Aline Mayr from CBSS, Leader of our Baltic Sea Youth Platform project supported by the Erasmus+ programme explained how we engage youngsters from the Baltic Sea Region to become more involved in cooperation activities.
See here:
We also encourage you to see the MRS summary video explaining the macroregional strategies in Europe here:
A group of young Europeans has contributed to the publication of the “Manifesto for Young People by Young People to Shape the European Cooperation Policy” in October 2020, on the occasion of the 30 years of Interreg, which is the EU’s flagship scheme for cooperation across borders at the regional and national level, to the benefit of all EU citizens. The Manifesto is the result of a truly democratic and bottom-up process to involve young people in shaping the futureof EU cohesion policy and especially of Interreg and the Macro-Regional Strategies (MRS).
Following targeted surveys, polls and online group discussions with young people from all over Europe, the Manifesto presents five areas of concerns for European youth especially linked to:
1) education and training opportunities;
2) employment and job market;
3) digitalisation;
4) climate change;
5) citizens’ engagement.
12 concrete recommendations are presented mainly addressing decision-makers and administrations at the EU, national, regional and local level to show what they can do to best address young people’s requests.
A core group of young people and organisations interested in European cooperation and/or citizens’, and especially young people’s, engagement, as well as European Commission’s staff, hold regular informal exchanges to best disseminate the Manifesto and ensure its proper follow up with the implementation of the 12 recommendations.
The Manifesto is in the hands of anyone interested in improving EU cohesion policy and especially its cooperation dimension. Being it for a young person, a politician or someone working in a local, regional or national administration, the Manifesto is a great tool to show that young people’s ideas can only improve the way we build a better, fairer and stronger EU for all. As such, young people’s voices must be heard!
All Interreg and Macro Regional Strategies actors are invited to implement the 12 recommendations and to further promote the Manifesto with their network!
On the 11th of March, on the
Lithuania Independence Restoration Day, the port city will host an opening
event, which will announce the beginning of the European Youth Capital 2021
program. This title, which has been awaited for a couple of years, was
taken over from the French city of Amiens. The project consists of nine
platforms presenting young people’s ideas, challenges and problems, such as
weak political activism, an aging city, the avoidance of “inconvenient” topics
and people, and the lack of an environment which would foster entrepreneurship
and creativity. In the 2021 program there will be 67 events, 70 various
organizations, 133 ambassadors not only from many European countries, but also
from such distant countries as Pakistan, Hawaii, and India. The title won is an
extraordinary opportunity not only for young people but also for the city
itself, to attract the attention of European youth, to present the city in an
international context, and to strengthen the identity of European youth.
“Young people, their thoughts and
ideas are the driving force behind every city. As long as young, energetic
people care about their city, every city has a bright future. I would like to
thank the youth of Klaipėda, all the ambassadors and friends of the project,
whose insightful view not only of the advantages of Klaipėda, but also of
sensitive topics, brought this honorable title to the city. I believe that
together we can give Klaipėda an even bigger youthful drive. This year, let
Klaipėda become an exceptionally open city that hears and listens, and in which
people of all cultures, views and groups feel good,” Vytautas Grubliauskas, the
Mayor of Klaipėda, said.
Challenges, achievements, potential
The title of the European Youth Capital is awarded to the
city in two cases – when the city wants to share good practices, or when the
city dares to identify its problems relevant to the young people and takes a
more active approach. Klaipėda was awarded the title in the latter way. Unlike
many of the titles the city has held, the main goal of the European Youth
Capital is to create a city where the young person feels heard and needed.
According to the project idea, Klaipėda will implement a
complex program set out in nine platforms, which consist of the problems,
achievements and expectations identified by the youth. Among the challenges
raised by the project are weak political literacy of young people, lack of an
environment which would foster entrepreneurship and creativity, avoidance of
“inconvenient” topics and people, and an aging city.
Even though the global pandemic has adjusted the original
project plans, number of events and budget, many of the key events have
remained and been successfully carried out throughout the past year.
