Smart sustainable villages

In our rural areas and island communities within Leader Stockholmsbygd, there are significant challenges when it comes to functioning services and infrastructure. Our project aims to strengthen villages and islands that want to create a common vision and strategy for the way forward.

Having a clear picture of the village's resources and needs is a good prerequisite for a deeper dialogue with the municipality. A very current issue for many of us has become crisis preparedness. This issue has several perspectives:

• food preparedness and self-sufficiency rate
• crisis preparedness in extreme weather events
  
• crisis preparedness if we were to be drawn into a war

These are big questions! There are other ongoing crises, such as how the small island or rural school can be saved or how the number of homes on the islands can increase to enable families with children to move out, etc.

This project is led by Leader Stockholmsbygd, and we will organize inspiration meetings in different parts of our leader area (rural and archipelago in the municipalities of Norrtälje, Österåker, Vaxholm, Värmdö, Haninge, and Nynäshamn). We believe that civil society plays an important role when it comes to mapping local needs and resources and from there create a common vision and a long-term plan for development. Such a plan will be a valuable foundation for continued dialogue with the municipality and developing their own strategies can help villages think holistically and long-term.

If you want to work with a village or island common vision, there isan opportunity to apply for support for a local process leader who can lead the local work to develop a long-term plan for the place. It should be a person who already lives in the area or has good knowledge of it.

Does that sound interesting? Do not hesitate to contact our project manager Elin Lovén. elin@leaderstockholmsbygd.se