On April 16, 2025, the first workshop for community engagement within project “RurALL – Livable Rural Communities of the Future – A New Integrated Governance Model to Address Rural Depopulation” took place in Hodod. The meeting program included presentations, debates and a workshop on providing new functionalities to deteriorated or abandoned buildings. The workshop had four objectives: to inform participants about the RurALL project; mobilizing project participants; identifying ideas regarding community needs; collecting firstl ideas about how to use abandoned/ deteriorated dwellings. Through community engagement , 3 possible functionalities of the buildings after renovation were identified:
-private (potential for individual use, single family use and multi-family use)
-commercial (potential for start-ups, small business, tourist services, etc.)
-public (potential for common good, serving community needs).
Participants debated the following questions:
- How can my community remain livable and worth residents?
- How can we use unused local resources, like abandoned dwellings or human/economic/natural resources, to achieve this in the next years?
The Satu Mare County Intercommunity Development Association was represented at the workshop by the project implementation team, and the event moderator was Ms. Gyüre Rotariuc Noémi Andrea – chief architect at the Satu Mare County Council and expert in the project.
The RurALL project is funded through the Danube Region Programme 2021–2027 and aims to develop a governance model to address rural depopulation by improving planning, management, decision-making, and collaboration processes within rural communities to exploit the potential of abandoned/unused buildings. The project involves 14 partners from 11 countries, and the strategic associate partner of the Intercommunity Development Association of Satu Mare County in this project is Hodod Commune. The project will develop possible models for the rehabilitation of unused buildings in Hodod Commune to prevent depopulation in the area. The total value of the project is EUR 2,597,692.50, with EUR 159,700 allocated to the Association within the project framework.