“Until the beginning of the summer, all events in the program
will take place remotely, using smart technologies, interacting and
communicating over a safe distance. Since much of the events, such as lectures,
discussions, are aimed at certain target audiences, which include several,
sometimes several hundred people, remote events take place successfully,” Greta
Meškauskienė, Manager of the European Youth Capital 2021 project, said.
850.000 Euros are planned for the European Youth Capital
events. This money will be used to organize close to seventy events, including
the opening and closing ceremonies of the European Youth Capital, various
debates, and initiatives.
Exceptional events
The European Youth Capital program includes close to 70
events, discussions, initiatives and actions. A large part of the project
events is dedicated to clearly defined target audiences – schoolchildren,
students, socially sensitive groups. The program highlights seven major events
– the international festival-workshop “BeachArt”, the exclusive international
3D street drawing festival “Art Gates”, the contemporary art and ancient
traditions festival “Gabya”, community meetings “Sleep Under the Stars”, the
youth cooperation initiative “Youth Picnic”, the mega concert of the most
famous Lithuanian LGBT+ friendly and LGBT+ music stars. The program also
includes various sports events – “Non-traditional sports festival”, “Sports
festival” (surfing tournament, skateboard and break dance competitions).
The Open Yyouth Space that will open its doors on Paryžiaus
Komunos street will also be a gift for young people. This will be the second
youth center in Klaipėda. The Open Youth Space on Paryžiaus Komunos street, in
the reconstructed Football School, is due to open in May.
ALL YEAR ROUND EVENTS: Creating attractive urban spaces “I
am not just a wall”; A cycle of success stories for young entrepreneurs on
Youtube; The “Exhibition of 3D drawings and creative space” will take place
throughout the summer.
EVENTS IN SPRING: School Forum; Youth Ambassadors
Forum; Cultural event: Ukraine; Symposium on LGBT+ friendly youth policy
making.
EVENTS IN SUMMER: Youth Summer Academy; Sports
festival; International workshop “New stories of unattractive spaces”;
International youth camp in Ukraine; International festival of creativity;
International festival-workshop “BeachArt”; Festival of contemporary art and
ancient traditions “Gabya”; International conference on sustainable
development; Mega concert of the most famous Lithuanian LGBT+ friendly and
LGBT+ music stars; Non-traditional sports festival.
EVENTS IN AUTUMN: Community meeting “Sleep Under the
Stars”; Youth picnic; Congress of youth workers; International forum “Integration
of People with Disabilities in Educational Institutions: Where We Are and Where
We Should Be”; Youth Ambassadors Forum; Entrepreneurship event “Youth-for-Youth”.
EVENTS IN WINTER: Closing event of the European Youth
Capital 2021.
YOUTH CHALLENGES IN NINE PLATFORMS
The problems and ideas of young people are presented in nine
platforms: “Dialogues”, “Solidarity”, “Leadership”, “Out of the box”, “Spaces”,
“Colours”, “North-South”, “Connections”, “Potential”.
The “Dialogues” platform promotes social involvement, presents the idea of Klaipėda youth political
literacy, its increase, opportunities to participate in the political life of
Klaipėda, the debate culture. The main event of the platform is the YOUTH
AMBASSADORS FORUM. It is a strategic initiative to strengthen the voice of
young people by giving them the space, tools, opportunities and support to
engage and participate in civic processes. The Forum will act as an alliance of
local youth and youth organizations, working closely with and meeting regularly
with policy makers. The platform also includes the Choose Klaipėda Ambassadors
Initiative, which currently brings together 133 ambassadors – people who want
to contribute to the implementation of project activities and seek real change
in Klaipėda. The platform is implemented by Klaipėda University and KU Student
Union.
