Brilliant results from PIPE !

by Alf S. Johansen, project manager

One of the main ideas behind PIPE was to stimulate the community spirit and attract young people into local community development and entrepreneurship. The survey confirms 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 establish a positive energy among the participants and convey this into the local actions. We also managed to build up a significant common competence from the methodology we started out with. In the end of the project there will be delivered a more comprehensive methodlogy report provided to all partners for future projects.

Here are some pictures from the workshop: