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The new law on commune development strategy raises the expectations bar high for the Polish local authorities and senior management. However, it also gives them a chance to improve their governance style, which will be all to the good for residents, businesses and the environment, as well as for themselves.

This is João Paulo Moreira Silva, PhD student at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte. He came from Brazil to learn on development strategies of Polish communes

I stayed in Compton for a week. It has industry, but is known for crime and rap. According to the FBI, in 2010 it was the 8th most dangerous city in the USA.

This time, for 2 days I taught strategic governance to the authorities and management of Jelenia Góra city. I am glad that I could do it for a city that is near and dear to me!

It depends which one 🙂 When I came to Irvine, USA to meet its mayor James Gross, I thought – it’s rather like that.

This is another Polish commune where I explained the new, nationwide regulations in this area. The most important thing, however, is that I managed to show a modern, strategic approach to governance of local socio-economic development. I also believe that I managed to encourage them, motivate them, pass on parts of my strategic governance passion.

Good strategies of communes/cities mean better life, business and the environment, and the development of Poland. However, they must be really good, also in detail, otherwise, instead of development, they will bring serious problems.

I have reviewed and recommend the book “Local innovations strategies as an instrument for creating innovativeness and supporting development”

In order to govern well, you have to want it first. Fortunately, among Polish self-government officials you can often meet people who want it.

During my lectures at Univerzita Jana Evangelisty Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem – UJEP, Czech Republic, I talked with students how the financial independence of local self-governments influences how they develop their communes.

At the jubilee XX Self-Government Forum of Capital and Finance, I had the honor to moderate the plenary debate on “The upcoming reform of the spatial management system and its consequences (including financial) for self- governments”, as well as took a part in the discussion panel on “Financial management as part of the local development strategy”.

I attended the extension professors and agents workshop 🙂 What’s up? Read on!

While visiting the University of Kentucky, I participated in the defense of an interesting self-government’ master’s thesis. Its author, Ms Lindsay Vance examined how the inhabitants’ place attachment influences attitudes to the tourism development. In other words, she checked whether if someone really likes area, then wants to “sell” it to tourists or rather not.

The strategies of rural communes in Poland and other CEE countries are full of intentions to build new roads, sewage systems, community centers, low emission heating sources, public transit connections, etc. Great, these are the foundations of a good life and economy. But can you ask for more? Can innovative services, the most modern companies, high culture – like in big cities – make sense in the countryside?

This is Richard Young (center), founder and executive director of CivicLex, the NGO that is building Civic Health in Fayette County (KY, USA) so well that it is an argument for the United States House of Representatives 🇺🇸 to create a The Trust for Civic Infrastructure as part of groundbreaking modernization of United States Congress – reforms aimed at strengthening American democracy.

“Self-government and the development and strength of the state, on the example of Poland” – a lecture I gave at the California State University, Dominguez Hills for professors of its College of Business Administration & Public Policy at CSU Dominguez Hills.

Cisco is a “ghost town” – an abandoned, small city in Utah, USA. Although I did not meet with its mayor (it was abandoned around 1990), it made a great impression on me.

Students of the University of Kentucky, KY, USA, studying at UK Community & Leadership Development, as part of their classes travel with their professors to distant municipalities to develop various simple projects for them.

At the University of Kentucky, in Lexington, USA, I gave a lecture on Polish communes, local development and research conducted in this area by my Wrocław University of Economics and Business.

In Ponta Delgada, the Azores Islands, I gave a lecture on Polish communes and regulations on theirs development strategies, as well as a speech on (post)pandemic strategies of Polish tourist cities.