The pilot’s understanding of co-creation

The target group of this pilot consists of seniors from Wroclaw municipality who live in a residential neighbourhood of a district called Popowice. This consists of several blocks of flats that were constructed in the communist era and the existing infrastructure does not support the needs of older residents well. The emphasis of the pilot – known as ProPoLab – shifted from co-housing for seniors to development of a meeting place for the neighbourhood. This was because the most important thing seniors pointed out was the multigenerational character of this place. They do not want to be isolated from the rest of the community. The pilot installed an innovative ‘pop-up’ space where residents came together to shape ideas on new ways to live, agree on solutions, and then implement, monitor, and – if necessary – modify them.

The problem, the solution of which is the essence of ProPoLab, concerns the low level of involvement and influence of people over 65 on possibilities for their housing space that would be adequate to their needs, abilities, affordability, expectations and dreams. The additional challenge, which was the starting point for the intervention, is the low level of implementation into the institutional practice in Poland, especially at the local level, of concepts encouraging of the stakeholders’, particularly end-users’, involvement into public policies. There is a high degree of individualization, strong family ties and the liberal state model mean that the inhabitants (especially of large cities) tend to focus more on their life and their own affairs than on common issues. Also institutions concentrate on their own competences and do not cooperate with others. The public management style is strongly bureaucratic. Currently in Poland free market economy thinking dominates with a focus on service delivery, tendering and business approaches.