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#EuropeanHomeParliaments initiative

  • Citizens have no say in EU politics?! That belongs to the past with the #EuropeanHomeParliaments.
    To participate, you invite your friends or family to talk about a political topic – this time #EUSolidarity. This can take place online or at your homes or a public place. The citizen movement @PulseofEurope provides material to facilitate the debate. After you finished talking, you are asked to collect some key results, which you punch in on the platform. Find out more on homeparliaments.eu or watch the video here.

    Follow #HomeParliaments and #EuropeanHomeParliaments to find out what European politicians including Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Polish Łukasz Kohut and many others do with the results of your discussions.

“We are happy to support a great project by the pro-European citizens’ movement Pulse of Europe e.V. With the European HomeParliaments citizens from different countries in Europe are able to participate in EU politics from their kitchen tables, cafés or their living rooms. After
successful implementation in the years 2018 and 2019, they now enter the 3rd round. Until 2 November 2020, all interested citizens have the opportunity to organise private round tables on the “future of European solidarity”. This can take place at home, in a café, via video call with the family, friends or acquaintances. The results of the private round table discussions will then be passed on directly to EU policy makers. They take a stand on the wishes and suggestions of the HomeParliamentarian s thus feeding into their political actions! Among others, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other EU politicians from five different
countries will participate. To hold your own European HomeParliament, all you need is an interest in European politics, about two hours of time and the fun of a lively discussion. Anyone who is interested in taking
part simply registers online as a host of a HomeParliament. You will then be provided with all the necessary materials for preparation.
Do you want to become part in the first broad grassroots participation project in Europe? Then click here to see more information .”

What: Baltic Sea Youth Camp virtual 2.0

For whom: young people (16 – 30 years old) from the Baltic Sea Region

Why: Because we want to make the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region much more youthful and state our opinion on it.

Sign-up: https://hopin.to/events/baltic-sea-youth-camp-virtual-2-0

Please follow the link and get your ticket for the event before the event. Registrations is open until the start of the event!

A detailed schedule of the event can be seen on the event registration page.————————————————————

Are you interested in politics? Would you like to get more information on EU policies and what they actually do for you?
We want to make young voices be heard all over the Baltic Sea Region and beyond. Share your thoughts and become a part of the Baltic Sea Youth Platform. Together with you, we want to prepare a youth input to the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region.
We have organised several smaller local events before we will now meet all together online.
If you did not get the chance to take part in the local events, do not worry, there will be an info session for everyone to get on the same page.
We will also provide the possibility to informally meet decisionmakers in the region and familiarise yourself with the structures of political engagement in the Baltic Sea Region. The event functions as a youth event before the Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and will enable you to follow the big event on 20.10.
Together we will write a declaration to the actors within the Strategy from EU to the local level.
This event is the ideal starting point or continuation of your political career within the Baltic Sea Region.
Join us and see what the Baltic Sea Region has to offer! We welcome participants from ALL countries of the Baltic Sea Region (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia & Sweden) and everyone interested in exploring our region.

Do you want to know how the EU promotes macro-regions? See a great example of the EU cohesion policy?
Then check out what the EU macro-regional strategies are all about and why they are influencing your life as well and bring us together as one Baltic Sea Region.
Join us at 17.10. from 14 – 17 o’clock to discuss what is important for young people in our region and influence EU policies directly:
https://www.facebook.com/events/329616354995029

You will also get the chance to informally chat with the Director General of the Council of the Baltic Sea States. The Council represents 11 Member States and the EU. You want to know more about the Council and its work? And what the EUSBSR has to do with it?
Ask your questions!
Some information can already be found on the CBSS website:
https://cbss.org/

Next week we’re organising a small event for a few young people from our Euroregion Baltic Youth Board and Młodzieżowa Rada Miasta Elbląg focused on #STEM-Science, Technology, Engineering&Mathematics

Let’s meet to learn what it is and how to make it more attractive for youth around the Baltic Sea.

This event is local ERB hub related to our work in Baltic Sea Youth Platform project and a prep event to the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region Annual Forum in Turku. We organise this in relation to the official EUSBSR Annual Forum workshop:

STEAM – Science and Technology Path for Every Child and Youngster

2 October 2020, 12:0014:30 CET

STEAM comes from the words Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. These are the skills needed in the future and this workshop concentrates on one very basic, yet extremely important question: how to build science and technology path for every child and youngster through the education.

