class people who like living close to the city centre, and people working abroad. Although many of the houses are dilapidated, many residents prefer their homeliness to living in a block of flats. And there is a lot of change, with people moving in and out. Overall, the population is falling, and around half the houses are empty. Unfortunately, the houses are difficult to sell so often fall into disrepair and are stripped of any valuable materials.

On the bright side, the skills base is strong in areas like building, tool repair, crafts, livestock breeding, cookery, baking and childcare. Although few people have business experience, there are a number of natural entrepreneurs. Some minor infrastructure improvements are visible – and local services are not entirely absent: Bábonyibérc has a bus service and Tetemvár, near the town centre, has a small grocery shop.

The job of the 4IM project is now twofold. On one hand the community coaches are building up community action groups and developing action plans. On the other hand, the municipality is working to how to deliver welfare services in an integrated way. The resulting model promises to be an inspiration for many European towns.

Toby Johnson, board member of AEIDL

Further information:

4IM project: https://en.miskolc.hu/4im