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:
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 17th Oct 2020 Baltic Sea Youth representatives gathered for the whole afternoon for the virtual Baltic Sea Youth Camp 2.0. Their goal was to get together to contribute meaningfully to the future of the Baltic Sea Region. This was set out in the Baltic Sea Youth Declaration, put together by the young participants at the camp.
The Declaration was presented to the Baltic Sea Region policy and decision-makers at the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) Annual Forum on 20th Oct 2020, to be taken into account by each of the Policy Areas of the EUSBSR. Read the full document below.
POWER BOX Toolkits and Guidelines RESEARCH Reports and dataCULTURE AND CITIES Cultural initiatives in our local communitiesCOMMUNICATION Media, design and social mediaIT 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.
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.
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.
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.