The aim of this workshop is to discuss STEAM work, share best practices and experiences and plan the future activities in the Baltic Sea Region.

The lack of visibility, specialized training, support network and infrastructure, as well as limited access to finance are the main burdens that slow down the transition towards social economy and interfere social entrepreneurs for a larger scale social impact. And managing enterprise is even harder when one is only 20 years old or younger. Nevertheless, social entrepreneurship is getting more seen and valued thanks to the activity of youth leaders and support of educators, NGOs, specially designed legislative and CSR business support, social business networks, alternative financing and infrastructure, that allows modern youth to become successful in changing tomorrow. The access to the information on social business development practices and tools needs to be provided to the larger society groups, therefore special attention in new social-impact-oriented INDIGISE project will be put on youth social entrepreneurship empowerment.

The target audience of INDIGISE project are young people who seek a positive social or environmental changes in society, feel the need to create their own business, but lack support of competencies and finance. Combining the experience of universities’, NGOs’ and business networks’ professionals, and operating with latest trends in education, INDIGISE project partners from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Norway will provide such support and promote youth social entrepreneurship in Baltic Sea Region by digital and informal education tools. As agreed during the first partnership Zoom meeting on May 6-7th, INDIGISE partners will:

  • deliver youth-oriented, innovative educational tools to develop the entrepreneurial competence in the field of social economy and engage youth within social entrepreneurship;
  • spread the idea of social entrepreneurship in the Nothern European Region within the youth sector;
  • provide the necessary competencies and support tools to enable young people to develop social business ideas;
  • promote the concept of social entrepreneurship and support Baltic Sea Region social enterprise start-ups by maintaining an Open Education Resource platform www.socialenterprisebsr.net;
  • encourage young people in innovative and creative thinking, collaboration and risk uptake via InnoCamps, organized in Norway and Lithuania;
  • provide InnoCamp Methodology Handbook – step-by-step replicable and transferable tool for youth, schools, NGOs, educators etc.;
  • promote good practices among local and international partners to achieve sustainable and collaborative social business support within the youth sector.

During the meeting, which was initially planned to happen in Riga, Latvia, but was moved to an online setting, partners have discussed planned activities, implementation processes, project management and tools, which will be used to maximise the impact of the project.

The first Intellectual Output (IO1) will focus on the improvement of existing knowledge and networking platform www.socialenterprisebsr.net, which was first launched in 2014 as a part of Erasmus+ project “Social entrepreneurship development in Baltic Sea region”. Since then, all BSR countries has contributed to the promotion of social entrepreneurship.

INDIGISE aims to improve the platform by adjusting it to the younger entrepreneurs, aged 16-30, and offering relevant Open Educational Resource (OER) information on social business support mechanisms and tools, promoting young social entrepreneurs, equipping with relevant educational materials and networking services.

As an IO2, special guidelines for youth centers and youth organizations will be developed on “How to stimulate social entrepreneurship via informal learning methods incl. gamification methods”. A number of stakeholder organisations working with youth will be engaged, incl. project associated partners – Junior Achievement Norway, National Youth Council (Latvia), Baltic Sea NGO Network (Poland).

InnoCamp Methodology Handbook will be designed within the partnership as IO3 to support onsite and online education of young people, including 2 InnoCamp training events, which will take place in 2021 in Norway and Lithuania.

To deliver the knowledge generated by INDIGISE, 4 Forums will be organised in Poland, Lithuania, Norway and Latvia, gaining participants from the youth sector to promote the guidelines, InnoCamp Methodology handbook and OER platform.

Project partners:

Klaipeda University (Lithuania) – coordinator

Baltic Institute for Regional Affairs, BISER (Poland)

Social Innovation Centre (Latvia)

Kristiansand katedralskole Gimle (Norway)

Euroregion Baltic – Stowarzyszenie Gmin RP Euroregion Baltyk (Poland)

Associated partners:

  • Junior Achievement Norway,
  • National Youth Council (Latvia),
  • Baltic Sea NGO Network (Poland).

