Digital & Dematerialization Municipalities

<< Background >>The application for this project emerged from the Liepaja Municipality. The reason for it was related to the continuous calling of their IT Department when colleagues had different problems related to printers and printing. It was obvious how many unnecessary printouts were made. That brought Liepaja to this project idea. As they did not have any experience, Liepaja used a partner search tool and found MVNP, and through discussions realised that there is a similar situation in local governments, and it needs to be changed. It was also observed that most often employees print out of habit, due to a lack of digital skills or due to outdated internal procedures. MVNP presented the idea to Mielec, its twin city and they were also having a similar problem and could relate to the project. IEBA organisation was invited due to its expertise as a training entity and a history of collaboration with municipalities. The consortium was then formed and from application start to working on the goal of digitalization and footprint reduction of each Municipality. << Objectives >>Our main goal with the project was to improve employees' digital skills and as a result reduce expenses on paper and toners, as well as to promote more environmentally friendly thinking. In this way we were also reducing the environmental footprint of each Municipality with an increase in efficiency from our staff due to transitioning from paper to digital. We also wanted to involve our colleagues in international projects and give them a chance to learn from peers and get in contact with different cultures and municipality realities. Serving also has a way of promoting Europeism as well as opening the door and promoting the predisposition of our colleagues to be involved in future Erasmus+ projects. Our last but not least important goal was to cement partnerships with our partners so that this project was th ground upon which other projects could flourish. << Implementation >>This project was implemented in six main activities. 1º Research City Councils: Employees' Work Habits, Digital Competences and Consumables Consumption associated with Printing, procedures that are being digitalized, and services that should be digitalized): Accessing where each Municipality stands. Experience Exchange V.N.Poiares/ Mielec and Liepaja: Sharing of good practices and learning with peers.Framework, Methodology, and Implementation of Digital Skills Workshops: B-Learning - Based on the self-assessment questionnaire the initial research main topics were defined and different strategies were approached for the implementation of workshops in each Municipality.Action Plan Design: Sharing of project developments and learning, together with good practices and insights into future project developments. 2º Research City Councils: Focused on the results from workshops and the developments of the participating colleagues. Together with the analysis of the reduction in printing and associated consumption goods like paper and toners (comparison of results).Dissemination Activities: Social media, website, and physical sharing of the project results to multiple audiences, namely other Municipalities and Local Government. << Results >>Data Generated around employees' digital skills and consumptions associated with printing.Awareness was raised of the reality of each Municipality.Experience exchange/learning between peers and sharing of good practices and different ways to manage paper uses and the digitization phases and actions being implemented in each municipality. Certificate and learning of new tools for the workshop participants.Validation of implemented workshops and project actions via the second research.Production of an Action Plan to promote the discussion around the project topic so that others might build on our project results and share good practices.Openness from our municipality colleagues to be involved in other Erasmus+ Adult Education projects. Staff efficiency is due to the adoption/improvement of digital methods in their daily work.Cost savings due to a greater use of digital procedures