Savecity

There is a neighbourhood in the centre of Tallinn called Uus Maailm. It's nice and cosy; the houses are small, many of them wooden. The place used to be quite busy with small grocery stores, pubs and workshops around. After the Soviet times and the newly gained independence, little of all that was left. At the worst of times, it was even dangerous to walk on the streets.

Then, in 2006, four guys started renovating the facade of a very nice, old wooden house. And people passed by, saw their cheerful faces and heard laughter. After a long, quiet period of alienation, neighbours were once again greeting each other. The four guys had fun working together and when the summer ended, they didn't want the fun to end. So, they started a community to bring people together and life back to this beautiful city-centre village. 

When autumn came, trees turned into bright colours and the leaves started to fall down. The people of Uus Maailm came out to the streets and started to rake leaves. The huge piles of leaves were perfect for jumping into. Everybody joined in. And it was a blast! Gallery . 
February 24th is Independence Day in Estonia. Winters here are cold and dark; there is little that can attract people to come outside. It is common to celebrate Independence Day with a nice dinner at home. But the people of Uus Maailm did something totally unexpected - nearly 200 people gathered around one table and had dinner on the street at the end of February. This is a day that everybody remembers. Gallery 

Local communities are formed by people who share the same neighbourhood. People who care about their local environment and take action to make it a better Home. More than defining a community, it is about experiencing one. Based on our experience we can say that it definitely is a vital and dynamic union, setting its own goals and ways to achieve them.

You can start a community to promote local businesses, to transform a once-depressed neighbourhood into a funky, larger-than-life art mecca. Or you can start a community to deal with global issues (be it peak oil or climate change) or to bring together a group of people with the same interests as you. Whatever it is that you get a kick out of.

Starting a community makes you face some basic issues:

• how do you get to know people in your area?
• what should you do first?
• how to involve more people?

Well, here's what you've got to do: you need to check out the Community Tips , a handful of the best practices and valuable tips that lead you step-by-step to the secrets of building a better community.
 
 

The next step is Community Tools, a set of free tools that help build communication inside your local community. Community Tools are designed to:

• map public services, healthcare, schools etc in your area
• create your own interactive map
• create and manage events
• promote local businesses
• share tools, books, movies, expertise etc in your area
• communicate important local issues to responsible city-planners
• etc .. the sky is the limit :)

All content will be user-generated, interactive and extremely user-friendly. Community Tools’s mission is to inspire, encourage, connect, support and train community builders.

We can save our cities through co-operation, effective communication and by sharing our expertise and resources.