Dear PIPE partners in Estonia

A great project has almost come to an end. A great project not only geographically, but also because of the high number of participants, more than 1000 students and adults from seven different countries, the great enthusiasm and the great results.

The estonian contribution has been very valuable for us. Everything started out from the great kick-off event that you organised for us in Tallinn, september 2002. The youth conference in Türi in Januar 2004 was one of our very best events, and a good showcase for how the PIPE methodology can be used as inputs to the develoment processes of smaller towns.At the EXPO in Sweden in May 2004 you had many nice presentations, which also were rewarded by the Jury.

As a whole we would say that the PIPE project has been an amazing experience. I have never seen so much positive energy around from experts, politicians, officials, teachers and especially from students and other youths. The involved persons seem to believe strongly in what they are doing and they are hungry for learning about the the topics in PIPE.

The ideas behind PIPE was to unlock community spirit and attract young peoples into local community development and entrepreneurship. I really feel that we succeeded. We have demonstrated that politics, planning and business is not boring, but can be thrilling and very stimulating for the persons involved if we use creative technics and a professional approach.

Some of the findings confirmed by a survey undertaken by a sociological team in Vilnius were following:

• 100 % of all officals and more than 90 % of the students say that the PIPE project did stimulate real changes or the beginning of changes in their local community
• 94 % of all respondents wants to go on with a new project in some possible way
• Almost 100 % of all officials have a wish for future co-operation after the project
• More than 50 % of the officials says that the Baltic Sea Region means much more to them now, than before the project started. 38 % says a little bit more.
• The students responded almost in the same way. About 80 % say that they have learned more or much more about planning, entreprenurship and community development

We consider these results as brilliant. It confirms a feeling that we had during the whole project, that we were striking a nerve, and managed to elaborate a positive energy among the partcipants and also to build up a significant common competence from the drafted methodlogy we started out with. In the end of the project we will deliver a more comprehensive methodlogy report provided to all partners and others for future projects.

I wish our estonian partners good luck and we thank you all for beiing with us in the PIPE project. I hope we will have the opportunity to build on the personal and professional relations for future co-operation.

Norway , 13 May 2004

Alf S. Johansen

PIPE project manager