SEMPRE

The SEMPRE project brought together charity organisations with trainers for organisational development and with universities – altogether from eight countries - to test empowerment approaches in the local context and to learn from each other.

Local networks to bring empowerment to rural areas

The SEMPRE partners set up local empowerment networks of social service providers, public authorities, NGOs and local organisations to test different empowerment tools and methods together, such as the theory of change, future workshops or the social business model canvas. Altogether, there are 13 such networks: in Denmark (Varde and Tønder), Estonia (Võrumaa and Põlvamaa), Finland (Ostrobothnia, Kokkoloa, Pieterssari), Germany (Dithmarschen, Nordfriesland, County of Plön), Latvia (Liepaja and Vidzeme), Lithuania (Pagegiai and Jurbakas), and Sweden (Boden, Luleå and Övertorneå).

Micro projects to develop services

One of the tools tested in the local networks are so-called micro projects, i.e. small-scale initiatives at the local level that aim to improve the living situations of members of disadvantaged groups. Within the project lifetime some 35 creative and very diverse micro-projects were initiated and captured in a video and a brochure. And most of them continue in one way or the other. The local empowerment networks helped those who initiated micro project to learn, to explore, and to communicate with stakeholders and service providers, thus stretching their own network contacts and competences.

Five of the micro-projects have already been registered, some as cooperative ("AllDi" – a network of single Parents in Dithmarschen, Germany, and the “Tailor Cooperative” in Luleå, Sweden, which combines work integration of migrants with producing sustainable textiles); one as a social enterprise (the coffee shop "Stop over" in Liepa, Latvia), some as NGOs (the “Afghan Association” in Kokkola, Finland, that promotes social collaboration and "Roku Roka - Hand in Hand" in Latvia which trains assistants to people with disabilities).

Many services continue

Eight micro-projects resulted in new social services taken up by social service providers in their regular service portfolios. For example, in Lithuania, Jurbarkas District Municipality set up a regular family afternoon at which a business plan for the establishment of a multifunctional social service centre was thought up. In Estonia, inhabitants of the small village Harkujärve turned an empty church building into a vibrant community centre with the support of the local church and an NGO. The Municipality of Varde (Denmark) set up a parents’ nights for refugee parents at which the school gets a good insight in what parents with refugee background struggle with in relation to their children’s schooling. Thirteen other new services continue as informal initiatives or under the coordination of an established social service provider after the project.

From micro projects to established social start-ups

In the follow-up project SEMPRE ACCELERATORS, additional support mechanisms are going to be applied to accelerate the growth and development of the most promising micro projects developed within SEMPRE and turn them into self-sustaining social start-ups that offer services and/or products on local and regional markets of the Baltic Sea region. Overall, the Interreg project SEMPRE used EUR 3.83 million of support form the European Union wisely to let a smart idea, i.e. empowerment in social services, become common practice in numerous charity organisations in rural areas of the Baltic Sea region.