CASYPOT FINAL CONFERENCE AND ERB FORUM OF STAKEHOLDERS

On the 13^th and 14^th of May CaSYPoT final conference and Euroregion Baltic Forum of Stakeholders was held in Kalmar (Sweden). Approximately 100 participants from all Euroregion Baltic regions including CaSYPoT project partners from Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Russia had the opportunity to meet and discuss the results of CaSYPoT project. The conference gathered also several youth participants who took the floor to explain the reasons behind answers from the CaSYPoT survey and discussed how the project has influenced youth situation in their home towns.

The conference started with the presentation of the international results of the CaSYPoT survey by representatives of Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University and Klaipeda University. These results were used as basis for project activities, such as development of youth strategies and implementation of tools for better dialogue with youth.

The conference continued with several sessions devoted to spreading CaSYPoT project results:

• Local youth strategies – from municipalities of Svetlogorsk (Russia), Slupsk (Poland), Emmaboda (Sweden) and an action plan from Klaipeda (Lithuania)
• Euroregion Baltic Youth Strategy,
• Tools for dialogue with youth,
• Capacity building process in CaSYPoT
• New youth project ideas

As well as sharing good examples of work with youth participation and youth issues from Euroregion Baltic area and beyond, such as:

• SB YCGN (South Baltic Youth Core Groups Network) project,
• We Stand APP project counteracting online hate in Kalmar County,
• Klaipeda the European Youth Capital 2021,
• And an example of youth participation in the Alps – GaYA (Governance and Youth in the Alps) project.

Participants had also the opportunity to get to know local examples from Kalmar municipality during study visits to two youth clubs: UNIK and Funkabo gender smart youth club.

Representatives of Youth discussed together with adults and experts the results emerging from the survey, as the political interest, leisure time, health, schools, trust and safety. Young people said that opportunities and projects for youngsters are not well known, in all the cities. They feel the need of a stronger dissemination through different channels, better adjusted to reach youth.

On the last day of the conference organised were the Euroregion Baltic Board meeting and partner meetings of CaSYPoT and YCGN projects. During this session CaSYPoT project partners jointly evaluated the project work as a summary of 3 years of cooperation.

This conference was also the occasion to think about the future. Ms Agata Ludwiczak and Mr Marcin Zuchowski from Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic coordinated a workshop devoted to developing a following-up project focusing on youth participation based on achievements of CaSYPoT and SB YCGN projects. All participants were invited to give ideas for the topic of a new project, which application is planned for this autumn.