DISADVANTAGED AREAS of Copenhagen
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POLICY FOR DISADVANTAGED AREAS OF COPenHAGEN Contents page 4 Preface – joint responsibility, joint effort page 6 The policy in brief – focus on the things that work locally page 10 Vision – a city in balance page 14 The city's disadvantaged areas – in numbers – Copenhagen's disadvantaged areas in numbers page 20 Initiatives in disadvantaged areas – one municipality, also locally page 22 Unified efforts – operational, individual-oriented and area-based initiatives page 24 The public housing sector Text: Project group with representatives of the seven – a central partner municipal departments. Project manager: Technical and Environmental page 28 Development plans Administration, District Development – a prioritisation tool for customising solutions Design: TMF-Grafisk Design Photo: Gitte Lotinga, Copenhagen Municipality page 30 A strategy for change – from vision to concrete changes 2 POLICY FOR DISADVANTAGED AREAS POLICY FOR DISADVANTAGED AREAS 3 Preface – joint responsibility, joint effort With the policy for disadvantaged areas of Copenhagen Higher population – greater differences At the same time, problems have accumulated in certain We will fulfil these goals through binding partner- we will focus our efforts on creating green growth and In 2009, Copenhagen was voted the world's best parts of the city. Among other things, this is due to ships with everyone involved, preferential treatment improving quality of life in disadvantaged parts of the city and its popularity is reflected in its population outdated housing, allocation of public housing flats of disadvantaged areas and increased focus on what city through concentrated inter-departmental efforts growth: every month, 1000 new people settle in the to people receiving social security, social problems in works: unified core operations. which involve local players. city and forecasts predict that the population will be general and poor health levels. As a result, the gap 100,000 higher by 2025 than it is today. For this rea- between well-functioning and disadvantaged parts of We hope you will welcome the new policy for the There are six disadvantaged areas in Copenhagen, parts son and others, many new attractive areas of the city the city has grown and this threatens the cohesion of city's disadvantaged areas. of which are characterised by a number of social and have been developed over recent decades, and more our city. physical challenges greater than those found in the rest new areas are on their way. of Copenhagen. The six areas are located in Nørrebro, Focus on what works Amager/Sundby, Bispebjerg, Vesterbro/Sydhavnen, In the policy for disadvantaged areas of Copenhagen Husum/Tingbjerg and Valby/Vigerslev. we have formulated a general vision for these areas and defined a number of specific goals which we will endeavour to fulfil by 2020. One goal is to ensure that the residents of disadvantaged areas use public schools, day-care facilities, after-school institutions and leisure and youth clubs to the same extent as residents in other parts of Copenhagen. Another is to improve employment levels to the Copenhagen average, while a third is to ensure that disadvantaged areas are just as safe to live in and visit as other parts of the city. 4 POLICY FOR DISADVANTAGED AREAS POLICY FOR DISADVANTAGED AREAS 5 Initiatives designed to give dis- advantaged areas a lift • Preferential treatment • Focus on core operations • One municipality – also locally • Stronger and more binding relations with the public housing sector and citizens in general • Development plans for the six disadvantaged areas The policy in brief – focus on the things that work locally With the policy for disadvantaged areas of Co- One of the city's greatest strengths is its diversity the efforts made in the disadvantaged areas. The The municipality will meet specific challenges penhagen, the municipality will increase focus and the differences that exist between its vari- policy will ensure an overall prioritisation of the with customised solutions. This will occasionally on creating green growth and improving quality ous districts – and this diversity is a strength on disadvantaged areas over the next ten years. require that the initiatives and activities offered of life in disadvantaged parts of the city. which we will continue to build. But children by the municipality are stronger and more at- who grow up in Tingbjerg must have the same We have a large number of objectives for Copen- tractive in the disadvantaged areas than in the The policy for disadvantaged areas of Copen- opportunities of a good childhood as children hagen and its citizens, e.g. that 95% of young city as a whole. Preferential treatment entails, hagen is based on a thorough analysis of the who grow up in Østerbro, and for example we people receive an upper secondary education. for example, the provision of particularly good city's socio-economic development over the last cannot accept in the long run that residents in With the initiatives described in the policy, we will schools and day-care institutions (both all-day 15 years. The analysis shows that six large parts the north-western part of the city live seven endeavour to ensure that our ambitions for the schools and profile institutions) in areas where of the city have stagnated or even declined in years shorter than residents of the city centre. city and its residents in general also specifically ap- municipal schools and day-care institutions are recent years in comparison with the rest of the ply to the six disadvantaged areas of Copenhagen. presently less sought after. It also encompasses city. Such developments threaten the cohesion Nor will we accept a slip of our norms or expec- early employment efforts, area renewal, unified of Copenhagen and the quality of life for a large tations of each other. We must be able to have Over the next ten years, the disadvan- social housing plans, hotspots, additional graffiti number of the city's citizens. the same hopes and dreams for our children no taged areas will be given a lift via: removal and additional street cleaning of certain matter where they grow up. We will not accept disadvantaged parts of the city. Preferential treatment that parts of the city are plagued by criminal Put briefly, the objective of the policy for disad- Municipal operations and municipal facilities in gangs who create insecurity and stigmatise the The purpose of these efforts is not to give single vantaged areas of Copenhagen is to lift the six the disadvantaged areas will, as a minimum, be disadvantaged areas into a positive development residents of certain areas. of the same quantity and quality as the rest of individuals or groups of individuals preferential trend so as to create equal opportunities for all the city. treatment. Rather it is to strengthen core opera- residents of Copenhagen no matter where they The policy for disadvantaged areas of Copen- tions so that normal municipal activities in the live. hagen creates focus and direction by combining areas are able to ensure positive development 6 POLICY FOR DISADVANTAGED AREAS POLICY FOR DISADVANTAGED AREAS 7 The policy in brief ... continued trends capable of bringing the disadvantaged Copenhagen is thus also a new direction in relation ity to concentrate its resources, thus increasing the high proportion of residents of non-Western areas into line with other parts of the city. to short-term pool funding and short, temporary decision-making powers of forums with munici- origin, their many unemployed residents and their projects which are not integrated with, or help de- pal participation while at the same time releasing relatively high crime rate. An overall agreement Focus on core operations velop, core municipal operations. The new prioriti- resources for citizen-oriented initiatives. It is also with the public housing sector for the coming We will focus on what works, e.g. employment sation will help maintain focus and retain commit- important that there is sufficient flexibility centrally four years will set the course of such cooperation. and education. This also means that we must ac- ted personnel in activities which have a documented and locally to provide customised solutions, e.g. Cooperation with local committees and citizens in cept the consequences and more quickly abandon lasting effect. It will also contribute to a further the establishment of a local recycling centre to general on the development of the disadvantaged or terminate activities which do not have the ex- goal-oriented strengthening of core operations. promote local employment, thus combining both areas will be strengthened and focused. pected effect in practice. The disadvantaged areas initiative types in a single solution. shall no longer solely be lifted by laying a layer of One municipality – also locally Development plans for the six disadvantaged projects on top of normal operations but rather The policy for disadvantaged areas of Copenhagen Stronger and more binding cooperation with areas via an overall strategy for operations, area-based describes common objectives for the work which the public housing sector and residents in Development plans will be drawn up for the six initiatives and special individual-oriented efforts. provide guidelines for the municipal efforts, both general disadvantaged areas in which individual munici- centrally and locally. To ensure implementation of Cooperation with the public housing sector will pal departments will be required to define strate- In the future, projects and funding pools will be the policy, it is important that the municipality acts be developed on the basis of binding agreements gies for how overall municipal objectives and used to a greater extent to adapt current opera- as a unified entity. Local steering networks capable concerning both social housing initiatives and the specific departmental objectives can be fulfilled tions when it is necessary to try out new initiatives of supporting and focusing interdisciplinary initia- development of areas in which public housing is a before 2020.