February 14 is Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is about love. Love is a part of the word JarosLove - the name of the project of the city of Jarosław, which, as the creators declare, was created out of love for people. On Valentine's Day, we would like to tell you a story about this project.
Jarosław is a city with a rich history. Literally rich! It flourished most in the 16th and 17th centuries. Large merchant fairs were held here three times a year, attracting even several dozen thousand people. The largest one took place on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the others on Ash Wednesday and on St. Andrzej Day. During the fairs, Jarosław bakers, butchers, brewers, tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths and representatives of other guilds grew rich.
Another field in which Jarosław excelled was education. It was here that the first Jesuit college in Russia was established, famous for its very high level of education.
The city's development was aided by its convenient location on the San River and on the trade route from Silesia to Ruthenia.
Jarosław town hall decorated for Valentine's Day (photo: Center for Culture and Promotion in Jarosław)
Jarosław and its problems
Today, this beautiful city is struggling with many problems typical of medium-sized cities in Poland, which, as a result of political changes, have lost their socio-economic functions. The problems include: decreasing population and aging society. Until the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the city's population was growing, but the collapse of industrial plants in the early 1990s reversed this trend. The most people lived in the city in 1991 - 42,352 people - which is 6,308 more than in 2020, when it was only 36,044 people. Such a large population loss is the result of both a persistent negative migration balance (more people leave than arrive) and a negative natural increase.
Poor air quality in the city is also a big challenge. According to WHO data, Jarosław is in inglorious 20th place out of the 50 most polluted cities in Europe and is the most polluted in Podkarpacie region.
Jarosław Fair in August 2023 (photo: Jarosław City Hall)
People are the most important
The city authorities decided to act and created a comprehensive city development project, for which they obtained Norway Grants. The title of the project is: "Jaroslove - from love for people" and its motto is: "People are the most important."
"People are the most important in the development of a city, because it is they who co-create and develop it" - write the authors of the Local Development Plan, a study prepared as part of the project.
Jarosław Fair in August 2023 (photo: Jarosław City Hall)
What is Jaroslove
The Jaroslove project is actually a set of various projects that are intended to help Jarosław develop. These include typical investment activities, as well as soft activities, aimed at e.g. the development of interpersonal relations or residents' competences. Examples of project activities:
- construction of a communication hub with a green shelter,
- creation of the Jarosław City Card (from the resident's point of view, the system is to be a "city in a nutshell", which will enable dealing with everyday matters in one place, and the solution used is to integrate and gather more and more new services in the future),
- organization of the Jarosław Fair,
- construction of an elevator for people with disabilities at Primary School No. 11 with Integration Departments,
- organization of a summer camp for children,
- creation of an Investor Acquisition and Service Point,
- creation of the IT City Management Center,
- purchase of a low-emission bus.
Visualization of a shelter with a green roof in the transfer center in Jarosław (photo: Jarosław City Hall)
These are, of course, only selected initiatives. There are many more. We encourage you to visit the project website and the project fanpage on Facebook. There you will find information about the latest events.
For the "Jaroslove - from love for people" project, the city obtained over PLN 17.3 million from Norway Grants under the Local Development Programme. The project partners are: State University of Technology and Economics in Jarosław, Polish Association for People with Intellectual Disability in Jarosław, Regional Cluster of Social Economy and Innovation Foundation "Development Center", Association of the Municipal Functional Area Jarosław-Przeworsk, Center for Culture and Promotion in Jarosław, Jarosław Culture and Art Center, District Labor Office in Jarosław.