WESH – We.Service.Heerlen

Located in a former coal-mining area of the Netherlands, Heerlen is experiencing a myriad of socio-economic issues typical for cities which were once heavily dependent on a single industry. Since the closure of the state mines in the 1960s and 1970s, Heerlen has seen high unemployment rates, resulting in a shrinking population and disintegration of the local tight-knit community. This has not only led to a general decline in civic engagement, but it has also resulted in an increased acreage under the responsibility of the urban authority’s maintenance department due to the demolition of housing units. The municipality has thus struggled to keep up with the rising costs of maintaining public spaces as they have grown in size, while the available maintenance budget has shrunk, both due to the decreasing size of the work force and the need to redirect resources to social issues. Consequently, municipality-led surveys showed that the living environment ratings were dropping, and an increasing number of citizens found the public spaces unpleasant. Moreover, the above-mentioned economic difficulties coupled with the growing popularity of online shopping have resulted in a high vacancy rate (15%) in the central shopping area, further contributing to a negative perception of the local environment.

To encourage civic engagement, improve the quality of local public spaces and stimulate the local economy of retail and hospitality, the municipality of Heerlen, together with its partners set out to develop a platform where citizens can pick and complete various maintenance tasks around the city in exchange for a reward - a virtual currency, which serves as an incentive mechanism and can be used solely in various local businesses. The currency (and the associated app) was named ‘Heerlens Heitje’, with Heitje deriving from the Dutch saying for bob-a-job: ‘Heitje voor karweitje’.

In practice, the IFS works as follows: the municipality sets a number of accessible and relatively easy public maintenance tasks around the city (initially - sanding and painting park benches and public trash bins, renewing the yellow no-parking markings on curbs and designated concrete roadside posts) (Step 1). Citizens can then choose specific tasks and perform them (Step 2), with tools and materials provided by the municipality (Step 3). Upon completion of the tasks (Step 4), their proper execution is verified by a municipal employee, and the citizens are awarded a pre-defined amount of Heitjes (1 Heitje = 1 EUR) – the local digital coins, (Step 5) which can be used solely at local shops, bars and cultural organisations, which have joined the initiative (Step 6). Once the coins have been cashed in for their products and services, the municipality reimburses the local business (Step 7).[1] Later more tasks were added, such as cleaning up public playground equipment, by removing graffiti, markings and stickers; walking with elderly disabled citizens through the park and thereby accompanying them; as well as keeping an eye on the neighbourhood as a night watch. The picture below shows some of the tasks and the amount of Heitjes allotted for performing them.

Figure 1. Visual representation of the IFS

The IFS relies on a digital platform, which was created by applying Blockchain technology. It has three main features: a mobile app for citizens (to find tasks and commit to a task), a web application for local businesses (to receive payments) and a municipal dashboard to upload and control tasks.

By using this IFS, the municipality could get some help in maintaining the public spaces and could encourage citizen engagement. For citizens, it was viewed as a way to improve their neighbourhood, engage in something meaningful and receive a financial reward. For local businesses, participating in the initiative could attract more customers, thus gaining extra turnover.

It is important to note that the intention was not to take the jobs away from the municipal maintenance staff, but rather to help attend to tasks they were unable to do due to time constrains. As such, special care was taken to ensure that WESH did not become a threat to the jobs of municipal staff.[1]  

The design of the IFS was initiated and led by the municipality of Heerlen, which identified and invited relevant partners to join (for full list of partners and their roles see the Governance structure section below). Weekly internal team meetings with a small number of municipal employees took place for the day-to-day management of the project. Partner meetings took place every 6-8 weeks to discuss progress on their respective tasks (e.g. development of the digital platform, the technology behind the digital currency, engaging with local businesses, etc), and next deliverables.

One partner involved in the design and implementation– the neighbourhood association GMS (Grasbroek-Musschemig-Schandelen) was responsible for engaging an initial small group of volunteers to kickstart the platform, before it was subsequently expanded.

Over the course of implementation, there were focus group meetings (organised by the consortium implementing the project) with citizens. Through these meetings, it was determined that the initial set of tasks were not suitable for citizens who were unable and not skilled enough to perform the painting jobs. Through multiple discussions with the social department of the municipality, some additional cleaning, caretaking and surveillance tasks were added.

