The Project - Methods and Activities

Methods used and activities carried out in Phase I:

A study by the coordinators taking stock of the available knowledge of current practices for the housing provision of risk groups on city housing markets as a result of housing stock policy in the countries and cities covered by the project.
A three-days kick-off seminar:
first exchange of experiences, allocation of the functions and responsibilities in networking for the national and transnational expansion of the partnership,
A homepage for the project as a platform for internal communication and external dissemination of the results.
Carrying out the necessary work for the national and transnational expansion of the partnership and drawing up a draft of the activities for Phase II in accordance with the binding agreements for the allocation of functions and responsibilities made at the kick-off seminar.
A two-days working meeting for representatives of the partners involved in drawing up the requirements for Phase II to discuss those requirements (aims and work programme including timetable and organisation plan)
A three-days final seminar, in which representatives from institutions and organisations joining the partnership in Phase II took part. Agenda:
presentation and first discussion of the results of the stocktaking study, discussion and common revision of the draft of the activities for Phase II, evaluation of the probable effectiveness and forecast benefits of the work done in Phase I.
Activities for the dissemination of the results from Phase I. Each partner presented the results of Phase I in his respective field of activity
homepages, information meetings, specialised publications, short information bulletins, in reports to institutions active in the context of the National Action Plans against poverty
A final report on Phase I drawn up by the coordinator with a brief description of all results of Phase I, paying special attention to the results of the final seminar and the feedback on Phase I from seminar participants.

Methods and activities Phase II

The network will undertake a review of mainstream policies and local initiatives to assist people in housing need. This is based on a comparative process of best practice identification, discussion under the viewpoint of transferability and under selected focuses and broad exchange of results.

For cities that participated in Phase I this implies condensing the knowledge about integrated cooperation forms built up in Phase I from the stocktaking by analysis with qualitative formulations of questions, developing of criteria for the identification of "good and best practice" based on these results, and selection as well as presentation and joint discussion of these "good and best practices".

For cities that will be included in phase II this implies building up a comparable level of knowledge with a condensed stocktaking, as well as - rescheduled - articipating in the process of "good and best practice"-presentation.

A mutual exchange of on the one hand condensed information from five cities of the current EU-area with on the other hand information from two cities of the future EU-area positions the project on an additional higher level.

Knowledge available from literature in selected countries will be used as background information to provide better understanding of the historical and contextual framework under which local services operate.

Both qualitative and existing quantitative data from a variety of databases will be used. Interviews and focus group discussions are the method of approach for the development of criteria for methods of good and best practice in integrated partnership co-operation and evaluation of the potential for transferability to other location sites.

The transfer of knowledge is directly related to our method of work and our dissemination strategy which is an integral part during the whole duration of the project - The method of approach is that of interactive practice in the project implementation. Knowledge is transferred across the project. Specifically, at the local level there will be dialogue between the core partners consisting of local authorities, housing providers, social care providers and representatives of the risk groups as well as researchers, including also people directly affected by housing stress and housing risks.

Conclusions of dialogue from the local level will be brought to the international fore for general debate. At the trans-national level the local actors will pursue dialogue in view of cross-fertilisation of knowledge for the internationalisation of learning.

Activities - overview

In terms of implementation strategy and types of activities, we have chosen a wide range of measures that are briefly outlined below and then listed chronologically over the two years running time of Phase II.

A pre-structured analysis of the examples possible as "good and best practice" made by the different local/national teams (additional written and verbal expert contacts and research of material to the existing stocktaking)
Four two-days presentations of "good and best practice" with key persons of the project, managed by different national teams at changing places (with discussions under changing focus)
Two one-day annual meetings managed by one national team respectively the project coordinator
Continuation in running the project homepage built up in Phase I
Networking
Conceptual work
Self-evaluation
Continuous activities for the dissemination of the results and two concentrated dissemination campaigns (one per year)

For more detailed information about the project framework see "Reports and Papers" COOP2_cooperation forms_project description.pdf download.