Project duration: April 2020 – March 2022

logo erasmus

The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

The project Strengthening civil society rights by information access for European youth” SIA4Y was funded with the support of the European Union under the Programme “Europe for Citizens”

8 events have been carried out within this project:

Event 1

Participation: The event involved  31 citizens, including  23 participants from the city of Gdańsk and Elbląg (Poland), 2 participants from Helsinki, Finland, 2 participants from Brussels and Leuven, Belgium, 1 participant from Riga, Latvia, 2 participants from Tallin, Estonia and 1 participant from Verona, Italy.

Location / Dates: The event took place in Gdańsk, Poland from  10/12/2018  to 11/12/2018
Short description:  The aim of the event was to have an internal, kick-off meeting for the Project Partners to discuss the contents of the project applications, planned project activities and upcoming project events. Partners shared our views and opinions on the best practices collected in previous projects and agreed for the most exciting formats we wish to offer to our youth. On the 2nd day, Lead Partner prepared a European Debate with the representatives of the project partners and from the Pomorskie region NGOs dealing with the civic engagement, youth issues and democracy.

Event 2
Participation: The event involved  93  citizens, including  66 participants from the cities of Elbląg, Dzieżgoń, Iława, Gdynia and Gdańsk (Poland), 1 participant from Greece, 1 participant from Verona, Italy, 2 participants from Hasselholm, Sweden, 18 participants from Klaipeda and Telsai, Lithuania and additionally – as a guest of our hosts – Euroregion Baltic – 5 participants from Russia, Kaliningrad Region.

Location / Dates: The event took place in Elbląg, Poland on 07/03.2019
Short description:  The event was divided into two main workshop sessions, whose main scope was to bring the topic of “right of information access” in the foreground, also trough a synergy between SIA4Y and other youth-related projects known to the participants. etc. After the introduction to the project and Freedom of Information and Rights for the youth to access the information we had the first session was on “Responsible relationships and youth civic engagement”. The 2nd one was led by the representatives of the Transparency International Lithuania – ““Model Your Municipality: Participatory Budgeting Session”. Participants were asked to think of and create the budget for a common project that would benefit their municipalities. Afterwards, each group presented the idea they came up with and finally the audience had the chance to vote for the idea they considered most interesting and likely to be implemented.

Event 3
Participation: The event involved  25 citizens, including  22 participants from the city of Tallinn and Tartu (Estonia), 2 participants from Gdańsk, Poland and 1 participant from Riga, Latvia.

Location / Dates: The event took place in Tallin (Estonia) on 12/04.2019.

Short description:  The aim of the event was to learn about information access and gender budgeting. The event “Who wins from budgets?” was part of the project “Strengthening civil society rights by information access for European youth”. SIA4Y organisers tried to break the notion of typical political and civic engagement by asking whether the participants can name one actively or passively made political act from that morning. That discussion helped to create a feeling that it even small steps have an impact and that it is relatively fun and easy to be engaged in society. The principles and tools of information access, it was time to listen to young decision-makers. A representative of the youth in Tartu city council talked about what motivates her as a young person to be actively involved. She also introduced her job and explained a civic involvement mechanism, participatory budgeting, that is being used in Tartu. This event was also promoting the active engagement in the upcoming EU elections in May 2019 – this was in line with our website and social media campaign encouraging youth to vote in the EU elections.

Event 4

Participation: The event involved  51 citizens, including  49  participants from the city of Riga (Latvia) and 2 participants from Gdańsk, Poland.

Location / Dates: The event took place in Riga (Latvia) on 25/04/2019.
Short description: The aim of the event was to learn more about the access and freedom of information. During the first part of the day youngsters learned about various aspects of Freedom of Information – What is information? Why do we need to access it? Who can request information from public institutions? – those were among the questions that were answered during the theoretical part of the event. Participants engaged in discussions and gave their opinions, therefore making the lecture active and lively. After learning about some of the tools for presenting and disseminating informative materials in an attractive and interactive way, youngsters split into groups and worked on their own informative presentations.

Event 5

Participation: The event involved  34  citizens, including  34 participants from the city of Helsinki (Finland).

Location / Dates: The event took place in Helsinki (Finland) on 21/10/2019
Short description:  The aim of the event was to increase the level of awareness, knowledge and ability to use the right of access to public information and support freedom of information among youth. The event also aimed to increase the level of understanding and activity of young citizens regarding public monitoring of EU – level, state institutions and local government. During the event best practice on One-Stop Guidance Centers from Finland was shared and discussed with youth.

Event 6

Participation: The event involved 26  citizens, including  19 participants from the city of Leuven and Brussels (Belgium), 3 participants from Gdańsk and Elbląg (Poland), 1 participant from Riga (Latvia), 1 participant from Tallinn (Estonia), 1 participant from Paris (France), 1 participant from Madrid (Spain).

Location / Dates: The event took place in Leuven (Belgium) on 27.09.2019.
Short description:  The aim of the event was to discuss the citizen’s control on public auction with the concrete examples and best practices from various EU countries like Belgium, Spain, France, Poland, Latvia and Estonia. Participants met also with the Ombudsman from the Flemish Region, learned about the FoI state-of-the-art in France, and the experience of Transparencia.be.

Event 7

Participation: The event involved  39  citizens from 13 countries, including  23 participants from the city of Brussels, (Belgium), 4 participants from Gdansk (Poland), 1 participant from Madrid (Spain), 1 participant from Vienna (Austria), 1 participant from Lisbon (Portugal), 1 participant from Tallinn (Estonia), 1 participant from Italy, 2 participants from the Netherlands, 1 participant from Berlin (Germany), 1 participant from Helsinki (Finland), 1 participant from Paris (France), 1 participant from Bulgaria, 1 participant from the UK.

Location / Dates: The event took place in Brussels (Belgium) from  06/11/2019 to 07/11/2019
Short description:  The aim of the event was to present the Code of Good practice based on the discussion and questionnaires made by youth during the 5 country events – the first outcome of the SIA4Y project to the international audience. Meeting also aimed at the promotion of freedom of expression in UNESCO, Transparency International, ECAS, EAAGE and other pan-European agencies. Topics of the discussion were related to the all-European FoI rights and practices.

Event 8

Participation: The event involved  67  citizens, including  49 participants from the city of Riga (Latvia), 4 participants from Elbląg and Gdańsk (Poland),  2 participants from Helsinki (Finland), 2 participants from Brussels (Belgium), 3 participants from Lithuania and 7 participants from Tallin (Estonia).

Location / Dates: The event took place in Riga (Latvia) on 15/01/2020.
Short description:  The aim of the event was to discuss with youth form various EU countries the access to information for youth – using interactive tools for disseminating information. In the meeting there were workshops on: Right of access to information enforcement through the UN, Enhancing the right to access information in the EU through Integrity Watch, Rights and opportunities for young people to access public information in school, municipality, country and many other.

The final conference, planned as event no. 9, has to be cancelled due to the COVID19 pandemic outburst. But on the 28th April Project Partners successfully realized and promoted the 3 project deliverables – documents and recommendations:

  1. SIA4Y Code of Good Practice “Youth Access to Public Information”– where we share best practices on youth policy, FoI practices related to young people and share ideas on how to engage youth to become more aware and active EU citizens. Download here: http://civicyouth.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/CodeOfGoodPracticeWWW.pdf 
  2. Our final publication “Youth for a healthy democracy in the European Union” – over 100 pages filled with academic expertise on transparency and FoI in the EU, written in lively, attractive manner – your complete guide to all FoI and Access to Information in the EU

Download here: http://civicyouth.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SIA4Y-final-publication-Transparency-   FoI-1.pdf

  1. Recommendations “Priority transparency needs from a youth perspective” – concise paper with clear guidelines for the policymakers based on our 8 meetings with almost 400 young EU citizens representing 14 nationalities of the EU. Download here: http://civicyouth.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Transparency-needs.pdf

Working Groups

Join the Baltic Sea Youth Talent Pool!
Sign-up

ADVOCACY 
Political Outreach

POWER BOX
Toolkits and Guidelines
RESEARCH 
Reports and data
CULTURE AND CITIES
Cultural initiatives in our local communities
COMMUNICATION
Media, design and social media
IT
Tool development and update

FAQ

FOR WHOM? 

Everyone is welcome, there are no special qualifications needed. You just have to be enthusiastic to work with others in our region. 
Do not worry about your level of English, this is a great way to improve your own skills. 

HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE? 

This is up to you and your schedule. As we are all volunteers, there is no pressure. Yet, you should bring a bit of time for our bi-weekly meetings and to work in between. 
Please be honest about the time you have and do not take over responsibilities you cannot fullfil. 

