Active people from Pernik and the country discussed their vision for the positive development of the city.
On Saturday, June 16, the first open meeting of a group of active citizens from Pernik, took place in the city under the title “New energy for Pernik”. It gathered representatives of the non-government sector in the country, active citizens and business representatives, who discussed the problems of the city and its future development.
The event is organized by a group of residents of Pernik who want to change the city for the better and is backed by Greenpeace – Bulgaria.
Driven by a desire for more engagement, building lasting relationships between the active people from the region and creating motivation among the residents and guests of the region Pernik participants in the meeting discussed and exchanged ideas in dynamic and innovative sessions.
The main focus was the building of a new positive vision for the city – to imagine it as we want it to be. The participants in the event wished for a greener and cleaner city with more opportunities and better infrastructure. Among the concrete promises they gave were the provision of free meeting spaces, organizing cultural events, free counseling for business ideas, volunteering.
The results of the discussions were included in the creation of the “Tree of Intentions” and in its crown were set the positive wishes for the city of Pernik: “a clean, green and smiling city with many young people and events”, “a wonderful and desirable place to live” “cleaner and better infrastructure”, “a living room, not a bedroom of Sofia”, “development of education, culture and tourism”, “more economic opportunities for development”.
Into the roots of the tree, the participants of the meeting wrote down the concrete actions they would take to make their dreams of Pernik a reality: “to get the authorities to wake up”, “we can offer a meeting space”, “alternative education for children and young people”, “To be a volunteer in the planting of a hedge”, “to send signals to the inspectorate and the municipality about irregularities”, “a concert for the development of Pernik “and more.
In the second half of the meeting, financial consultant Stoyne Vassilev, activist Galina Gerginova and yoga and dance instructor Kristiana Bakalova told their personal stories and shared their advice and experience with the guests. The themes were entrepreneurship and business, pollution and air, energy through yoga.
Representatives from WWF Bulgaria also participated in the event, giving their support to the initiative to create a new vision for the city as a step towards the development of the whole region. The environmental organization works to build a low carbon sustainable economy and energy transition within the Panel 2050 project focusing on individual regions in Bulgaria, but supports communities across the country. At the same time, the organization has recently worked actively on the process of just energy transition and economic development of local communities in the region of Southwestern Bulgaria. In this respect, WWF Bulgaria will continue its support for these processes in the future.
This first meeting marks the beginning of a series of similar events to unite the community in Pernik and to build a better environment for living and business, developed by the residents of the city. The next informal meeting will take place on June 27 at 18:00 at “Sharenoto”, Pernik.