Connecting Men and Stronger Local Communities

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Date of latest update: 2023-11-11

Description

Description (EN):

CoMe Strong aims to activate inactive men (aged 45-75), especially those who have risk of social exclusion. In addition, project promotes to improve the well-being of men and strives to give men skills and knowledge useful in private life but also in the labour market. All actions will be done in local level in order to build up stronger local communities. Implementation starts with local kick-off events in which active local men are recruited as volunteers to take initial responsibility of the CoMe Strong club actions. Those men are then encouraged and trained to activate passive local men to join the clubs. Local clubs will have regular meetings with recreational and/or training activities. In addition, clubs will carry out small projects for the local community. Projects can be anything the local community benefits from and men can accomplish (e.g. school fence painting, freezing local ice rink or fixing children’s playground). These small projects create new networks between men and the local community and promote stronger coherence. CoMe Strong clubs from Finland and Estonia meet each other in the summer days for experience sharing and for mutual learning. Clubs document their activities with the help of experts by filming short video-clips for communication purposes. As a result of CoMe Strong the local communities have experienced several improvements. Participation of inactive men has increased and the social inclusion of them has multiplied. Clubs have created many networks in the local communities and men are active participants in those. In addition to increased well-being and social inclusion, participating men have also learnt skills useful also in the labour market. Partner consortium (TUAS, UT and Aurala) is cooperating closely with local communities, for example municipalities and NGOs, so that they can carry out implementation in the grass-root level. Engagement of them also promotes sustainability of the results.

Achievements (EN):

The CoMe Strong project activated older men in a risk of social exclusion: The CoMe Strong project aimed at activating inactive men aged 45-75 who were in a risk of social exclusion due to unemployment, loneliness and lack of family and friends. Partners from Turku and Tartu initiated a new model to activate the men by establishing Come Strong clubs which were places for men to gather and plan meaningful activities they wished to implement. The model was later presented for the social and health care professionals. In concrete, 10 men’s club were established during the project and about 100 men took part to the club meetings frequently. The self-esteem of the men got better during the project, as they found new friends and learnt new things. Thanks to the clubs, the men had something meaningful to do. This also gave them a feeling that they are important community members. An important aspect in the activities organised in the clubs was that activities were planned by the men and raised from their own interests. Having a significant role in planning and implementing club activities was important, as it gave confidence for the men who had not been in a such role before in their lives. Furthermore, the most active men were trained to take responsibility on running the clubs by themselves. This ensured that the clubs keep active still after the project end. In addition, some community projects were carried out, and these activities were planned and often also filmed by the men themselves. The community projects varied from organising different events such as Christmas party in the neighbourhood to taking the elderly for a walk. After carrying out the community projects, some men also continued voluntary work in the elderly houses, which has made the men feel very important. Project website: https://comestrong.turkuamk.fi/fi/ Experience between Come Strong clubs were exchanged during the Summer Days when the men from Finland and Estonia travelled to meet each other. For many men this was their first trip abroad.

Website: http://centralbaltic.eu/

Expected Results (EN): R4.1. Communities with improvements

Expected Outputs (EN):

As a result of CoMe Strong the local communities participated in the project have experienced several improvements. Participation of inactive men has increased and the social inclusion of them has multiplied. CoMe Strong clubs have created many networks in the local communities and men are active participants in those. In addition to increased well-being and social inclusion, participating men have also learnt skills useful in the labour market. As a concrete result of CoMe Strong project men in age group 45 – 75 have been encouraged to be the first CoMe Strong volunteers and they have done small and concrete projects in their own communities with other inactive men of the same age. The first CoMe Strong club volunteers have been trained locally in their own communities. During the training they have gotten readiness to activate inactive men, who have risks of well-being and exclusion. All the men in clubs have got skills which are related to searching and doing different projects with local actors in the community. Training has continued all the time during the project. Training needs of men have been met in different situations. Border crossing exchange of knowledge and skills has happened also during the summer days organized both in Finland and in Estonia. Every participating local community has established at least one CoMe Strong club which has regular meetings with recreational activities and small useful projects going on with the different actors in the community. CoMe Strong clubs have documented and presented their projects and other activities by filming video clips. Men have done the clips together with experts. The clips have been collected together and made for one document which describes the whole CoMe Strong process. This video document has been used as a main tool to disseminate the results of the project to other interested stakeholders to promote the transferability of the results. Clubs have very important role in the dissemination work.

Thematic information

Social inclusion and equal opportunities Community integration and common identity

Specific Objective: More people benefiting from stronger Central Baltic communities

Thematic Objective: (10) investing in education, training and vocational training for skills and lifelong learning by developing education and training infrastructure

Investment Priority: (10 ETC) ETC specific, for cross-border cooperation: investing in education, training and vocational training for skills and lifelong learning by developing and implementing joint education, vocational training and training schemes

Partners (3)

Lead Partner: Turun ammattikorkeakoulu Oy

Department: Health and Well-being

Address: Joukahaisenkatu 3, 20520 Turku, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.turkuamk.fi

Total budget: EUR 153 393.33

ERDF budget: EUR 115 045.00

Tartu Ülikool

Name: Tartu Ülikool

Department: Department of Social Work

Address: Ülikooli 18, 50090 Tartu, Estonia

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.ut.ee

Total budget: EUR 83 862.50

ERDF budget: EUR 71 283.12

Auralan Setlementti ry

Name: Auralan Setlementti ry

Address: Satakunnantie 10, 20100 Turku, Finland

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.aurala.fi

Total budget: EUR 27 985.50

ERDF budget: EUR 20 989.12

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

University of Tartu

Connecting Men and Stronger Local Communities

Partners and Projects info

The Settlement House of Aurala

Connecting Men and Stronger Local Communities

Partners and Projects info

Turku University of Applied Sciences

Connecting Men and Stronger Local Communities

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Connecting Men and Stronger Local Communities

Project acronym: CoMe Strong

Project start date: 2017-10-01

Project end date: 2019-09-30

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 265 241.33

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 207 317.25

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 207 317.25.

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-11-11

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

137 / 137 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

663 / 663 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://centralbaltic.eu/), or a website directly linked from it, on 2021-11-08, 2023-01-12 and 2024-03-08.

The financial data featured in keep.eu for this programme, it's projects and its partners is not exact and should be taken as a reference only.

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Connecting Men and Stronger Local Communities

Description

Thematic information

Partners (3)

Partners map

Summary

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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