IS THERE ANY SUPPORT AND MENTORSHIP? 

Absolutely. We won’t leave you alone. Even though the groups will be youth-led, there is always support available. Our region has a lot of mentors who are eager to help and support you whenever necessary. 
Our Project Assistant, will be present at the meetings and coordinate the work of the groups. 

You can count on the support of all project partners, especially the Council of the Baltic Sea States. 

WHY SHOULD I JOIN? 

This is a great opportunity to enhance your own skills in teamwork, international cooperation, English language and in the topic you will be working in. 

You can learn a lot and share your experiences with others, while working for a much bigger purpose: real youth-participation in the region. 
You will be the one driving the change, engaged in all our activities and getting all latest information before anyone else. 

You have the chance to work with mentors and experts in various field and you can build a network that will help you throughout your life. 

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF THE WORKING GROUPS? 

The aim of the Baltic Sea Youth Platform is to become obsolete at some point. We will work to enhance youth cooperation in various spheres and throughout all levels of decision-making in the Baltic Sea Region.

IS THERE A DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION? 

Yes, we will close the application on 28.06.2020 at 23:59 CET. 
But do not worry if you missed it, we will have an open-call every 6 months to recruit new baltfluencer for our talent pool. 


The #BalticSeaYouthCamp#bsyc 2020 was a great success! It was a fantastic opportunity to meet, exchange ideas, have fun and celebrate the Youth! Get inspired by Baltic involvement of Julia Orluk and Martin Ruemmelein and find your own way to contribute to the #EUSBSR. 

Read the article prepared by Marta Czarnecka-Gallas, representing the Let’s Communicate Interreg BSR project promoting the EUSBSR.

Youth initiatives contributing to the common goals of the EU Strategy of the Baltic Sea Region.

June 12th, 2020

by Marta Czarnecka-Gallas, Let’s Communicate!

I met Julia and Martin for the first time almost two years ago. It was in September, at an Annual Conference of Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation (BSSSC) in Gdańsk. For her, it was just the onset of an adventure into the Baltic Affairs. For him, it was a big step forward. At that time Martin was in the middle of his cadency at BSSSC Board as a Baltic Sea Region Youth representative and he had already earned his reputation as an engaged and visionary lad with lots of ideas on the youth empowerment in the Baltic Sea Region.

After these almost two years and some personal and online encounters, I talk with Julia and Martin again. It is a very specific time. The Spring is at the full thrust but many in the Baltic Sea Region, Europe and the world still cannot indulge in the simple joys it usually brings. The lockdowns our societies have experienced, the social distancing on a mass scale and numerous limitations to daily life and work have changed our perception of things. It is just before the online Baltic Sea Youth Camp, the initiative which aims to use the power, vision and ideas of the young generations to contribute to a more sustainable EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR).

So how Martin and Julia are doing today? And what has changed in these two years in the youth empowerment and inclusion in the EUSBSR?

Full of energy, full of passion

‘On a perfect day, I will wake up before my alarm rings at about 6:00, go for a small run, get ready for work, check some social media on the bus and learn some Chinese’- starts Martin. Now a 25-year-old-student of  International Economics and Business Relationships at the University of Southern Denmark. ‘In the office, I really enjoy days on which I meet many of my great colleagues, get to work on challenging tasks and have time to move a meeting to the cafe. After work, I like to go for a longer run, meet up with friends, and cook fresh. I have many hobbies, the first of which is to get politically engaged, but I also go running, love to take photos and be part of the Young European Federalists’. Being active within many different fields is also a feature of Julia. Just like her broad and constant smile, which opens many doors, she knocks at with her ideas. Julia, who is currently a first-year student of International Economic Relations at Gdańsk University and the President of Euroregion Baltic Youth Board, is also a great fan of baking (she brings to our meeting homemade carrot muffins in a quantity that could feed a small army unit) and extreme sports.

