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When the alderman with diversity in his portfolio took office, the rainbow community invited him to a walk through the queer history of the municipality. He was so enthusiastic that he granted a subsidy for a project about this history.

Trailblazing
I organised a brainstorm with key figures from the queer community to find a form for presenting this history. This became an online canon, a timeline with events and people. The mayor unveiled this canon.

Result
The canon inspired people to get involved in this history. It unleashed a wave of creative expressions, such as theatre and music productions, exhibitions, publications and walking routes. It still does. The canon itself continues to grow, as does the group of historians working on it.

General practitioners report that in this city they see elderly people with a migration background only when problems pile up. They then have to arrange acute care and are unable to give real attention to all problems at hand.

Trailblazing
A GP asks me to help build a network in the city that can develop an approach to get these elderly people into the picture at an earlier stage. Together we build a network with the major care and welfare organizations in the city and the municipality. We experiment with new approaches and doing so, develop a workable approach. We organize an annual symposium to share our findings. The organisations sign a agreement in which they promise each other to make a joint effort to improve the support.

Result
The welfare organisation organises successful meetings in the neighbourhoods for this group. Present there is an employee of the healthcare organisation who can help find suitable support. The healthcare organisation has a group of bicultural employees who are given the opportunity to visit families and thus build trust. They can arrange suitable support with a ‘warm’ transfer.

Elderly people with a migration background are more likely to be noticed by healthcare and welfare organisations. All parties involved work on the cultural sensitivity of their organisation.

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Municipalities take over a large part of the care for vulnerable people from the national government. To this end, they form neighbourhood teams with professionals who support vulnerable people in all areas of life. A large municipality has been experimenting with a new approach: creating teams of people working in the neighbourhoods, based on the needs in the neighbourhood. The linchpin of such a neighbourhood team is the neighbourhood coach. The coach identifies which families need help and guides the families themselves or uses help from others.

Trailblazing
‘Turn the idea into an experiment’, is my assignment. I make a project plan, set up a project organization and ensure support. I organize the collaboration with the parties involved. In order to keep the process fast, I do not request a budget, but ask each party for their own contribution in manpower and resources. The parties involved have a great need to experiment with the new method. And thus grows the first neighborhood team more or less organically. A major task is to convert the us-them thinking into fruitful collaboration: breaking down barriers.

Result
Within six months, the first neighbourhood team is operational. Collaboration partners include youth and disabled care, housing corporations, municipal institutions and the energy supplier. The new team ensures better help for families with (threatening) problems in the neighbourhood and in an earlier stage.

Sports and homosexuality are often at odds. A professional footballer would still be better off hiding his homosexuality. Fortunately, there are organizations worldwide that promote the acceptance of homosexuality in sports. They stimulate major sporting events where sexual diversity is central. Cities can submit a bid if they want to organize such an event. My city is submitting a bid for a European sports event.

Trailblazing
I am one of the four pacers who, motivated by their own ideas, decide to take a chance. This event is an opportunity to increase the visibility of homosexuality in our city. With a lot of imagination but almost no resources, we start the preparations after the acceptance of the bid. Under high pressure: we have less than two years. It requires intensive cooperation, creativity and perseverance. With the help of six hundred motivated volunteers and professional organizations that sponsor in kind, we keep the costs limited.

Result
A professional event with ten sports tournaments and an extensive cultural program. Highly appreciated by the three thousand athletes and twenty thousand visitors. With great support and a balanced budget. Our biggest fan, the mayor, receives a standing ovation at the closing ceremony.

The municipality wants to profile itself as a tolerant city. Who can get an open-air event off the ground in which LGBTQIA+ are portrayed in a positive way?

Trailblazing in the cultural sector
A group of people are tackling this challenge. We are setting up a foundation to organise the event. As chairman of the board, I bring people and organisations together. Together we take responsibility for the organisation and execution. Three quarters of a year later, the event is up and running and is a success thanks to the great efforts of loads of volunteers and the support of many organisations. With over 10,000 visitors from all over the country, it puts the municipality on the map as a tolerant city. We decide to repeat the event annually. The event grows every year, also because more and more initiatives are joining under the motto 1+1 > 2. For example, film premieres, theatre performances and exhibitions attract extra people. After four years, I hand over the chairmanship.

Result
The event grows into an annual festival that lasts two weeks and attracts over 12,000 people. The festival receives the tolerance award from the municipality and conquers a permanent place on the events calendar.

The sexual health of youth is deteriorating. More sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancies and sexual abuse. The State Secretary wants a national program for sexual health of youth.

Trailblazing for sexual health
The national and regional players unite around a new brand. I help by talking to the decision makers of the major parties and building an organizational structure that ensures joint responsibility and unity. Within this structure it is possible to deal with mutual tensions and resistance to change. My role as chairman of the steering group ends with the national launch of the new brand by the State Secretary. After the launch I direct – together with two content experts – the national implementation of the new approach.

Result
This creates a national brand for youth sexual health with an intensively used website at its heart (one million unique visitors within a year). A subsidy scheme supports local and regional activities. The national registration provides insight into the result. The program ensures more knowledge and a healthier attitude towards sexuality among young people.

The municipal health services offer free STD screening for high-risk groups, funded by the national government. The STD clinic in this large city has traditionally been part of the large city hospital. Time and again, the hospital appears unable to meet all the conditions of the funder.

Trailblazing in health care
As head of the STD-department of the municipal health service, I visit STD outpatient clinics in the country and notice that clinics that are executed by the municipal health services reach the high-risk groups better than the hospital clinics. I therefore propose to transfer the clinic from the hospital to the municipal health service. After the approval of board and management of both institutions, I start the takeover process and develop the new outpatient clinic with experts.

Result
With staff and expertise from the hospital, the municipal health service opens its own STD outpatient clinic and continues to innovate. For example, with selection at the front door, integration of prevention and care, integration of STD and sexual education, partner notification, on-site testing and online testing. The clinic reaches more and more people from high-risk groups and the number of STDs found is increasing.

There is a big gap between the policies of both parties. The policies of one party are a thorn in the flesh of the other. The gap seems unbridgeable.

Trailblazing and diplomacy
Within a committee of experts, the idea arises to seek cooperation now, specifically around scientific research. Collaboration in two such different contexts creates solid knowledge. As secretary of the committee, I am the trailblazer in the background. I take care of the contacts and the meetings. With experts from both parties, I design the cooperation procedure. Navigating such politically and administratively complicated waters requires a lot of strategic thinking and discretion.

The result
Research programmers from both parties sign an agreement. Both organizations then finance research and fruitful exchange meetings. The CEOs of both parties see this bilateral collaboration as a great success. The research yields valuable knowledge, the collaboration improves the relationship.