Illustration @Anna Dudziak

Creative Waves – Baltic Sisterhood for Change – project co-financed by the Council of the Baltic Sea States Project Support Facility.

“Creative Waves – Baltic Sisterhood for Change” is a year-long project supported by the CBSS Project Support Facility. It is a collaboration between partners from Sweden (Intercult Productions –leader), Poland (Baltic Sea Cultural Centre in Gdańsk) and Estonia (Estonian Women’s Studies and Resource Centre ENUT). In the project we have also cooperated with a very devoted and gifted team of activists from Kaliningrad Region who acted as subcontractors. Unfortunately, as the result of the aggression of the Russian Federation on Ukraine CBSS has been forced to suspend all cooperation with Russian entities and as of May 17th 2022 Russia has withdrawn from the CBSS altogether. Therefore our partnership will continue the planned activities without the Russian side. We will, however, take care of the very valuable input provided so far. We are looking forward to better times when Baltic Sea cooperation between all the countries in the Baltic Sea Region will be regained and to re-establishing relations with those Russians who have always cared for other people and have acted for the good of their society.

This BSR project is aiming at empowering representatives of vulnerable groups of women in the ever digitalising times of pandemia and postpandemia. Together, we – women experts and participants –  want to build a feeling of identity, belonging, continuity and agency. We are reaching out to women artists, activists and creatives who may feel isolated, depressed and at a loss as the result of COVID-19 restrictions and the world moving more and more towards digital relations. Using tools of culture and traditional cultural activities we plan to bring traditions and demands of current times together.  Basing on intangible cultural heritage of the BSR and its localities such as embroidery, weaving, herb gathering, cooking close to nature, singing or producing music, we want to create bonds and exchanges both in physical and virtual reality. As the result of local real life workshops and online exchanges and meeting we will produce a tool kit as guidance for further use which will base on the joint pool of experience and a special survey. In our work we will use circular approach promoting the EU Green Deal, EUSBSR and Sustainable Development Goals. The ultimate goal is to create stronger, healthier and more resilient society with everybody on board.as well as a friendlier physical and digital space.

Empowering women in the Baltic Sea Region by meeting traditional crafts, local traditions and customs etc with the digital modern world and its demands for change is our goal.  Women active in knitting, weaving, storytelling, herb gathering or traditional cooking gather online with creative and digital women experts to get more confidence, show their achievements and learn about the digital world and tools to help them function in the COVID times and beyond. They also meet at international events (online and in flesh) to exchange experience, learn, even more, look together for Baltic traditions and identity. Hopefully in arranging the events while implementing the project its partners will bring together more experienced women and the youth as well as migrant women – to enrich the exchange and help participants be more rooted, open and self-assured. The project is also to help learn about and implement EU key policies like EU Green Deal, European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

General information about the Call and CBSS Funding Instrument:

The 2021 CBSS PSF call focused on innovative solutions for strengthening resilience and inclusiveness in the BSR during a period of crisis.

The CBSS was looking for:

• Innovative projects promoting the development of inclusive programmes designed to support groups particularly vulnerable to the pandemic and its effects, in order to offer them alternatives and strengthen their exit pathways from the crisis.
• Innovative projects that assess the impact of the crisis on domestic violence or develop strategies, tools and collaboration to build stronger, more accessible, inclusive and sustainable systems for child protection.
• Innovative projects build on analysis of crisis impacts on societies and economies, which aim at proposing strengthening of societal resilience in a future, especially taking into account cross-sectoral character of problems and solutions (ex. culture in time of crisis and as a tool to build resilience and help societal and economic recovery, youth as vulnerable group in time of crisis and as a group able to develop innovative recovery strategies and projects).

About the selection

By the deadline 31st of March 2021, the CBSS Secretariat had received 55 submitted PSF applications.

The type of partners in this year’s call have been diverse, varying from NGOs and research centers to public institutions and universities.

The projects have been selected to reflect the selection criteria in the PSF manual, as well as the wording in the PSF 2021 call. The projects selected:

• Present a direct relevance to at least one of the three CBSS long-term priorities,
• Align with the selected PSF call 2021 subject, Innovative solutions for strengthening resilience by promoting inclusiveness and protection of most vulnerable societal groups in the BSR during a period of crisis
• Provide substantial added value for the Baltic Sea Region cooperation,
• Display quality and a sustainable character,
• Involve relevant partnership constellations, where partners are well established and includes at least three CBSS Member States.

List of the selected projects

• A Safe Place
• Resilient Child Protection Systems around the Baltic Sea
• RuralCulturalPlanning (RurCultural)
• Building resilient and inclusive sustainable maritime tourism in the Baltic Sea Region
• Creative Waves – Baltic Sisterhood for Change
• DE-PL-LT Civic Education for Resilience of Communities to Crises by creating a system of modern training as well as professional qualifications for civil protection educators
• Child sexual abuse crimes in media-coverage: Providing expertise for sustainable media support of the CSA crimes survivors in the Baltic Sea Region
• Improving communication with migrants for crisis preparedness: lessons learned from COVID-19

Funded by the CBSS Small Project Facility