“Solidarity” is a platform
that changes the image of volunteers and volunteering. The platform is
implemented by the AUK Center together with LCC, the Lithuanian Maritime
Museum, and the Spiritual Support Center for Youth. Among the most important
events of the year – the Humanitarian Camp in Ukraine (LCC) and the Lithuanian
Maritime Museum events – the School Forum and EXPERIENCE, HEAR, DISCOVER
YOURSELF AS THE SEA. The latter event is scheduled for June 8th. On the
occasion of the World Ocean Day, the event on Smiltynė Beach will unite about
2,000 students. The topic of the event ‘getting to know the Baltic Sea’ is best
described by 3 concepts – young, closed, polluted. This is an opportunity to
talk about the most sensitive issues – the isolation of young people and their
internal “pollution”.
The “Leadership” platform is a platform for entrepreneurship and innovative business ideas. The main
event of the platform, “Youth for Youth 2021”, will take place in November. The
event, which became very popular, took place for the first time in 2020,
so it is expected for the event to gain
continuity. Implemented by the Lithuanian Business College.
“Out of the box” is a platform for different,
unusual ideas. The most important event of the platform is the Creativity
Festival on July 11, which will show how to create for a city and find ways to
turn ideas into reality. The platform is implemented by “Klaipėdos šventės”.
“Spaces” – transformation of spaces for
young people, provision of safe spaces for young people. The most important
event of the platform is the BEACH ART festival, which will contribute to
innovative solutions for revitalizing urban spaces. Implemented by “Creators76”.
The “Colors” platform, which deals with “taboo” topics,
is intended for reducing exclusion, raising awareness, and increasing the sense
of security of excluded young people. The platform’s events touch sensitive
topics, from LGBT to the integration of people with disabilities. The main
event is a symposium dedicated to the creation of LGBT+ friendly youth
policy-making.
The “North-South” platform emphasizes the importance of urban decentralization and the need to move
some events, cultural initiatives from the city center to other parts of the
city, and to involve peripheral communities. Highlights of the platform: the
‘newborn’ festival “GABYA” which will take place on 16-18 July. The festival
will become a bridge between the past and the present – ancient traditions,
heritage, ethno and world music, contemporary art and modern electronic
harmony. Among the exclusive events of the platform and the festival “ART
GATES”, which will take place on 21-28 June, and the festival “CITY STARS”,
which will happen on 4 September. The platform is implemented by: College of
Social Sciences, “Creators76”, “Spotas” and other partners.
“Connections” is a horizontal
platform responsible for promoting cooperation between various international
and national institutions and organizations, and project ambassadors. This
ensures that cooperation will continue in the future.
The “Potential” platform is responsible for involving young people in all stages of the design and
implementation of the program, while strengthening youth organizations so that
the voice of young people is heard in every activity.
The title of the European Youth Capital was brought by the port city youth
for the first time not only to Lithuania, but also to Northern Europe, although
the initiative of youth capitals started more than a decade ago. The
competition is organized by the European Youth Forum. Over 500 young people
were involved in preparing the program application. Currently, the #chooseKlaipeda
ambassadors network brings together over 100 young people from outside youth
organizations.
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA WITH THE HASHTAG – CHOOSE KLAIPEDA
Baltic Sea Youth Platform is an Erasmus+ Programme project that aims to
empower youth and foster real participation in decision and policy-making in
the Baltic Sea Region. The platform will enable youth organisations to reach
their fullest potential by empowering them to develop new ideas and pursue them
jointly, under the 2030 Agenda framework’s guidance. Moreover, it will engage
youth at different levels to design a common framework for action and a shared
Baltic Sea Region (BSR) identity. The partnership aims to improve youth’s
political impact on Baltic Sea policy-making, develop tools for better
knowledge transfer, and facilitate various innovative projects relying on the
interests and capacities of youth in a broad range of policy areas.
The BSYP project started on February 1st 2020 and will be completed in
August 2022. Throughout the past year, it supported and got involved in many
youth-oriented initiatives, thus promoting BSYP.
On 2-3rd March 2020 in Elbląg, the first physical strategic partner
meeting took place. Partners from CBSS, BSSSC, UBC, ESN Finland and via Skype
Lithuanian Youth Council met to discuss budgetary issues, intellectual outputs,
and activities planned for 2020 among many Baltic Sea Youth Camp EUSBSR Forum
in Turku.
