The year 2016 was the 20th anniversary of the national Leader activity. At the same time, the year was a time of new openings in Liiver. We got the strategy implementation off to a good start despite the back and forth movement of the project system Hyrrä. We used the waiting time effectively to create something new, as a development organization should. We made a local development strategy for the urban area, launched a theme project experiment for youth employment and got involved in an international volunteer development project.
The Board of Directors' Christmas meeting on December 13 was attended by Rami Mattila, Timo Urpala, Juha Koivisto, Keijo Viertoma, Sinikka Koivumäki, Telle Lemetyinen, Minna Leppälä, Timo Mylläri, Jaakko Ristimäki, Hannemari Niemi and Mervi Mäenpää. The Board has been actively meeting once a month to make decisions and is now taking a well-deserved Christmas break.
A new theme project experiment is giving associations a boost. We are funding young people for development tasks in associations. Five brave associations were included in the first phase of funding, and after the coming summer the results will already be available. We are looking forward to it! When we set goals, they start to come true, surprisingly.
We hoped for more internationality and we got it. Volunteering developers from our area have been able to learn from other places and next April, around twenty developers will come to visit us. Craft and design entrepreneurs visited markets in Italy, also with funding from the Europe for Citizens programme. Cooperation is underway with the Leader group in Östra Skaraborg, Sweden. Members of the board and youth division visited there in November to test the waters and it looks promising.
The development work continues. If there are so many projects and business support next year that there is not enough funding for everyone, additional money can be applied for from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. We intend to apply for that, but for that we need new openings from you, dear developers and entrepreneurs.
Thank you for the past year! Let's calm down for Christmas and return to everyday life full of new enthusiasm, brimming with everyday creativity.
Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2017!
Sinikka Koivumäki, executive director