This week, the Norwegian ESIRA-team participated in the Norwegian-Swedish cross-border event Grensedagarna BRIDGE at Morokulien. 

 Together with Innlandsstatistikk and Innlandet County Council, the project presented ongoing activities in the Kongsvinger region, with a particular focus on local pilot initiatives aimed at increasing social innovation and inclusion. 

 Over the course of the two-day event, nearly 250 people visited the ESIRA stand. Residents, businesses, politicians and representatives from (voluntary) organizations on both the Norwegian and Swedish sides of the border learned more about ESIRA’s mission and the pilot activities currently being developed in the Kongsvinger region.

 Several members of the ESIRA project team also participated in the workshop “Young People Outside Education and Employment: The Municipality’s Greatest Opportunity and Greatest System Challenge?”, which explored how municipalities can address growing youth exclusion while facing increasing workforce shortages in health, care, and welfare services.

The ESIRA prize wheel proved to be a popular ice breaker to ge visitors to learn more about the project. It made people reflect on the message: not everyone starts from the same place, but everyone should have the opportunity to move forward and ‘win’ by being able to participate in their local community, regardless of their circumstances. 

 “We are very pleased with the interest we experienced at Grensedagarna,” said the Norwegian Project Manager Aleksander Bern. “Many visitors were genuinely curious about how we can create new opportunities through collaboration and innovation, and they were eager to learn more about the pilot activities we are running in the Kongsvinger region.”