Coming, Staying, Living partners.
There are four partners in this project:
- The Village Association of Central Finland
- Hela Sverige ska leva X-ing Gävleborg (Rural Sweden Gävleborg), Sweden
- Landsbygdin Lifi, Iceland
- The municipality of Samsö, Denmark
They are described below:
The Village Association of Central Finland
The Village Association of Central Finland was founded in 1997 to act as a common voice for rural areas and its villages. It is one out of 18 (in each county) sub-organisations of Suomen Kylät ry. The aim of the association is to act as a counter force to urbanization in such a manner that the urban environment does not solely dictate all the decisions made concerning the whole country. It encourages the rural associations and individuals and offers means for taking responsibility of their own living environment and to act for themselves. The association has 140 village associations as members (out of circa 300 villages) and 21 municipalities (out of 22), and currently employs one full-time member of staff. It also offers work for project leaders/secretaries and standby staff when needed.
The association funds its action through state benefits, selling services, membership fees and running projects.
The Village Association of Central Finland has managed some large development projects successfully and has participated in large number of projects focusing on local identity, local means, co-operation between villages and social and safety issues in the villages. The association has managed two international projects the first being “Sustainable Villages” 2012 funded by the Jyväsriihi Leader-group. The partners were from Ireland, Holland and Wales. The second project was 3I- wellcome to Europe with Finland, Sweden, Italy, Montenegro and Lithuania in 2016- 2018 Funded by the Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union.
Link to the organization´s homepage: Keskisuomen kylät
X-ing
X-ing is the regional department of Hela Sverige ska leva in Gävleborg. It acts in the spirit of the national organisation and thereby strives to support the member organisations in their attempts to make the countryside a better place to live.
X-ing has conducted a couple of larger projects during the last 6 years. One of them has the purpose to coach the village areas to articulate their current situation and ambitions forwards in local development plans.
The board of members (10 persons) is the main work force in X-ing.
Link to the organization´s homepage: X-ing (You are actually on X-ing´s website right now)
Landsbyggdin lifi (LBL), Iceland
Landsbyggdin lifi (LBL) is a civil organization in Iceland which seeks to stimulate and strengthen the participation of the population throughout the country. The emphasis is on the link between people and their territory. It is a forum for individuals and civil society organizations committed to strengthening and improving their local community, thereby contributing to harmonious regional development throughout the country, both economic and cultural. Landsbyggdin lifi has worked on ideas for a national development policy for Iceland and has also carried out youth projects with the aim of identifying what rural areas have to offer for young people that want to live there.
Link to Landsbyggdin Lifi´s webpage
Samsø kommune (Samsoe municipality), Denmark
The municipality of Samsø works strategically with attracting newcomers. Our universe of inspiration is called ”Tid til Samsø” (Time for Samsø). Here, we have created a starting point for presenting everyday life on Samsø through an annual welcome meeting for newcomers, trial houses, a website, a brochure, an Instagram account, a Facebook page, films about Samsø and the people living here, newcomer cafes, a ferry directly to Aarhus, and a service where interested people can always call or write to the newcomers consultant. Right now, we are working on making a podcast in three episodes. Three different people will talk about moving to Samsø. The overall themes are volunteering, making new friends, the youth living in The municipality of Samsø and work-life-balance. All this is to inspire people to move here and break down prejudices about life in rural areas and especially on an island. We continue to focus on attracting newcomers and will contribute to the project both with our experience and in the hope of getting new ideas and thinking of solutions across organizations and countries.
Visit our webpages: Tid Til Samsø – Flyt til Samsø (tidtilsamsoe.dk) and Prøveboliger (samsoe.dk)