When you see the passion Julia and Martin speak about the things, which are important for them and hear how they try to change the world around them, it seems clear that having Youth onboard EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region is the key to make it work. ‘The Baltic Sea Affairs include many important issues that will decide, on how we will live in the region in the future- says Martin. ’For example, when discussing sustainability, responsible consumption and production, we can try to avoid polluting the Baltic Sea with too much plastic that will make it impossible to eat fish from the Baltic Sea in the future due to microplastic. Also, we can take action against climate change to do our fair share to ensure that our children can show their grandchildren the beautiful cities along the Baltic coast how I can experience them without extreme weather situations and food insecurities. To young people, this is all much more relevant as they will ask themselves, „in what kind of world do I want to have my future children living in one day?”. The outcome of this question is essential and needs to be taken into account when discussing Baltic Sea topics’. Julia agrees with that completely and confirms that ecology and economy are important issues for the young generations. ‘I come from Gdańsk and I am very proud of my city because of its long and inspiring history. I also observe how much Gdansk has benefitted from international cooperation, exchange of experiences and knowledge transfer. This proves that the whole Baltic Sea Region will be better off while acting together’. While being active in the Baltic Affairs, Julia got more sensitive to environmental issues and is a great advocate of sustainable development goals. She would explain to her grandmum why resigning from meat can contribute to a cleaner planet and with an unhidden satisfaction observes some changes in her diet in this respect. She helps her neighbours to understand the philosophy behind garbage segregation and inspire her parents to ask in a restaurant whether the potatoes on their plates come from a local farm. ‘For me, the realization of the SDGs simply means becoming a better person’, she concludes.

Youth involvement in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region

There is much scope for Youth involvement in the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. ‘I firmly believe that the Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region can empower Youth to be more active’, claims Martin. ’However, this will not just happen on its own. We need to implement structures, where the Youth governs. The Baltic Sea Youth Camp, the Baltic Sea Youth Platform and the Baltic Sea Youth Declaration are a good start. Now we need to ensure that they get a fixed role in the EUSBSR, and take care that it is the Youth that governs in these initiatives.’ Julia underlines that the Youth cannot be only a nice adding to the picture. ‘We don’t want to be invited to the discussion because it’s cool to have a hashtag #Youth or similar while twitting from a conference. At one event I participated, young people were asked to present their statement but it even wasn’t brought up by the moderator. No one reacted to what we said. We felt completely ignored and this is very demotivating’. Such practices certainly won’t earn youth engagement. ‘In debates, we need to understand that young people are not better scientists but should be able to advocate their values and ideas and point of view to the discussion’, Martin adds and continues: ‘In my opinion, we do not need a culture in the EUSBSR were everyone nods and agrees to everything that the Youth proposes, and forgets about it a minute later. We need a culture where proposals of the Youth are critically discussed on the same eye-level. For this, we need a fixed role of the Youth in the EUSBSR. There are many ways that this is possible.’

The institutional culture of the Baltic Sea Region favours active citizenship. Numerous organizations from very local to transnational allow for youth involvement in various projects. The first step into being young activists on an international scale for both Julia and Martin was taken during their school years. That is why they strongly support initiatives like the Baltic Sea Youth Camp or Baltic Sea Youth Platform, dedicated to young people in their secondary and tertial education. ‘When we drafted the concept for this in Gdansk last year, we stated clearly, that it needs to be governed by the Youth, and that it should not be a one time project’, Martin explains. ‘If the Youth is not enabled to drive the platform further and ensure continuous funding, then we will not see the Youth making a significant impact. I think we can understand the youth platform as a constantly sailing boat. Now we have the sailboat. We need to set the sails, sail to the right harbours to pick up support for continued funding beyond the Erasmus project and give the command to the Youth which can choose which direction to sail and what goods to take along, which are represented by the Contents of the Baltic Sea youth declaration’.

Taking the stage at the 10th Annual Forum of EUSBSR in Gdańsk with their Declaration elaborated at the first Baltic Youth Camp, the young people in the Baltic Sea Region showed that they are engaged and they want to be involved. The Baltic Sea Youth Platform is as a step further and has probably the highest chance to make an impact in the future on the young people empowerment in the Region, being an umbrella for various initiatives (like the Baltic Sea Youth Camp and Baltic Sea Youth Declaration). So let’s keep the fingers crossed for more youth-inspired and youth-led projects and remember that the Youth will only have a voice when it is active.

