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For almost 20 years now, young people from secondary schools in the four regions of the southern Baltic Sea have been working together with political decision-makers in international projects with focus on youth dialogue. The region of South-East Skåne around the Swedish city of Ystad, the Danish island of Bornholm, the Polish city of Swinoujscie and the German island of Rügen make up the "Four Corners Region" and face the same problem: Young people leave their home regions. This is one reason why youth work has top priority among South Baltic Four Corners cooperation projects. Through dialogue between youth and politicians, solutions are to be found to make the regions more attractive for young people. Decisions on future development should be taken together with young people.
Until the end of this year, the running EU Erasmus+ project assures funding for the cooperation of youngsters and local politicians. Due to Corona pandemic the youth workshop planned to be held on Rügen in April 2020, had to be postponed until November 2020. The students, their teacher Sabine Albrecht from the EMA Gymnasium and project coordinator Monika Krahl from the city administration of Bergen auf Rügen are especially happy that their intensive preparation was not in vain. From 8th November this year, more than 50 project participants from all four countries will meet to discuss “Rügen’s natural heritage and its use for tourism”.
 ÂÂÂÂ ÂÂÂÂ ÂÂA follow-up project of the South Baltic Four Corners under the headline "The Youth of the Four Corners for Sustainability, Nature and Environment" is scheduled to start in mid-December 2020. For a period of 24 months, 32 young people, eight regional politicians as well as experts, coordinators and teachers of the Four Corners Cooperation want to discuss environmental subjects on and in the southern Baltic Sea during transnational workshops and work out proposals for solutions. The transnational youth dialogue will focus on air and water quality, the impact of tourism on biodiversity and climate change, renewable energies and the development of environmentally friendly products. The young people themselves decided to discuss these topics as they give them a very high priority. In addition to the political discussions, they are especially looking forward to contacts and joint activities with their friends from the partner regions.
Lead partner of the new project will be the city of Bergen auf Rügen. For this reason project coordinator Monika Krahl will submit the project application for the EU Youth Dialogue project elaborated together with all project partners from Poland, Sweden and Denmark to the German National Agency for Erasmus+ in Bonn by 7th of May 2020 at the latest. |
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Today 50 youngsters, politicians and teachers meet in Bornholm do discuss education and drug abuse. |
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The Four Corners Youth Board met on Rügen during 12th-14th September 2013. The students from the regions worked within their working groups developing exciting ideas in regard to regional youth exchange, effects of racisim, how to avoid financial problems and how young people with innovative ideas can work across boarders to develop enterprises. These ideas will be presented at the upcoming Youth Parliament on Bornholm 3. - 5. October 2013. |
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In the second part of the school year the Polish Corner has encountered several obstacles on their way and has achieved a few successes. On the last meeting in the Entrepreneurship Group it was decided to encourage local coffeeshops, stores and other services to create student discounts in exchange for placing their advertisements at our school and on our website. Polish members sent out the letters, which unfortunately met with a cold reaction - not a single firm answered the letter.
The Promotion Group created a Four Corners Contest as a School Event, informing students of our activities and the attractions that are unique to our regions. All the needed materials are prepared and the contest will be held in June. What's more, the group actively took part in our school's Open Day. A presentation about the project was given to the junior high school students who came to visit our school and we prepared a small treat for the guests, too - we baked the traditional cakes of all four corners and they filled the school with beautiful smell! Naturally, the treat was rewarded with an honest enthusiasm from our future students.
What is more, Personal Finances' members invited the bank representatives to have lectures in our schools. The lectures are to be conducted in first and second grades and their target is to broaden students' knowledge about managing their money.
In The Education Group there was an idea to create a student exchange in four corners. The group has already talked to the school headmaster and received an agreement, so we can go ahead with the project in the next school year.
The Health Group refrained from organising a concert with local musicians due to the complexity and high costs of the project. Polish leader of the group has recently graduted from high school, but earlier this year she passed her duties on to a Danish member. The remaining two Polish Health group members are developing a way to gather information about the nature of the prejudices in order to plan events targeting those particular issues during the upcoming Parliament.
Three representatives of our Corner, including the vice-president, were present at the regional meeting with politicians of all four corners which took place in Świnoujście in April. During the meeting they presented the activities of the Parliament and the benefits of the program from the point of view of students. The school project supervisor presented the teacher's opinion, too. |
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The Four Corners Youth Board met in Ystad on 3rd March 2013. Besides participating in their
relevant working groups, the students participated in a presentation of the Baltic Sea Stategy,
given by Mr. Niels Chresten Andersen, head of Europe Direct Bornholm.
The meeting continued the following day with a study visit to Copenhagen, where the group visited
MindLab, which focuses on innovation of public sector solutions.
The participants were informed of a case study of youths and personal finances.
The students participated in a brainstorming activity connected with the same issue.
Brainstorming!!
There was also the opportunity to hear a presentation given by Ms. Jette Esager Rasmussen from the
Danish Agency for Univiersities and Internationalism.
The presentation given was a short introduction of the Youth in Action Programme.
The final day of the youth board meeting was spent in Ystad, where the students worked within their working groups. |
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We left Bornholm early in the morning the 1st of February with the ferry from Bornholm to Ystad. We met with the Swedish delegation and drove to Sturup to take a flight going to Gdańsk for working with the future development of the project. We are in the process of writing a new application with a strong content so our work can continue. We were 5 students from Bornholm, 5 from Sweden and 6 from Germany together with a teacher from each country and coordinators from Germany and Bornholm. It was a good meeting although we missed the Polish group which unfortunately was unable to participate. We agreed on the most important topics to go further with in the new application.
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Four Corner Youth in the meeting room in Hotel Wolne Miasto
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Four Corners Youth Board also used the visit as an opportunity for meeting participants from the Euroregion Baltic Youth Board. The meeting was used as general exchange of information in regard to background, level of activities and best practice. The decision was made to meet again within the near future.
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We went on a guided tour. It was very interesting but the temperature was minus 15ºC - so you can imagine that it was a little hard to concentrate on what the guide was telling about.
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 I, Simon, and David are having a meeting regarding the up-and-coming website, for the Youth Parliament.
During this metting I have been given an adminstrators login, so I can upload/edit articles and files. This will prove to be a great step forward in the process of creating a website/portal for the Youth Parliament and it's participants. This website/portal will be connected to our facebook-group aswell. |
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The Four-Corners youth held their Annual Parliament on Bornholm in October.
One of the proposals to come out of the parliament was the idea for a new website as shown to the right.
Simon and Anan from Bornholm's Gymnasium are busy looking at upgrading information from the Youth parliament on this site or developing a new site.
Keep posted for updates, info and pictures from the Youth Parliament! |
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