• every citizen can express his problems and his point of view;
• to spread the knowledge and to increase the value of projects achieved and in progress;
• to get and exchange information and knowledge;
• a real representing of the community is created, making it be active in defining new plans on the territory;
• to work for a sharing vision of the priorities to achieve between deliberators and citizens.

The forum by itself does not complete an Agenda 21 process but without it the process will turn out to be an empty box. In a forum a city questions about its present and sometimes about its past to understand its future; it is a place where we try to respond to several questions, the kind of questions which are usually asked just during debates among “experts”, as... how do we want to be in 10 years? What do we expect from ourselves and from the other members of the community? What does “development” mean in our city? Why “sustainable”? but also concerning with daily problems, to which citizens of every age can contribute, as... who can help me recover that unused area of my neighbourhood? How can I solve the problem of security on the streets? How can I commit myself to guarantee the safety of the health of my children and their school-mates? What do I have to do encourage the access to my shop without worsening the context quality, etc.? Every stakeholder (every citizen who wants to express a specific interest, of any kind, through an organization, an association, or individually) takes part to the forum.

The forum – as already said before – has the purpose to elaborate the Local Action Plan, but, as often happens, the path we follow is as important as (or maybe even more important than) the final goal… anyway, it is a place for discussing, of course, but it is also somehow a fair and a market of ideas and proposals to everyone, where the wisest ideas (the ones concerning with the real citizens’ needs, and not with the interests of few) can prevail.

One thing is for sure: the forum is neither easy nor immediate, it requires patience, it is a long time investment for everybody, and most of all, it has a price for the participants: it takes responsibilization, both in discussing and achieving the actions… in other words, it takes a real participation.