The design of the IFS and its subsequent integration into the municipal systems proved challenging. The idea was novel, and it needed to be built from scratch – from technological (e.g. development of the software), procedural (e.g. establishing relationships with the local businesses)  and even societal (e.g. explain the concept to the local community and fostering acceptance) point of view (see Obstacles below). Once everything was in place, it was fairly straight-forward to run, as long as there was sufficient interest on the part of the citizens and local businesses.

The target group of the IFS were all citizens of the city of Heerlen. Through the use of the IFS, th project aimed at achieving the following:

• 150 man-hours crowdsourced for public space maintenance
• Improved quality of pavements (rating increased by 1 on IBOR scale[1])
• Improved quality of street furniture (rating increased by 1 on IBOR scale)
• Improved cleanliness of public spaces (rating increased by 1 on IBOR scale)
• Increased frequency of small-scale public space maintenance (50%)
• 5% of the population of Heerlen between the age 18-65 registered on the WESH App
• At least 85% of registered users are active users of the WESH app
• At least 90% of the executed tasks on the WESH app are validated as done well
• At least 95% of the published tasks on the WESH app are marked as completed
• Minimum 80% of Heitjes spent within 3 months of their acquiring
• Social Cohesion and Wellbeing increased by 8%
• Execution costs 30% lower compared to regular maintenance by the municipality

[1] Integraal Beheer Openbare Ruimte (IBOR) stands for integrated management of public space.and it includes a rating of various aspects of public spaces.

The total costs of the IFS was € 2,619,429. The budget breakdown is summarised in the table below.

The main source of funding was the Urban Innovative Action grant. In addition to the UIA funding, the municipality contributed for most of the remaining 20% of co-financing (with Statistics Netherlands contributing their share).

Specific costs could not be identified, however, they include maintaining the digital platform, as well as minor expenses for paint, brushes, etc.

The design and implementation of the IFSs was done by a consortium involving[1]:

• a dedicated team of employees of municipality of Heerleen, who led the project and took a facilitating role in relation to the digital platform and the project itself[2]
• CoTown, a French startup and one of the residents of Heerlen’s Brightlands Smart Services Campus, which developed the software for the digital platform by applying blockchain technology for community service tasks
• the city centre management organisation Heerlen Mijn Stad (an NGO), which was responsible for engaging local retailers on the platform and providing the right content and incentives
• the neighbourhood association GMS (Grasboek-Musschemig-Schandelen) (an NGO), which engaged the first group of active users
• Statistics Netherlands (CBS), which monitored the users (where and when) and the effects of the project on the ratings for the public space and liveability in general (social well-being)
• Heerlen’s Brightlands Smart Service Campus, which provides business support
• Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG), which captured knowledge and shared experiences.

[1] We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 1 | Portico

[2] WESH: relying on the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ in managing the city | Portico

Among the key factors, which played a key role in the implementation of the IFS were:

• dedicated team within the municipality made up of open-minded and motivated individuals
• UIA funding, which afforded significant amount of time and space for experimentation.

The experience with this project pointed to other factors that are of key importance in the implementation of such an IFS, namely:

• easily accessible digital platform
• varied tasks offering
• use of group challenges that allow neighbours and friends to perform tasks and use their earned coins together.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying restrictions led to project delays and created significant difficulties in the implementation of the IFS both because citizens were limited in the extent to which they could perform the tasks and because it was challenging for local businesses to join the initiative due to lockdowns.[1]

The pandemic, along with the local elections and the energy crisis took up a significant proportion of the resources and attention of the municipality, which meant that at times there was limited political focus on the project. Nonetheless, the support and interest by one Alderman[2] in the project was key, pointing to the importance of political support.

Additionally, in Heerlen 4,500 out of its 86,000 inhabitants are recipients of social security benefits. The opportunity to gain financial rewards through the project was presumed to be very attractive to them. However, in practice they were reluctant to take part as they were concerned that their social security payments will be cut. It is assumed that the number of participants would have been 3 to 5 times higher had they been more clearly communicated that there would be no impact on them.[3]  

[1] WESH Zoom-In 2: Participatory approach explained | Portico

[2] Aldermans are members of municipal assemblies or councils in the Netherlands and Belgium.

[3] WESH: How social innovation improves participation and cohesion | Portico

• Bureaucratic challenges[1]:

The implementation of the IFS was accompanied with significant challenges due to the expectation of the Dutch tax authority that the earnings from the completed tasks should be treated as income which is subject to taxation. Initially, the Dutch tax authority wanted to raise wage tax for performers by requiring citizens to register at the Chamber of Commerce as self-employed entrepreneurs, which would have significantly reduced the number of willing participants. Subsequently, following multiple discussions held by the former Mayor and Alderman and the tax authority, the latter granted a wage and VAT exemption for the project. With a maximum of 1,500 euros earnings (1,500 Heitjes) on the platform, the citizens were solely required to register the amount of Heitjes earned on the platform in their annual tax return. The WESH project team made sure that all Heerlen’s citizens could have a chance to earn a few Heitjes (15 EUR/hour), removing the need to be classified as entrepreneurs and without impacting the local employment market. Reaching this agreement delayed the project implementation by 5 months.

However, within the first few weeks of the launching of the IFS, it became clear that some citizens were reluctant to take part as they did not believe that the tasks were tax exempt, and they were concerned that they would lose access to their social benefit if their income was determined to be higher. This was exacerbated by the fact that there was a national scandal in the Netherlands in 2020 over ethnic profiling and wrongfully cutting allowances by the tax authorities.[2] As a result, the project team lowered the wage for the tasks from 15 to 5 EUR an hour, thus categorising the execution of tasks as voluntary work, which is not subject to taxation. Ironically, this meant that to stimulate participation, the reward was decreased.

The legislation around voluntary work mandates that individuals under the age of 21 could make 2 EUR/hour, which meant that the digital platform needed to collect personal data, which had to be verified and meant that the platform had to be GDPR-compliant, creating a roast of additional challenges.

These challenges underline the need for micro-entrepreneurship policy in order to define national tax regulations and restrictions.[3]

The project also experienced challenges with the Dutch National Bank, which is the only authority in the country that authorises currency creation. Only after it was explained that the digital coin is fully backed by EUR, was this issue resolved.

• Chicken and egg conundrum[4]

In order to kickstart a digital platform successfully, both sufficient users as well as local business were needed. To convince the latter to join, sufficient customers are required. And those platform users will only join if there are sufficient interesting products and services available on the platform. This chicken and egg problem meant that significant efforts needed to be made to attract both groups by making the platform as easy as possible to use and the tasks attractive enough. A decision to exclude all retail and hospitality chains in favour of locally active, small-scale, local family-owned businesses, this led to limited participation by entrepreneurs in the first year of the project, which in turn did not help the engagement of residents.  

• Insurance:[5]

The project team needed to consider potential consequences if someone were injured while performing a task. Ultimately, the municipality altered its insurance to cover delegated tasks.  

• Leadership:

The implementation of the IFS was affected by unexpected personnel changes, which introduced disruptions to team dynamics and issues with knowledge transfer. To tackle the challenge of maintaining partner engagement, a transparent handover process was implemented to navigate unexpected personnel changes. Furthermore, regular team-building activities were introduced to foster collaboration and strengthen interpersonal relationships, creating a cohesive and resilient team.

• Pushback[6]:

The premise of the IFS itself generated unexpected negative feedback from some citizens, who believed that maintenance tasks were the responsibility of the municipality and did not agree that they should be performed by citizens.

[1] We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 4 | Portico

[2]In order to create risk profiles of individuals applying for childcare benefits, the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration used algorithms in which ‘foreign sounding names’ and ‘dual nationality’ were used as indicators of potential fraud. As a result, thousands of (racialised) low- and middle-income families were subjected to scrutiny, falsely accused of fraud and asked to pay back benefits which they had obtained completely legally. Thus, the algorithms led to racial profiling. For more information: Parliamentary question | The Dutch childcare benefit scandal, institutional racism and algorithms | O-000028/2022 | European Parliament

[3] We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 1 | Portico

[4] WESH Project Capitalisation II: Pitfalls & Prospects | Portico

[5] WESH: our solution is working trust-based and making it happen | Portico

[6] We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 4 | Portico

A number of initial targets were surpassed:

• 1818 man-hours crowdsourced for public space maintenance – significantly outperforming the target of 150 man-hours
• 99% of the executed tasks on the WESH app are validated as done well (target 90%)
• 90% of Heitjes were spent within 3 months of being earned (target 80%)

This suggests that among those who participated, there was interest in both performing the tasks diligently and using the earned digital coins. It was also considered that the initial target of man-hours represented a significant underestimation.

