National Mentors Undergo Training for BSR Cultural Pearls Project in Vejle
26 September 2023
On 20-21 September 2023, the BSR Cultural Pearls project held a mentor training workshop in Vejle, Denmark. Organised by the Danish municipality of Valde, one of the project partners, this initiative is part of the BSR Cultural Pearls title, which will be awarded every year to four municipalities in the Baltic Sea Region in recognition of their culture-driven social resilience plans.
The BSR Cultural Pearls title celebrates the efforts of municipalities in leveraging culture to enhance social resilience within their communities. Twelve municipalities have recently applied for the 2024 title. They all qualified for the next step, which is the development of a Cultural & Resilience Action Plan (CuReAP), a phase that will run from 25 October 2023 to 16 November 2023.
The municipalities will now receive support from a national mentor and will have access to a catalogue of good practices to develop their CuReAP plan. These mentors, selected from the BSR Cultural Pearls project partner consortium and complemented by external experts, are set to offer vital support to the candidate “Pearls”.
The role of the mentors will also span the period leading up to the title year, where they will guide the “Pearl” municipalities in the rollout and implementation of the CuReAP plan. In addition, the mentors are tasked with facilitating peer learning, enhancing interactions among the Pearls, and leading them through a sequence of international webinars and conferences.
“Mentors are now better prepared to support municipalities as facilitators of community-driven actions” said Felix Schartner Giertta, the BSR Cultural Pearls project coordinator, adding that the training had included both theory and practice concerning the governance of place making.
The BSR Cultural Pearls project, which runs until December 2025, is an initiative focused on enabling municipalities in the Baltic Sea Region to tap into culture as a means of boosting social resilience within their communities. This €3.5 million project is supported by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme.