Social Resilience: the “Cultural Pearls 2024” Hold Their Award Ceremonies 

The four cities awarded the “BSR Cultural Pearls Title” for 2024, recognising outstanding social resilience plans, held their respective award ceremonies between March and May 2024. 

The award is part of the CBSS-led BSR Cultural Pearls project, which seeks to harness the potential of culture and creativity to drive social resilience and strengthen communities in the Baltic Sea Region, especially in smaller municipalities. 

The municipalities were Svendborg (Denmark), Kiel (Germany), Jakobstad (Finland), and Rūjiena (Latvia), chosen from twelve candidates from around the Baltic Sea Region based on their outstanding action plans to increase social resilience: 

• The vision for the BSR Cultural Pearls title year in Jakobstad, Finland, is to transform the Old Fire Station, a historic red brick building from 1913, into a vibrant third-place environment where citizens can gather, associations can thrive, and the community can connect near home or work. (See photos of the event)
• One of the main priorities of Kiel, Germany, in its Culture and Resilience Action Plan is to empower children and young people through cultural learning. This is deemed crucial for building sustainable social resilience by engaging these groups in city activities, promoting equal opportunities and societal participation, and tackling the social divide by including marginalised groups and people with disabilities to foster a sense of belonging and local identity. (See photos of the event)
• Rūjiena, the northernmost town in Latvia, aims to foster an open, democratic, and civically active society through its Culture and Resilience Action Plan by promoting community engagement, building intergenerational dialogue, and strengthening a sense of belonging to reverse population decline and sustain interest in rural living. It leverages its status as a “seniors’ town” to enable knowledge transfer between generations and deepen cross-border cooperation with Estonia. (See photos of the event)
• Svendborg in Denmark aims to address the economic and social threats posed by an ageing population and increasing youth discontent by investing in the resilience of children and youth, fostering their participation in social communities, and promoting co-creation to empower them, thus building a resourceful, empowered, and socially resilient young population capable of shaping and sustaining the community’s future. (See photos of the event)

The well-attended award ceremonies were notably joined by representatives of the local and regional authorities, as well as by CBSS officials. 

The BSR Cultural Pearls project, which is co-finance by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme, taps into the transformative power of culture and creativity to drive social resilience and strengthen communities, enabling them to cope with adversity. 

At the core of the project are the so-called Culture and Resilience Plans, or CuReAPs. These are plans developed by municipalities to increase their social resilience.  

The BSR Cultural Pearls project covers all aspects of creating these plans. This includes a collection of exemplary practices for social resilience, tailored tools and templates to assist municipalities in developing their own culture-focused social resilience plans, and a peer-mentoring programme to support municipalities during the plan implementation. The cherry on top is the “BSR Cultural Pearls Title”, which honours exceptional CuReAP proposals by municipalities.