Through the use of the IFS, several targets were met:

• Improved quality of pavements – the rating increased by 1 on IBOR scale
• Improved quality of street furniture – the rating increased by 1 on IBOR scale and it is improving due to continued work
• The frequency of small-scale public space maintenance uncreased by 50%
• Execution costs became 30% lower compared to regular maintenance by the municipality.

Lastly, a number of targets were not met:

• Improved cleanliness of public spaces – there was no change in the rating
• 1% of the total population of Heerlen between the age 18-65 had registered on the WESH App at the time of project completion (2% at the end of year 4) (target 5%)
• Only 13% of registered users were active users of the WESH app (target 85%)
• 84% of the published tasks on the WESH app are marked as completed (target 95%)
• Social Cohesion and Wellbeing increased by 4% (target 8%).

Overall, about 20,000 EUR were used to purchase goods and services offered by local businesses.

The above results indicate that some of the selected tasks did have a positive effect on the attractiveness of the public spaces and the IFS helped lower the cost and increased the frequency of delivery of maintenance tasks in the city. Similarly, the large majority of the earned coins (90%) were used and contributed to the local economy. However, the interest in participating in the project was significantly lower than initially hoped, which had an impact on the overall results, such as improved cleanliness and fewer tasks than published being completed. This could be explained by the COVID-19 pandemic and the novelty of the idea. Nonetheless, some of the results suggest that the initial expectations regarding the impact of the project and IFS on social cohesion and wellbeing were unrealistic. This does not necessarily reflect on the effectiveness of the IFS but rather on the overall expectations related to its impact – the WESH app appeared to be a suitable tool for addressing most of the public maintenance tasks, however, improving social cohesion and wellbeing requires much more substantial changes within the local community.

The most innovative part of the IFS was the creation of a government-backed local digital currency to enhance participation, economic dynamics, and the improvement of public spaces – this was an entirely novel idea. Through the process of developing the IFS, the project also resulted in transformative changes in governance and working methods within the municipality, fostering a more innovation-friendly environment. The multidisciplinary approach needed for the design and implementation of the IFS has encouraged collaborative problem-solving, breaking down silos and promoting cross-functional teamwork.[1] The WESH project was awarded the IEEE[2] Smart Cities Awards, as the best EU solution in 2022. It was highlighted as an example of governance innovation, which pioneers in crowdsourcing on a blockchain platform.[3]

The fact that the digitally earmarked money could only be spent in pre-determined locations has also given rise to the idea that other governmental allowances (so-called geographically bounded programmable money) could be used for pre-determined services and currently members of the project team are working with other cities on this topic.

[1] UIA Final Qualitative Report, Internal document, made available by UIA Permanent Secretariat

[2] Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

[3] We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 4 | Portico

The IFS is still in use and the City Council earmarked approximately 200,000 EUR in the municipal budget for ongoing structural improvements, including the operational expenses for the app. This effectively doubled the initial project period.[1] A new project leader was tasked with maintaining the current activities and expanding into additional domains.