Over the next months, partners focused on intensive preparations for the
Baltic Sea Youth Camp 2020, developing youth working groups, recruiting its
members, communicating campaigns, and collecting feedback for the BSYP
development purpose.
Between 2-5th June 2020 BSYP participated in the BSSSC Spring Youth
Event. On the 5th day of the conference, Ms Kaarina Williams and Aline Meyer
from CBSS (BSYP Project Leader) introduced BSYP as a new tool for youth
participation in BSR.
Only one week later, on 12-13th June the Baltic Sea Youth Camp 2020 took place. Due to the emerging pandemic outbreak in Europe, the event was held online, instead of primarily planned camp in Turku. The event gathered experts, youth and all enthusiasts of the Baltic Sea Region. It gave them a chance to work on EUSBSR issues and to join the discussion on regional co-operation, climate change, bioeconomy, SDGs, education, culture and youth – leadership and networking.
On July 8th, the first online BSYP working groups meeting was held. Participants who applied for joining Advocacy, PowerBox, Culture and Cities, Research, IT or Communication working group discussed each group’s framework and work plan for the next months.
BSYP was also a partner for the BSSSC Autumn Youth Event organised on
22-24th September, which concerned circular economy and plastic-free
Baltic, Baltic identity and culture, intelligent transport and mobility and
finally co-operation.
At the begging of October, several local events for
young people were organised to familiarise youth with the EU Strategy for the
Baltic Sea Region. One of the hubs was organised by ERB on October 5th in
Elbląg Technological Park. Its purpose was to encourage youth to choose science
and technology studying path.
On October 17th the second edition of virtual
Baltic Sea Youth Camp took place. Again the event gathered many young people
who joined an interactive and fruitful discussion with the participation of
many decisionmakers who presented their personal experience within the EUSBSR.
The event resulted in development of a very promising EUSBSR Youth Declaration
which was later explained by Ms Aline Meyer, BSYP project leader, on the 11th
Annual Forum of the EUSBSR digital edition on October 20th 2020, during a panel
discussion about merging knowledge, skills and working cross-generationally in
the BSR.
At the turn of October and November BSYP was also engaged in the Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue Competition initiative encouraging youth to show their creativity in terms of BSR co-operation.
On Saturday, 12th of December, the ”Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue – Let’s create a sustainable future together!” held an award ceremony to celebrate the participants and winners. The competition which was open for youth ages 18-30 had three categories, essay competition, poster competition and project competition. The winners of the poster category will also be exhibited in the catalogue of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
It was a hard job for the jurys to select the winners out of the 51 received submissions. The jury for the essay competition consisted of Isabel Hölz, Director of the Goethe Institute, Finland, Rein Raud, author and philosopher, Estonia and Arndis Thorarinsdottir, author, Iceland. Ruta Stepanovaite, Director of Kaunas Artists House, Lithuania, David Schilter, comic book publisher, Latvia and Arunas Gelunas, Director of the Lithuanian Museum of Art, Lithuania selected the winners in the poster competition. The project ideas were evaluated by Grzegorz Poznanski, Director General of the CBSS Secretariat, Sweden, Helen Nilsson, Director of the Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Lithuania, Lithuania and Justyna Turek and Henryk Stawicki from Change Pilots, Poland.
The award ceremony included speeches from EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Mr. Virginijus Sinkevičius, German Ambassador to Sweden, Dr. Anna Prinz and Director General of the CBSS Secretariat, Mr. Grzegorz Poznański. The participants also got to enjoy musical performances by Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet theatre, and the Estonian guitar duo Kartau & Kiivit.
Are you a young creative writer, graphic artist or maybe have a project idea for a more sustainable future for the Baltic Sea Region? The Council of The Baltic Sea States (CBSS) is calling 18-30 years old participants around the region to join the competition Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue 2020 – Let’s create a sustainable future together! Choose your field of interest between creative writing, graphic design or developing a project idea. Submit your entry for any of the three given categories until November 30th, 2020. Creative work will be encouraged and prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners at every category will be issued. The finalists will be selected by a renowned jury and honoured during the online award ceremony on December 12th.
