Poznań

City of Poznań is one of the biggest cities in Poland with over 500, 000 habitants. Located between two capital cities – Warsaw and Berlin – it ccombines western style and eastern energy. 
The picturesque capital of Wielkopolska province is today a major economic, commercial, scientific, cultural and tourism hub in Western Poland; it’s home to the country’s most important trade-fair complex and possibly the most spectacular town hall you’ll ever see. 

City of Poznań is one of the biggest cities in Poland with over 500, 000 habitants. Located between two capital cities – Warsaw and Berlin – it ccombines western style and eastern energy. 
The picturesque capital of Wielkopolska province is today a major economic, commercial, scientific, cultural and tourism hub in Western Poland; it’s home to the country’s most important trade-fair complex and possibly the most spectacular town hall you’ll ever see. 

Challenge for the pilot

The challenges regarding supporting hospitals:

  • lack of infrastructure and protective equipment in hospitals at the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic,
  • lack of coordinator, who will organize collection of equipment and other goods for hospitals,
  • lots of bottom-up initiatives to help hospitals, a lot of people wanted to help, but didn’t know how to do it, or did it by themselves, which was problematic from logistic and safety reasons.

The challenges regarding cooperation with NGOs:

  • the government solution didn’t apply exactly to NGOs situation,
  • the necessity to adjust local law regarding tasks outsourced to NGOs (subsidies),
  • the need of support from NGOs regarding the subsidies agreements already existing. 

The challenges regarding evaluation of crisis procedures:

  • the procedures regarding pandemic Covid-19 weren't perfect, we can improve them basing on gained experience before the next crisis.
  • There wasn’t any tool available to check how the pandemic and lock-down changed the life of citizens.

The problem affected all citizens, but we focused on 3 groups:

  • NGOs - almost 4000 subjects, almost 600 with previous subsidy agreements with the municipality,
  • citizens, groups and companies who wanted to help hospitals - around 3000 
  • hospitals, nursing homes, sanitary-epidemiological station, emergency service - 10

The situation we had to cope with was new for everyone and show how unprepared we were for it. It demanded a lot of new solutions and adaptation.

How the model for cross-sectoral cooperation benefitted the pilot?

Motivation during implementation - we remembered how important it is to maintain partner’s motivation, we were responding very quickly for any doubts occured and tried to describe the goal in the easiest and clearest way. Thanks to that we got the attention back.

We knew that it is important to check how the plan is working in practice. Thanks to that we adjusted our plans to the current situation and were able to improve our cooperation.

During planning, we planned both external and internal communication, we checked all available for us tools. It was useful, because during implementation we didn’t have to worry how we communicate.

In general the Model helps to organize work, it is a good reminder of what domains we should remember about and what stages we need to think about in every project. It will be useful in present form, but it can be better and more useful.

How did the pilot benefit the life of the residents?

We coordinated collection for hospitals and other institutions with help from NGO - soccer fans association. They gave us a storage space to collect goods and they were responsible for distributing them according to the needs. During the second wave of pandemic (in September) other NGO took this responsibility. The scale was smaller and goods were dedicated only to infectious diseases hospital - over 3000 citizens and companies involved in the help.

Poznań University of Economics and Business created a system of communication with citizens, hospitals, etc. We assessed the situation of hospitals by calls (we were in constant contact).

All those activities helped hospitals and other institution in functioning in the first months of pandemic, secured their employees and citizens, who wanted to help.

  • We created a form for NGOs in the City to asses the situation - 98 respondents.
  • We helped to adjust law and agreements regarding cooperation between NGOs and City of Poznan - 3 local law acts, we haven't have yet info regarding how many agreements was adjusted ,
  • We've opened a hot line with help for NGOs.
  • We organized 3 workshops for NGOs regarding understanding governmental resolutions and how they apply to them,
  • We organized 1 workshop for NGOs regarding moving activities to the Internet.

All those activities helped NGOs to cope with changes occured because of the pandemic and survive the worst time, when they couldn't be active.

We had 6 workshops with the project partners to evaluate the process of coping with crisis in the city for different sectors and created propositions of solutions for future instance. We created the model to cope with the crisis for the future instance, which will benefit us and we will be better prepared for any upcoming crisis.

We also created an AR application to assess the situation in the city regarding the pandemic and check how it influenced citizens everyday life. It gave citizens a space to share anonymously their thoughts and experience regarding the lockdown.

How was extended reality (XR) used in pilot?

We created an AR application called “Kroniki C-19” (trans. C-19 Chronicles). In this augmented reality we gave the citizens a safe space to share their thoughts and experience from the COVID-19 pandemic. By this application they can hear others, who have already shared the voice records and record their own voice to be heard by the others. There are 5 questions they can answer.

What was the value of having transnational peers in Healthy Boost project?

It was good to know how the situation is changing and how they cope with it. We encouraged each other, kept ourselves motivated and coped together with some obstacles. It was nice to have someone in the same situation, who had the whole picture of the project.

New about the Poznań pilot

All news items about Poznań on Healthy Boost website.

Zuzanna Kwiatkowska
zuzanna_kwiatkowska [at] um.poznan.pl
Project personnel in Zoom meeting.