Process monitoring audit >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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1 Process monitoring audit >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Type of tool Online survey with a panel of citizens; doortodoor interviews of residents; focus groups with qualified observers and residents/users of the area; analysis of official documents. Territory City of Modena, Emilia Romagna region, Italy District RNord, a neighbourhood situated near Modena's city centre. Duration The mixedtool monitoring audit was conducted at the end of a 8year regeneration programme in the District RNord, which involved a series of actions. This audit lasted about two years and involved a series of tools used sequentially. The aim was to measure the changes in the neighbourhood and the opinion of residents. Keywords Monitoring, process, mixed use, political orientation Background The objective is to better understand the outcomes of policies implemented since 2008 by the municipality of Modena: the physical impact on the neighbourhood, the impact on the level of security, and how residents perceive the changes. The area covered by the audit is a private residential complex situated near the central train station. The main structure is a large building with shops and 273 small apartments (studios and 2bedroom flats). There are about 400 residents, most of whom come from abroad and particularly from the Maghreb, and who usually do not stay very long in the building. When the municipality started to work in the area, in 2008, it was in decay, with structural degeneration, lack of social cohesion, insecurity linked to illegal activities such as drug dealing and prostitution, a lack of activities and services, and overcrowding in the residence. The objectives were to revitalise the area by both revamping the buildings and addressing

2 social needs. The municipality also sought to promote private contribution to new activities and services. Purpose The purpose of the audit was to experiment a model integrating observation, diagnosis and evaluation of the regeneration programme, while it was still being carried out. The idea was to first of analyse all the interventions and tools used over the years in the District RNord in order to read the changes already brought to the area and compare them with how residents felt about them. The involvement of citizens, field partners and stakeholders was a secondary but no less important objective. The third objective was to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the whole strategy implemented by public actors throughout the years in order to inform and target future policies. Target groups The citizens of Modena through a representative panel The residents of the main building of the District RNord neighbourhood Local shop owners and service providers Special observers who followed the development of the different actions in the area Activities The local audit was conducted in six phases: 1. document review on the history of the area and renewal actions conducted by public authorities, in order to identify the nature of the problems, the identity of the stakeholders, and the resources available locally; 2. interviews and meetings with municipal officers; 3. online survey of a panel of residents of Modena to measure whether their opinion on the District RNord neighbourhood had changed and whether they were well informed of the real conditions and actions carried out in the district; 4. doortodoor interviews with immigrant residents in order to get direct testimonies (vs. online survey) and identify the main differences between longterm and shortterm residents; 5. four focus groups with the survey s respondents, who can be described as special observers since they are the best informed and most involved in the life of the neighbourhood; 6. final review of the results.

3 Furthermore, a series of partners meetings were organised between the Italian Forum for Urban Security (FISU) and representatives of the EmiliaRomagna region and the municipality of Modena. There was also an intermediate meeting with Efus' staff and experts and the French Forum for Urban security (FFUS). A the end of this whole process, a brochure was produced to present, in an attractive format, the neighbourhood and its resources to both local residents and the general population of Modena. In addition, a series of recommendations on future actions in the area was given to the local decisionmakers. Governance The audit monitoring tool was designed by the FISU and launched by the municipality of Modena. The EmiliaRomagna Region, which took part in the regeneration actions carried out in the District RNord, intervened as expertconsultant, notably regarding financial matters. Resources The budget was as follows: 1,850 for the interviews and focus groups about 3,000 for the supervision of the research and appraisal of the work carried out by the municipality of Modena and the Italian Forum for Urban Security. The survey was funded by the municipality, which has a department dedicated to surveys and a permanent panel of potential respondents. Expected outcome/results The audit gave a positive result in terms of the evaluation of the policies and the definition of future strategies. The main results are: strong participation and involvement of the citizens and special observers in the auditing process; very informed and focused understanding of the problems, the changes and the resources of the area; improved crime and security situation in terms of both the number and impact of crime and fear of crime; Io non ho la sensazione di essere in pericolo oggi. ( Today, I don't feel I'm in danger. )

4 significant improvement of the service and cultural opportunities in the area; positive opinion on the new services offered; Si è creata un area vivibile a tutti gli orari. ( This has created a neighbourhood that is liveable at all times. ) an optimistic approach on future developments on the part of those stakeholders who were the most involved in the whole regeneration process; signs of a burgeoning sense of community (although still only connected to the public intervention and not yet a true sense of belonging to the area). Evaluation Italy does not have a strong tradition of evaluation of its security policies and as a matter of fact, the whole project was also designed to test the possibility to introduce some monitoring element while actions are being implemented. Since the audit is itself a sort of evaluation tool for the previous interventions realised in the area, we did not provide a real evaluation, but we took into account reactions to the audit. The involvement and participation process triggered by the actions carried out as part of the audit revealed that residents and users were keenly interested in the process and that they feel a burgeoning sense of belonging. The effort to better spread information about the improvements on the neighbourhood to the whole population of Modena and to opinion leaders (notably journalists and politicians) also contributed to improve the general opinion about the neighbourhood. Strengths and weaknesses The neighbourhood we worked on is very difficult: it has a bad reputation, which is the fruit of years of real problems but also of prejudice. The actions carried out in the past by the municipality, in partnership with associations and the private sector, were different and mostly effective in terms of crime reduction and the improvement of cleanliness and social order. The audit enabled us to better understand the reasons of the enduring bad reputation of the neighbourhood, and showed there is a correlation between acknowledgement of the real conditions of the area and the general opinion about it. This in turn showed that it was crucial to communicate better and more about the improvement actions that had been carried out, what they achieved, and also the existing services available to residents. The success points of the audits are: strong partnership between the municipality, the region and FISU; strong involvement of the different municipal departments (security, local police, social services, statistics, etc.); an open, bottom up approach, which brings to light the real improvements obtained and the remaining problems;

5 Methods and Tools for a Strategic Approachh to Urban Security Tool description the continuous reviewing of results, which led us to redirect the strategies. Areas for improvement Our approach was based on the t idea of integratingg different analysis a andd observation tools and focusing on the people who are aware of the whole context. This revealed a number of areas for improvement: the fact that the overall opinion about the neighbourhood remains negative even though everybody agrees that there have been improvements; the absencee of communication strategy on the part of the local authority to showcase and make visible the improvement actions carried out; the fact that there are still grey areas, with illegal or disturbing activities such as prostitution in some apartments of the main building, drunk d people in the streets, filth and degradation; Oggi per me il problema vero è la prostituzione, io percepisco più le prostitutee che il resto. (For me, the real problem is prostitution. I perceive it more than the rest. the persistence of a number of factors that influence thee general perception off the area (external appearance of the buildings, impact of thee problematic border areas, difficulty to reach residents because of their mobility): Il problema è che il primo impatto visivo non è invitante. ( The problem p is that the first visual impact is not inviting. ) Il comune si deve sbrigare a fare qualcosa qua intorno. ( The municipality should really do something here. ) Perspectives/ comments Although the situation has improved, it is crucial to not lower the t guard because the balance that was achieved is precarious and several risk factors remain. An important issue for the municipality y is the need to investt in communication about the positive aspects of the area, including the improvements achieved and the available resources. This is why the project leaders decidedd to invest a small part of the budget in producing an information leaflet promoting a positive image of District RNord to the whole population of Modena. Any future strategy for further regenerating the area must include the need to improve the appearance of the neighbourhood, notably cleanliness, and of the surrounding areas. Further information THIS PRACTICE SHEET WAS UPDATEDD IN:May 2016 Efus 2016 All rights reserved