So join now, as it is only one and a half weeks’ time left to participate in the Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue 2020 Competitions “Let’s Create a Sustainable Future Together”!
Great
prizes and a festive online Award Ceremony on December 12th
are to be expected. Renowned jury members will be evaluating the
submissions.
You can
also find the information on the website of the Baltic Sea Youth Platform https://bsyp.eu/.
About the Project
The project “Social entrepreneurship development in the in the Baltic Sea region” has been granted within Erasmus+ programme and started its realization in September 2014. Euroregion Baltic joined the Network in 2020 via its Erasmus+ project “InDigiSE – Promotion of social entrepreneurship in the youth sector by digital and informal education tools”.
InDigiSE aims at delivery of youth-oriented, innovative educational tools to develop the entrepreneurial competence in the field of social economy and engage youth within social entrepreneurship.
Its duration will be 24 months starting from April 1st 2020 and closing on 31st March 2022, and the total amount received from Erasmus+ fund is 143.307€.
The project is led by Klaipedos Universitetas from Lithuania with the joint efforts of Kristiansand katedralskole Gimle (Norway), Baltic Institute for Regional Affairs (Poland), Socialas Inovacijas Centrs (Latvia) and Stowarzyszenie Gmin RP Euroregion Baltyk (Poland). In the project, we will present information on social entrepreneurship and social innovation from www.socialenterprisebsr.net addressed to young people.
EUROPE 2020 states that growth has to be delivered through a strong emphasis on job creation and poverty reduction. Social entrepreneurship (SE) is exactly a w method to be used to overcome existing challenges as its main aim is to bring a positive impact to society.
In the “Social economy and social entrepreneurship Social Europe Guide Volume 4 (2013)” it is said that several key challenges of Social economy (build be SE) are found and those are:
lack of visibility;
lack of specialised training;
lack of support network and infrastructure;
access to finance;
lack of uniform regulation.
Seven SE support organisations across the Baltic Sea developed to have a better educational and overall support for SE in the ic Sea region.
Project objectives:
Facilitate SE sector development in the ic Sea region through proper adults education;
Educate public bodies, municipalities, NGO’s and other players about relevant tools of SE support at the national and regional level;
Research SE and share research findings, incorporate those in the legislative, education and other support methods and tools;
Start and promote open educational tool as a network and startup tool to start national and cross border SE activities;
Create stable SE support organizations network and the SE network.
Become a part of the network, and you will become visible. Social enterprises build viable futures – if you are one of them, let others also know about it!
Read our BLOG and keep up-to-date on the latest news and articles on social enterprises and social innovation in the Nordic-Baltic area, and beyond.
As a partner of Let’s Communicate! project, ‘Pomorskie in the EU’ Association has been part of the communication of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region for several years now.
Their latest publication is “Baltic stories”, a digital magazine, devoted to promoting the cooperation around the Baltic Sea, joint initiatives and flagship projects of the European Union Strategy of the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR). You can see the contribution from Julia Orluk, Chairwoman of the Euroregion baltic Youth Board, but also Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło, Head of the ERB International Permanent Secretariat.
Get the full version of the Baltic Stories magazine:
Are you a young creative writer, graphic artist or maybe you have a project idea for a more sustainable future?
The CBSS is calling 18-30-year-olds from around the region to join the competition Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue 2020 – let’s create a sustainable future together! The competition will have three fields of entry to choose from:
Creative writing
Graphic Design
Project Idea
Creative work is encouraged and there will be special prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in all categories.
The finalists will be selected by a renowned jury and awarded during the online ceremony on December 12th.
The deadline for submission is November 30th, 2020.
Make sure to read through both the competition regulations and competition rules for each respective category featured below.
They can be found on the CBSS website or www.bsyp.eu