For more information please check:

Julia Orluk: a first-year student of International Economic Relations at Gdańsk University. Chairwoman of the Euroregion Baltic Youth Board. Member of the Young Diplomats Forum. Youth representative of Pomorskie Region. Passionate about her home city of Gdańsk, baking and a Lhasa Apso dog, called Taker. Addicted to extreme sports. Photo: Julia’s Album

Martin Ruemmelein: currently studying International Economics and Business Relationships at the University of Southern Demark in Sønderborg and writing a thesis about IoT business models in collaboration with Danfoss Drives. Apart from his passion for politics, he is interested in business and digitalization. Former chairmen of the state students board of vocational schools and former board member of the Baltic Sea States Subregional Cooperation. Loves jogging, taking photos and cooking with friends. Photo by Paula Graetke

We start tomorrow at 15.30 CET. Please create your

Hi

We’re happy to announce that tomorrow at 15.30 CET we start the Baltic Sea Youth Camp 2020, digital edition.

We kindly ask you to register at your earliest convenience so that we do not experience any delays during the event.

After your registration you will receive 2 reminder emails from HOPIN – one email 24 hours and one email 1 hour before the event begins. This is unfortunately not something we can turn off.

On the day of the event, please just go to: https://hopin.to/events/baltic-sea-youth-camp-2020-digital-edition where you will enter our reception and wait until the event starts.

There are many breaks for you to recharge your batteries, but please attend and be active in all the plenaries and one workshop per session to get the most out of the Baltic Sea Youth Camp.

We will provide Certificates of Attendance after the event.

Clarification of platform concepts

•                          Reception – waiting area before the event. Nothing happens here.

•                          Stage – is the big stage, where we broadcast presentations and have plenary sessions. Here you can only listen & watch. You can comment and ask questions using the chat function.

•                          Networking – an area where short ONE-on-ONE meetings takes place to get to know each other. Use coffee and lunchbreaks to meet other participants.

•                          Sessions – are used for the smaller workshops with a maximum of 20 participants (sharing audio and video) and 100 participants who can listen and watch.

FYI: Only some plenary sessions will be recorded, you are encouraged to actively participate with your audio and video in the workshops and you can be sure these sessions won’t be recorded.

You can find an updated program on our website, visit: https://www.balticyouthcamp.org to check it.

Apart from the sessions we want you to get in touch with Baltic Sea food culture, therefore we have prepared a recipe booklet, please feel free to check it out and choose your favorite recipe for the weekend and buy the ingredients to get the full Baltic Sea experience.

We would also like to let you know that there will be a movie night on Friday starting at 20:00, the Nordic Pulse Documentary will be screened and you get the chance to ask questions from two of the protagonists from the Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic.

If you still have some friends who would like to join the event, please let them know to get in touch with us, through sending a mail to: info@bsryc.eu

We are also happy to answer any of your questions.

We are very much looking forward to seeing you all on Friday and Saturday.

Kind regards

BSYC team

We are happy to invite you to our 2nd microactivity in the form of a webinar on 16th June 2020 organized by our Partner, Kalmar Region County. This time we will discuss the youth issues and Agenda 2030. 

Our expert will be Ms Therese Mithander Udovcic from Sweden. Therese is an expert with advice and support on transnational cooperation and project development in the Baltic Sea Region.

On the 16th of June, we will have the opportunity to gather around initiatives and project ideas on Youth and Agenda2030.

  • Experience in designing and implementing projects
  • Idea generation on new projects
  • Open calls targeting Youth and Agenda2030
  • Curation of stakeholders

Please click here:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSflcTtA-oGGuwiCIShb-LWVNv1-Var0CFUL8H3RYdP3yAQdXg/viewform to register to the webinar scheduled on 16th June, 13.00-15.00 CET.

Participation is free of charge.
Right after you submit this form, you will receive a confirmation email. Link to Zoom platform will be sent to You on 16th June, 2020.

This webinar is one of the events framed into UMBRELLA project (co-financed by the INTERREG V-A South Baltic programme 2014-2020)

Project leader: KLAIPEDOS UNIVERSITETAS Lithuania

Partners:

  1. Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic
  2. Kristiansand katedralskole Gimle Norway
  3. Baltic Institute for Regional Affairs, Poland
  4. SOCIALAS INOVACIJAS CENTRS Latvia

Project duration: 1.04.2020 – 31.03.2022

EUROPE 2020 states that growth has to be delivered through a strong emphasis on job creation and poverty reduction. Social entrepreneurship (SE) is a precisely new method to be used to overcome existing challenges as the primary aim of social entrepreneurship is to bring – positive impact in the youth sector. In the “Social economy and social entrepreneurship”‘

Social Europe Guide Volume 4 ( 2013) it is said that several key challenges of the Social economy (build be SE) are found, and those are: lack of visibility; lack of specialized training; lack of support network and infrastructure; access to finance.

