BSSSC youth tracing the steps of Lech Walesa 

Back to back with the BSSSC Annual Conference, about twenty youths from all around the Baltic Sea Region met together for the BSSSC Fall Youth Event. They discussed solidarity and participation in Lech Walesa's home work town: Gdansk. 

​

​

​

​

​

​

The BSSSC youth event took place from September 9-10 in Gdansk Poland, and had its strings closely attached to the Annual conference of the BSSSC which took place September 10-12 with a focus on solidarity and participation.

On the first day the youths met together at the Gdansk solidarity center and got a tour and learned about how much the solidarity movement, initialized by the labor unions of Poland and Lech Walesa, shaped the history of Poland.  After the tour through the center, the youths were further engaged to the topic of solidarity and discussed how it can shape the future. They later had a guided tour through Gdańsk Wrzeszcz, a traditionally poorer neighborhood of Gdansk, but revitalized today with a range of different projects such as for example Garrison, the new cultural center of Wrzeszcz in the historical complex of the former army barracks. In the evening, the youths met up for dinner and got to know each other.

​

Building solidarity through drama performance

On the next day, the youths met we met up at the Pomorskie Marshal’s Office in the beautiful “sky room” which was recently renovated. There the BSSSC youth got in close contact with the local youth from the II High School (II LO) in Gdansk and was warmly welcomed before approaching the topic solidarity in a philosophical and playful way, by playing different games and creating small theatre pieces. This was based on a project started by the II LO called  “The world we share”  which is a youth international drama workshop on the subject of “sharing the city in solidarity”.  The main subject of the project is poverty, poverty related social exclusion and negative stereotypes related to poverty. The main goal of the project is to make the more fortunate youth to be aware of and sensitive to the problem of poverty and social exclusion. The project brings together social issues and culture. Within the project, participants are expected to address the issue through drama performance. The ultimate goal of the project is to help build social and emotional capital among young people.

​

All the young people took place in the Annual conference of the BSSSC where they were deeply engaged in the program and gave inputs in all of the workshops and several of the plenaries. The small theatre piece, depicting solidarity, was also performed in front of the BSSSC Annual Conference crowd.

​

If you want to see read the programme and find more background info on the event, please go here.

​

​

New Youth Board Member

At the youth event a new BSSSC Youth Board Member was elected. Two seats in the BSSSC Board are permanently reserved for two youths from our youth network, and every year a new Youth Board Member is elected. The youths sit for two years so there is always continuity from one youth board member to the next. Timo Nikolaisen, from Buskerud, Norway, is now done with his period and Agnes Lusti, also from Norway, but from another region, Buskerud, takes over. Read more about Agnes - and read the reflections from Timo in this interview.

​

​

​

​

​

​