Green Danilov. Town for Women and Children

This target program was developed by a group of Russian and German experts in accordance with the Action Plan of the Administration of the Danilov Municipal District of the Yaroslavl Region on the rational use of natural resources and environmental protection, taking into account the real social and economic situation.

Towns, just like people, have problems that bring negative emotions. For the old Danilov - it is, first and foremost, an unattractive urban environment for the people living, the planning of which was carried out without taking into account the needs of the most vulnerable social groups, which leads to unemployment problems, rising criminal rate, lack of a tourism etc..

It is correctly noted: "Do not complain about the problem - find its optimal solution". The customer - the administration of the Danilov Municipal District - assigned this important task to a group of experts from the Institute “Cadaster”, who engaged a German landscape architect, Hans-Jürgen Taurit, as well as an international team of project executors to develop the targeted program "Green Danilov. Town for Women and Children".

Within quite a short time frame (1997-1998), the experts took a number of large-scale actions: they created a greening service for the town of Danilov and Danilov Municipal District, helped to improve the tourist attractiveness of the town, the comfort of the urban environment (primarily for women and children), contributed to partial solution of unemployment problems and decrease in criminal rate.

During the development of the program, the focus was on reasonable and feasible projects, due to which it became possible to create an attractive and comfortable image of a provincial town. This contributed to mitigating the negative effects of the economic crisis for the most environmentally vulnerable social groups - women and children.

At the heart of the program is the idea of "green strategy" that is so unpopular among executives in the crisis phase. The experience of countries that have successfully overcome the crisis has convinced us that people's efforts to break the deadlock should be accompanied by a feeling that the environment is becoming more positive. Work on greening and general improvement of streets is suited for this purpose like nothing else. Usually it does not require high professional qualifications and can be performed by unemployed citizens. Therefore such activities in Danilov in the context of the social and economic crisis were one of the solutions to the problem of unemployment, especially among youth. In this regard, the administration of the municipal district hired 10 unemployed young people and two adults who monitored and managed their actions for rearrangement of green parks on Soviet Square in the town center and on Jubilee Square in the center of residential area.

Experts of the scientific-development enterprise “Cadastre” carried out an expertise of the environment state, positive and problem areas, a special survey and mapping of children's leisure facilities, they proposed appropriate short-and long-term measures to improve residential areas, summarized the opinions of experts of the municipal district on the problem of greening and ways to solve it. In turn, the district administration signed an agreement with the University of Erfurt according to which a graduate from the German university did practical training in Danilov and worked as a tutor for a group of local youth.

It’s known that there is life as long as there is space for living! After the implementation of the project, the psychological climate of the town began to improve. Danilov, a provincial town of Yaroslavl region, with a typical street layout, the atmosphere of rural life, the greenery of gardens and large farmyards, seemed to be "breathing" in a new way. It became more comfortable, modern and convenient for life.