Support of Local Economies in the Neigh-bourhoods Ahlen South and South/ East / LÖASO

Goals and Tasks

The neighbourhoods Ahlen South and South/ East have been in a process of profound structural change for a long time. In order to especially support the local small and micro-enterprises, which have adjusted their economic activities to a great extent on meeting the local demand, there has been created an interesting and appropriate structure: the model project „Local Economy Office in the Neighbourhood“ funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The Institute for Work and Technology (IWT) assists the Local Economy Office in the Neighbourhood to identify the key priorities and develops recommendations on actions for the future orientation of the Local Economy Office as well as the responsible departments of the municipality. Related fields of action like urban renewal, regeneration, vacant premises and the image of the district will also be taken into consideration. 

Procedure

The Institute for Work and Technology, commissioned by the city of Ahlen, assesses the business inquiry of 350 enterprises based in the concerned districts, which was conducted by the Local Economy Office. From the results key priorities and preliminary recommendations for action will be derived.

After that, the preliminary recommendation for action will be discussed and specified with entrepreneurs and relevant stakeholders from the neighbourhoods concerned. Local stakeholders are considered experts for their neighbourhood who can provide valuable information and assessments for generating final recommendations for action.  As preparation for the moderated expert discussion the IWT will research studies of similar neighbourhoods from other municipalities and related measures they have implemented, in order to evaluate if the formulated recommendations for Ahlen South and South/ East can be considered promising.