Älvbyarna i Östra Korsholm rf/ Itäisen Mustasaaren Jokikylät/ The River Villages

Hub Jalotus Kestävän elämän keskus

Number of people in group:

20

Active participants in last year:

800

We organise a food market in September with 300-400 visitors, our market garden is part of the national event Open Gardens with around 200 visitors, we also have smaller events and regular sport events and the market garden frequently has group visits to learn about regenerative gardening and agroforestry. On top of this, we have workshops and also a summer café with local products and produce being sold.

Group started:

2017

Paid roles?

Yes

Legal Structure:

Other

Association

How active is your group?

Very Active

Live Projects:

• Community Growing
• Other food projects
• Community hub or activities
• Festivals, fairs or events
• Building local networks
• Local economy or new economy projects
• Wellbeing or Inner Transition
• Social Justice / Just Transition activities
• Youth or education projects
• Energy

We are a rural area working for local resilience, social cohesion, well-being and longetivity of our inhabitants.

Gardening and regenerative farming is already strong in the area and we are developing activities and learning opportunities as well as events around regenerative food cultivation as well as food processing. We also attempt transition related tests on a broader scale, for exemple by looking into energy transition possibilities. We are also testing out ways to independently increase the service level for our inhabitants and support our local economy.

Our ideas are influenced greatly by activities and good practices both in Finland and around the world. We have a strong connection to Transition Sweden, but are also connected to the Finnish Transition Network, and we also cooperate with the regional transition organisation, Omställning Österbotten. In addition to this, the municipality of Korsholm is a very important partner.

Initiatives are taken by local people in our area, but the participants on our workshops and in our project activities also involve people from a larger area of Ostrobothnia. We hope to become known as a regional test centre for transition activities in Ostrobothnia, and in close cooperation with other organisations be able to help support the transition movement in Finland. We hope to be able to support the Swedish speaking parts of Finland, especially though not only, since our main language locally is Swedish.