The experience, tangible results and lessons learned during the CAS pilot, which was carried out from September 2020 to March 2022, and the great interest in advisory support for local governments, make it possible to implement the next edition of the Center for Advisory Support project called CAS Plus,

says Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy Grzegorz Puda.

The 38 local government partnerships participating in the pilot, with the help of experienced experts, have developed good-quality strategic documents whose implementation will contribute to the development of local communities. Local governments' core competencies in strategic and project planning have also been developed, including the ability to cooperate and to use territorial instruments and to further work on a supra-local development strategy.

During the 18 months of consulting, the partnerships prepared: 38 territorial strategies with project packages totaling to 141 (with two partnerships preparing strategies with a functional and spatial model) have been prepared for preliminary feasibility studies for 100 projects, and 38 projects have received outlines for funding applications. The initiatives developed are expected to help the 380 local governments participating in the pilot to, among other things, create new jobs, or improve the quality of public services provided by local governments. The new edition of the project, called CAS Plus, will be implemented until June 2023. Support under the project will be provided to both partnerships previously participating in the CAS pilot (i.e., 37 partnerships), as well as to new partnerships in the number of 40 forming functional areas in the Areas of Strategic Intervention (ASI), i.e., medium-sized cities losing socio-economic functions and areas at risk of permanent marginalization. A total of 77 partnerships from 16 regions will receive support.

Under the new edition of the project called CAS Plus, the support of the competently weakest local governments working in partnerships will be continued.

The CAS Plus project has a practical dimension. On the one hand, as part of the consulting process, strategic documents relevant to development and cohesion policy will be prepared, while on the other hand, competencies will be developed to plan and implement development projects that are being implemented in partnership with other local governments. It depends on the partnership what kind of strategic document will be prepared under the consultancy, ITI strategy, OTI or supra-local development strategy.

In addition, the project will aim to create a system of knowledge and experience exchange for the partnerships of participating TSUs, as well as for the voivodeship’s government, through the organization of networking meetings, seminars and the creation of a knowledge base.

The success of the CAS Plus project understood as the success of the partnerships, requires the involvement of all members of the partnerships, as well as good cooperation with the voivodeship’s governments at all stages of counseling on strategy preparation, project identification and implementation, in order to agree on win-win solutions for all partners.

We hope that after the CAS Plus project is completed, the partnerships will continue to work together, implement joint projects and thus popularize the partnership cooperation model in Poland as the most effective one for finding solutions to common problems and recognizing common development potentials,

says Minister Grzegorz Puda.

The CAS Plus project will be implemented by experienced experts from the Cooperation Fund Foundation and The Association of Polish Cities.