The global COVID-19 pandemic posed severe challenges to local authorities and pushed them into immediate action. The pandemic not only burdened health systems but had disruptive effects on other social systems such as education or the local economy. We believe that social and solidarity economy ecosystems (SSE ecosystems) can play a critical role in supporting local governments to respond to these challenges.
The project Respond, Rebuild, Reinvent (RRR), led by UpSocial in a consortium of 16 partners including Ashoka, Metropolis and Eurocities, was one of the 6 projects selected by the OECD Global Action “Promoting Social & Solidarity Economy Ecosystems”, funded by the European Union, to support the development and internationalisation of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE).
This project offers a rare opportunity for cities to learn, share, and better collaborate not only across European countries and the UK but with cities in the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil.
RRR stands for:
- Respond: Responses related to mitigating immediate effects of the crisis,
- Rebuild: Responses that support the mid and long-term rebuilding of social systems,
- Reinvent: Responses that introduce systemic changes to social systems.
The RRR project launches this call for applications to select 8 cities to learn, share, and collaborate across countries and world regions. Selected cities will be guided through a process of:
- Deepening their understanding of SSE ecosystems.
- Defining challenges that can be tackled in a cross-sectoral, collaborative approach.
- Exploring solutions and social innovations.
- Experimenting on how to adopt these solutions.
How you can join?
Any local or metropolitan authority located with a population of 200.000+ inhabitants in one of the EU countries, the UK, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States, can apply.
Download the application form and the letter of intent form on the project webpage and send both to rrr-project@upsocial.org by May 21st at 23:00 ECT.