Today, we visited the Ostróda municipality, where we met with the Mayor of Ostróda, Rafał Dąbrowski, and his deputy, Jolanta Gadomska. The Director of our Association, Marcin Żuchowski, presented the mission, structure, and main activities of STG ERB, as well as the conditions under which interested municipalities can join our organization.
For all potentially interested municipalities that would like to learn more about our Association, please visit the section:
Streets for the Youth - the first meeting regarding the youth project under the Erasmus+ program is behind us. Although the official launch conference will take place in November this year, project partners have already met online today to discuss the details of future cooperation.
We talked about the involvement of municipalities, youth participation, various aspects of the partnership agreement, and, of course, the first physical meeting, which will take place in Belgium.
We are very pleased that over the next 2.5 years, we will be carrying out activities directly related to one of the five main directions of our Association's activities, namely social activity, including actions aimed at youth participation and supporting their local activity.
More about the project:
The launch of the SCONE project - Collaborative Network for Sustainable Development in the South Baltic took place today. The launch conference was held online. The project consortium met to officially inaugurate the project launch. Each partner presented their organisation, their involvement in the project and their activities related to future activities. We also listened to a short presentation related to the Interreg South Baltic administrative guidelines.
Our association in the project is PP6
The APC ERB work package will include strengthening capacities for cooperation in education for sustainable development. It aims to strengthen collaborative capacity among secondary school teachers and teacher training colleges, focusing on ESD as a teaching practice. It also aims to equip educators with the knowledge and skills to effectively guide and support students in understanding and addressing sustainability challenges.
The Association's activities in the project will include:
The Work Package aims to empower teachers with the knowledge and skills necessary to integrate Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into their practice, promoting collaboration and an informed approach to addressing sustainability challenges in the education sector. In addition, an online MOOC course on ESD is being developed.
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A program co-financing activities under the project.: Interreg South Baltic
Project Partners:CELF (DK) - lider
Centre for school and Learning, University College Absalon (DK)
Chair for Business Economics and Entrepreneurship education, University of Rostock (DE)
Rietavas Laurynas Ivinski Gymnasium (LT)
Rietavas Tourism and Business Information Centre (LT)
Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic (PL)
You can read more about the project on our website:
Below are the design assumptions of "Streets for the Youth":
Project under the ERASMUS+ program, no. KA220-YOU-C70942A0 (2024-1-FR02-KA220-YOU-000245435)
Implementation period: 30 months Implementation time: 03.11.2024 to 02.05.2027 Value: 120,000.00 EUR
Project area: Placemaking in practice; the process of planning spaces with public participation, urban space development together and for the needs of the youth
Main themes: youth in the city, city transformation, city of tomorrow, public spaces for youth, environmental, social and economic changes and transformation, youth participation in local life and spatial planning.
Partnership: 4 partners
Short description: The "Streets for the Youth" project will engage young people aged 15-20 from 4 EU countries (Portugal, France, Belgium, and Poland) in building the city of the future - a city that is flexible, friendly, and resilient, and meets the diverse needs of its users. The project will create connections between young people, urban planning specialists, and local councilors (i.e., those who create the city) so that together they can develop and test consultation techniques for public space development projects.
Context: The cities of tomorrow will not be like those of yesterday. Both small and large cities must change as they face significant transformations: ecological, demographic, mental, and digital. To adapt cities to the world of tomorrow, it is essential to engage their residents, especially young people, as they are the residents of the future. Thus, addressing the placement of young people in public spaces is like "opening a window" to see where young people are, how they move around the city or countryside, and how they use it. To do this, we must consider the diversity of young people (both those who commute and those who stay in one place, as well as places intended for girls, etc.), design spaces that concern them as a whole, not just for recreational purposes, and finally ask the youth for input by recognizing their knowledge about usage (recognizing their knowledge of the city) and by listening to and considering their expectations for the future. Young people can help us respond to transformation challenges and prepare our cities for the world of tomorrow.
Project objectives: Exchange, develop, and test techniques for engaging young people in thinking about the future of their city and its planning:
The project aims to encourage the cooperation of three groups:
Over the 30-month duration of the project, partners hope to contribute to ADAPTING their cities to tomorrow's challenges by MOBILIZING young people, selected representatives, and specialists to address the transformations we must jointly prepare for in cities and rural areas. The project aims to mobilize and empower stakeholders in these matters to give young people a voice in decision-making processes regarding the construction and planning of public spaces, and to enable selected representatives and urban planning specialists to develop their skills in engaging society in public policy. The need to find appropriate means and methods of engaging young people is very high. The aim of this project is to identify, develop, and test youth-friendly and accessible mechanisms and structures that will allow them to actively engage in creating quality public spaces.
Project content: Exchange of practices, joint development of tools for engaging young people and testing in partner areas, connecting selected officials and planning specialists, youth professionals and young Europeans, creating recommendations for communities to facilitate the engagement of young people in public space development projects and strategies.
Target audience: The project is aimed at young people aged 15 to 20 . It is proposed to create an exchange between professionals and young people.
Today we spoke to representatives of the Bartoszyce district, district chief Elżbieta Zabłocka and deputy district chief Paweł Wójcik. At the meeting we briefly presented what our Association does, how we operate, our structure, directions and challenges, in the near and long term. To our great delight, the district authorities expressed interest in potential membership of our organisation. We heard an overview of the district's needs, both investment and soft action based. We talked about joint opportunities and future projects that we might be able to develop together. We very much hope to welcome another member into the ranks of the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic in the near future!
We are after the meeting of the STG ERB Board, which took place today. At the second meeting of the members of the Board of the current term, internal issues, concerning current affairs and technical-organisational matters, of the Association were discussed. The main issue addressed was the future of the APC ERB in the newly established organisation of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Euroregion Baltic. So far the Euroregion Baltic international grouping (of which our Association is also a member), has only been an informal form of cross-border cooperation, but will soon be transformed into an EGTC, a legal entity established by European Union law. After a discussion analysing the pros and cons of membership of the EGTC Euroregion Baltic, everything seems to indicate that joining the ranks of this organisation will be a favourable solution for us. The final decision on this issue will be taken in September this year.