NGOs working together in Interreg BSR Seed Money Facility project “BSR youth social entrepreneurship development BYSED” developed the idea to have a better educational and overall support for youth SE in Baltic Sea Region (BSR) states for the social business youth sector in line with the EU Strategy for the BSR objectives.

Specific OBJECTIVES:

– Delivery of youth-oriented, innovative educational tools to develop the entrepreneurial competence in the field of social economy and engage youth within social entrepreneurship;

– To spread the idea of social entrepreneurship in the Nothern European Region (LT,LV, PL, NO) within the youth sector;

– Provide the necessary competencies, and support tools enable young people to develop social business ideas;

–  promoting the concept of SE and supporting BSR social enterprise start-ups by maintaining an Open Education Resource platform socialenterprisebsr.net

– Encourage young people in innovative and creative thinking, collaborate and take the risk via InnoCamps;

– provide InnoCamp Methodology Handbook – step-by-step replicable and transferable tool for youth, schools, NGOs, educators etc.;

– To promote good practices among local and international partners to achieve sustainable, collaborative, social business support within the youth sector.

TARGET GROUP:

The project intends to work mainly with the youth target group (16-25 years) to maximise the effect, ensuring that a sophisticated approach towards SE stimulation in the Northern Europe region is efficient. We precisely aim at local youth from secondary schools and universities and youth active in the Youth Boards. Youth centres and NGO’s are the secondary target group. The public sector will be involved to get in policy formation sense.

ACTIVITIES:

ACTIVITY 1: “Promotion of youth social entrepreneurship by digital tools”.The gained results of the project will be presented and distributed throughout Northern Europe, to point out the most efficient SE support in the youth sector. The continuation and development of the digital environment and tools to support and promote social entrepreneurship in the youth sector

within the Nothern Europe region countries including platform www.socialenterprisebsr.net which will continue to function as an OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCE and networking tool to strengthen cooperation in between SE start-ups and foster up BSR cross-border SE ideas, but from now on also with youth related orientation and impact.

ACTIVITY 2: Guidelines for youth centres and youth organizations “How to stimulate social entrepreneurship via informal learning methods including gamification methods”.

ACTIVITY 3: InnoCamp Methodology Handbook followed by two InnoCamps in Norway and Lithuania;

ACTIVITY 4: 4 Forums organised in PL, LT, NO and LV, gaining participants from the youth sector to promote the guidelines, InnoCamp Methodology handbook and OER platform.

RESULTS:

– training on informal ICT tool to improve the level of entrepreneurial skills for youth, to foster the entrepreneurial attitudes and transversal skills of individuals interested in setting up a social economy enterprise or youth running a social-economy company in the BSR;

– Supplying the existing and prospective social entrepreneurs from Baltic Sea Region countries with a training programme, training material and guidelines focused on the development of entrepreneur’s competencies to start, run and further develop their social-economy enterprise

BENEFITS.

We foresee that at Northern Europe region benefits will be:

– Improvement of SE support and promotion of notion in the youth sector;

– Development of networking facilities to allow more efficient co-operation between organisations involved in work with SE;

– pilots and new cross-border partnerships growing in the region and informing more extensive practice;

–  better supported methods of SE from youth centres and youth NGOs, after proper use of guidelines created on informal learning methods of SE incl. appropriate use of guidelines

established on friendly learning methods and ICT tools;

– a transferable and replicable step-by-step guide for schools, HEIs and NGOs on how to organise InnoCamps on Youth SE in all EU countries;

– increased recognition from decision-makers of the value of young social entrepreneurs in a co-creating active and healthy community.

Kick-off meeting: 15-16.04.2020, Klaipeda.

The content of this website is the sole responsibility of the author and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union, the Managing Authority or the Joint Secretariat of the South Baltic Cross-border Cooperation Programme 2014-2020. The project UMBRELLA is partly financed from the Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014-2020 through the European Regional Development Fund.