For the sustainability of WESH on the long term, the municipality of Heerlen is looking for ways to either connect with or integrate the digital currency into ongoing community related projects. Examples of potential local community projects that engage citizens are Buurthelden or ‘neighbourhood heroes’ and Buurtdeals. In Buurthelden children can earn credits for buying toys by collecting litter in their neighbourhood. In Buurtdeals citizens help to create new public facilities within their community, by deciding and supporting the development of an empty plot into an outdoor gym, a vegetable garden or a public barbecue.[2]

[1] WESH Project Capitalisation II: Pitfalls & Prospects | Portico

[2] We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 4 | Portico

Through discussions with the municipal secretaries of the Parkstad region (which Heerlen is part of) in 2022, it became increasingly clear that Heerlens Heitje is a context specific solution and other municipalities have varied needs and preferences for a platform to delegate municipal tasks or a local digital currency. A key factor was the missing urgency and lack of allocated budget. This made scaling the IFS to other municipalities and different contexts much more difficult than anticipated earlier on.[1]

A key obstacle to scaling up the IFS was the fact that the sources code of the platform software is not publicly available. It is, therefore, important to strike a balance between the need for software developers to make a profit and the need to enable managing authorities to access use the software without starting from scratch (e.g. through a subscription-based fee).[2] Ultimately, CoTown agreed to make certain parts of the software open source, so that it could be more easily adopted by other public entities.[3]

[1] We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 3 | Portico

[2] WESH: relying on the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ in managing the city | Portico

[3] We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 3 | Portico

Currently there are no concrete steps taken to replicate this IFS. Nonetheless, it is also important to note that although the idea originated from the perspective of the public space (with tasks that first mainly focus on maintenance), the concept should be applicable to several other domains (safety, prevention or care) and the evidence shows that other cities have worked on similar projects in parallel.[1] For a replication to be successful, it would need to be accompanied by several key steps,  such as revising the regulatory framework, securing full political commitment, ensuring a sufficient critical mass of users. 

During the implementation of the WESH project, other cities, such as Gothenburg, Dublin, Marseille and Brno, showed interest in the IFS[2] and a delegation from nearby Sittard-Geleen visited Heerlen to learn from the city's experiences with the digital coin.

[1] WESH: looking for ways to further engage and continue | Portico

[2] We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 4 | Portico

The implementation of the IFS showed that engaging in the development of such apps is beneficial for municipalities, as they could change their governance and working methods, fostering a more innovation-friendly environment. Similarly, public outsourcing, or crowdsourcing, could lead to a better understanding by the public of the tasks performed by the municipality and tidying up the neighbourhood could bring more pride and control of the community over its surroundings.^[1]

The implementation of the IFS within the WESH project underscored the importance for urban authorities developing such an IFS to:

• Set up a dedicated and open-minded project team
• Secure political support
• Dedicate sufficient time and resources to create citizen and business buy-in
• Ensure that the digital platform is easy to navigate and offers varied and attractive tasks, as well as group challenges.
• Place sufficient emphasis on communication, which proved to be paramount when an initiative is this new and there are legitimate concerns about the implications of using the digital coin.

The experience with this project pointed that for such IFS to be implemented, it is recommended that urban and local authorities advocate for national authorities to:

• allow room for experimentation (e.g. through tax exemptions)
• develop a micro-entrepreneurship policy in order to devise national tax regulations and restrictions and allow further experimentation[2]
• work on striking a balance between the need for software developers to make a profit and urban authorities’ need to access and use the software without starting from scratch (e.g. through a subscription-based fee) by making parts of it open source
• consider a potential standardisation of digital coins (e.g. at regional level) as a way to simplify the implementation of such projects and IFS.[3]

[1] We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 4 | Portico

[2] We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 1 | Portico

[3] WESH: relying on the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ in managing the city | Portico

• WESH: How Heerlen’s citizens bob-a-job in a digital age | Portico
• WESH – We.Service.Heerlen | Portico
• We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 1 | Portico
• WESH Zoom-In 2: Participatory approach explained | Portico
• WESH: looking for ways to further engage and continue | Portico
• WESH: relying on the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ in managing the city | Portico
• WESH: How social innovation improves participation and cohesion | Portico
• We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 4 | Portico
• WESH Zoom-In 1: In-depth explanation of the tax challenges | Portico
• WESH: our solution is working trust-based and making it happen | Portico
• WESH Project Capitalisation II: Pitfalls & Prospects | Portico
• We.Service.Heerlen (WESH): Journal 3 | Portico
• WESH Final Annual Progress Report, Internal document, made available by UIA Permanent Secretariat
• WESH Final Qualitative Report, Internal document, made available by UIA Permanent Secretariat
• Interview with Pieter Bonnema, WESH Project Manager