An International jury integrated by academics, representatives of the IAEC Executive Committee and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) assessed the 57 candidatures, received from 45 cities from 11 countries in 3 continents.

The decision was not easy given the significance and the impact of the candidate projects. After a complex process of analysis, the jury selected 8 finalist projects from the following cities: Espoo, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Lisbon, Pontevedra, Rivas Vaciamadrid, Saha-gu, Sao Paulo and Torres Vedras.

Finally, the jury of the first edition of the Educating Cities’ Award on good practices of Living Together in our cities selected the following 3 winning projects for their contribution to a better living together:

• Opinmäki Learning Centre – Espoo (Finland)
• Boosting service-learning in the city as a tool for living together, social cohesion and participation – L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Spain)
• Gamcheon Culture Village: Creative Regeneration from an Underprivileged hillside to an Active Area – Saha-gu (Republic of Korea)

These good practices illustrate how cities can contribute to reduce urban conflicts and avoid segregation by breaking physical, social and communication barriers through urban planning and regeneration, through the school or other city equipment or spaces. They also prove that when fostering participation, cities contribute to the development of social bounds, the promotion of harmonious living together and the enforcement of the sense of belonging.

The Awarded practices will be presented in a Ceremony during 14th IAEC Congress that will take place in Rosario (Argentina) next June 1-4. 

We would like to thank the 45 cities which presented a bid for the Award. We encourage the rest of the member cities to present new proposals at coming editions. We are convinced that projects such as those presented contribute to build more educating cities.