Despite the many negative and challenging news this year there were plentiful great things happening in our cities all around the world. We would like to look back on the last year with you and present the top 10 A City Made By People Local Heroes.

AMSTERDAM – Mérida from Project Fearless is offering young girls a fearless and safe space to develop their own ideas, explore new abilities, identities or confidence and get inspired by leading female role models who support them! With an empowering mindset, the after-school club is focused on strengthening the girls’ will in doing whatever they want and collaboratively make an impact through teamwork, design, and creativity. Watch out, guys – some cool ideas and powerful girls are on their way!

VIENNA – Moritz from The Wiener Berufsrettung (Emergency Medical Service) is working as a paramedic in Vienna. In his daily work during the crisis, he felt particularly strongly the psychological strain that comes with a possible infection with the virus, often without even knowing it. Still, he’s very happy with the commitment of the Viennese to follow public health orders and proud to be able to help the people in case of emergencies, despite the exhausting circumstances at the moment. Thanks, Moritz and colleagues, for your great work during this pandemic! 

BUCHAREST – Alex opened his own restaurant Anika in 2020, only two weeks before the first lockdown was announced for the city. So, there were several challenges coming up for him, but he didn’t give up on it and got rather creative. With a lot of enthusiasm and will to make the gastronomy industry a better and more sustainable place, he works a lot with local and seasonal products and, since the pandemic, is now even preparing his first-class meals for your homes. Hungry after reading this story? Take a look at Anika online! 

LISBON – Susana and Angelo started with the project Grandma came to work in 2014, to offer elderly in the city a place to be themselves, build up new friendships or strengthen the old, be creative, and, most of all, included and active in the community. The social initiative got inventive during the pandemic. Since lockdown measures came into place, they sent DIY knitting kits to the grandmas’ homes to keep them busy and give the women a sense of togetherness and belonging in these difficult times. What a beautiful and inspiring idea!

VIENNA – Gilles from the beautiful bar Die Parfümerie, came up with a neighbourhood action plan during COVID-19. He and his crew teamed up with a local whisky store and a natural wine shop to build up a joint delivery service. Now, they’re together producing their own vodka and gin and thus make your Friday night more fun and maybe even the next Zoom meeting a little tastier. Check out their drinks and, if you’re visiting Vienna, try some delicious new tastes like the ‘Helmut’ or ‘Mama Liliane’! 

MADRID – Clara and Adrián are the founders of Fromajé, a platform which gives the end customer a unique experience of artisan cheese. With their aim to create excellency based on valuable and authentic products, they built up a space not only for cheese-lovers but also for explorations, gastronomic talks, and community meetings. They even created a Journal to bring together like-minded people or explore new relationships through the art of cheese. Isn’t that just amazing and what we’ve all been waiting for? 

MELBOURNE – the team of Rascal, a restaurant in the neighbourhood Brunswick in Melbourne, got creative and engaged during the pandemic. They not only started to give out their food and drinks to people who want to enjoy it at home. They also offer their restaurant space, unused due to the lockdowns, to local retailers and small stores who could then sell their own products in it without any extra fees. Like this, they wanted to build up new relationships and strengthen the social ties of the community, which indeed worked very well! The idea got so successful that they even started an own business with it now, Support Your Local Brunswick. Such an inspiration for everyone to support each other in these challenging times! 

AMSTERDAM – the three women Anneloes, Camila and Tammy from the Neighborhood Feminists started their social initiative only in 2019. With their aim to support the local community in a way, that is fast to implement and easy to realize, they came up with the idea to collect and give out period products in the form of ‘Dignity Kits’ to local women in need. With their organization, they are now supporting several women’s houses in Amsterdam. Their temporal closings during the pandemic affected the work and the opportunity to help immensely. Nevertheless, they started a cooperation with Lush for a local aid campaign and are worked on their own development for the upcoming months, now that the women need the support of the community more than ever. Great work and so motivating to also come up with an own idea!

AMSTERDAM – Casa Migrante is a home to many Spanish speakers in the city. With conversations among locals and migrants, culture exchange, community events, language courses, and diverse workshops, they are offering a safe space to all people who want to be a part of it. Through COVID-19, their work got affected immensely, so almost all physical activities got cancelled and, as far as possible, shifted to online meetups. We all know that it’s not the same experience online, but the organization is working hard on making an impact, even in this stressful time, and is therefore still available for daily phone calls and requests from the community. Keep up the good work and stay strong in these days! 

BUCHAREST – Alexandra from the cute Miss Alé Espresso Bar, started her dream only in 2018. Back then, she finally opened the doors of her own café in Bucharest. After numerous trips around the world, and various inspirations from cities like LA or Berlin, she wanted to bring a creative coffee house culture to her hometown. And here it is! But, of course, her business got also hit hard by COVID-19 and she had to close down the now two shops for the time being. Nevertheless, she teamed up with a local artist and now, under the name Miss Alé Central Culture, the two are producing creative and cheerful illustrations together, combined with delicious food. In this way they want to bring a little lightness, diversity and colour into the otherwise rather heavy everyday life, we believe quite successfully. Food and art, always a good combination! 

Thanks to all the great people we got to meet and share with the community this year! We look forward to an exciting 2021 and are already excited about new encounters, activities and opportunities.

Words by Paulina Fried