European Congress
on Renewal and Rural Development

What is village renewal?

Village renewal is a process of changes planned by the local community. It comes from civic engagement and taking responsibility for one's own village. It leads to an improvement in the standard and quality of life of residents, diversifies sources of income, improves economic and material conditions, builds the specificity of the village, makes it more beautiful and recognizable. But what is extremely important, village renewal simultaneously draws from socio-cultural sources and feeds them, strengthens the identity of its residents. In a word, it builds a living community, makes everyone able to participate in it actively.

More than a quarter of a century ago, when village renewal came to Poland thanks to an initiative of the Opole voivodship (1997), it meant overcoming barriers and eliminating backwardness, including: tidying up, creating common spaces for meetings, holidays and festivals, renovations, building and equipping village community centres. All to make life better.

Today, most villages have overcome such challenges, although old village buildings, roads and power lines still need renovation (revitalisation). Currently, village renewal means cooperation to use technologies, earn money on energy production, create attractive conditions for young people, and provide support to an increasingly large group of seniors. Village renewal today means activities to preserve and develop the community, strengthen its identity. It is also, in uncertain times, building resilience - solutions to all difficult situations that, with climate change, nature does not spare us from.

Village renewal is grassroots - initiated by the local community, based on local resources and cooperation to use them. The villagers are its subject and beneficiary. The best effects are achieved where there is a partnership between the commune and the village council. Some provincial governments offer support by conducting regional village renewal programmes.

The idea of ​​rural renewal, translated into European and Polish programmes and financing tools, has over time changed the landscape of Polish rural areas, strengthened the foundations of identity and cultural heritage while opening up to the near and distant world, taking into account what it can offer society. Captured in the phrase: "the village should remain itself" - presented as a signpost and warning against the aspirations to "urbanize the village." As Ryszard Wilczyński, the initiator of village renewal in Poland, writes in his text ‘25 years of village renewal in Poland – the end of the mission or the beginning of village renewal 2.0?’: “Village renewal triggers personal involvement of residents stemming from responsibility for their own future, provides the opportunity for self-fulfilment and a sense of participation in the community and co-creation, as it activates the basic resource available to society, i.e. people’s involvement. It mobilises its own forces and resources, uses its assets and opportunities found in the environment”.

Village renewal at the Congress

The programme of the European Congress on Renewal and Rural Development includes many debates and workshops referring to the experiences of European countries in implementing the idea of ​​village renewal, as well as Polish regions and villages. You will be able to familiarise yourself with examples of good practices, interesting projects changing the landscape, including the social landscape, of Polish villages.