YURI is an Erasmus+ project involving seven organizations from six countries: La Xixa and CEPAIM from Spain, CESIE from Italy, Élan Interculturel from France, KMOP Policy Center from Belgium, Xwhy from Lithuania, and YEU from Cyprus.
The objectives of the YURI project are:
To critically address belief systems, prejudices, and stereotypes related to identity in rural and urban environments.
To promote the development of socioemotional competencies and skills necessary for successfully undertaking social, sustainable, and collective initiatives.
To encourage the political involvement of young individuals in sharing and debating alternatives to the current climate crisis from a perspective of rural-urban collaboration and collective youth entrepreneurship.
The project includes two local pilots in each partner country and a joint training session in Brussels. We've created a practical handbook covering research findings, best practices, youth dialog facilitation activities, resources for supporting youth entrepreneurship, and policy recommendations.
It is addressed to urban and rural youth, youth workers, organizations, and policymakers in the realms of youth, sustainability, environment, social economy, and climate, providing a versatile tool adaptable to various needs and contexts.
Video to dive deeper is here.
www.yuri-project.eu
From June 5th to 9th, 2023, Brussels, Belgium, hosted several significant events as part of the YURI project. These included an international partners' meeting, mixed youth training, and a final project conference. The five-day marathon began with partners from 7 organizations and 24 young participants from various countries exploring the European Parliament and Brussels. Activities focused on understanding stereotypes, developing skills, and promoting collective green and social entrepreneurship. The highlight was a theater performance presented during the final conference, where the YURI guide was introduced. Decision-makers, young entrepreneurs, and startup representatives also attended.
More about this project here.
Project number: 2021-1-ES02-KA220-YOU-000029041.
From May 15 to 19, 2023, the UNIHEAL+ project held training sessions in Seville, Spain. The training focused on two main groups: project partners and employees, as well as external stakeholders and partners. Its goal was to review and assess the project's content, including developed modules and assessment questionnaires. Each day, modules were presented and participants provided feedback. The training also evaluated theoretical modules, practical tasks, knowledge assessments, and the learning platform.
Project Number: 2021-1-ES01-KA220-VET-000033271.
After our last physical project meeting in Wroclaw, Poland, in December 2022, we recently had the opportunity to discuss project outcomes, ongoing tasks, successes, areas for improvement, and financial matters during an online partner meeting on May 9th. We also shared experiences from our research activities, including desk research and interviews. Currently, we are conducting interviews with academic staff and green industry representatives.
Project Number: 2022-1-PL01-KA220-HED-000085725.
We are pleased to further develop the international project YURI: our team recently organized a 20-hour training session on green social entrepreneurship. We wanted to engage with young people living outside of major urban areas, and for that reason, we partnered with TAJE, an open community space for the youth of Trakai. The training was designed to develop personal and social skills, such as leadership and communication abilities. The participants, teenagers aged 14 to 17, were active, curious, and open. We had productive discussions on sustainability (including what constitutes sustainable behavior and the actions that can promote it) as well as entrepreneurship (the attendees shared their ideas on the business ideas they would like to pursue in the future).
Project number: 2021-1-ES02-KA220-YOU-000029041
In November, we introduced the WELFARE project with the goal of creating an inclusive and engaging learning environment in the welfare sector. Focusing on social innovations and entrepreneurship, our objectives are threefold: producing open learning resources and guidelines for social entrepreneurs, offering training for students, and launching the WELFARE learning and networking platform. These tools will promote the concept of social innovation and entrepreneurship, and encourage knowledge sharing among participants to sustain the project's success.
Project number: 2021-2-IS01-KA220-HED-000049245
How could soft skills facilitate the transition to a more sustainable economy? During the first days of December, we participated in the SOFTEN project meeting, taking place in Wroclaw, Poland. Together with other partners, we were introduced to the objectives and activities of the project. SOFTEN will focus on the development of a framework for integrating soft skills into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curricula to support a more inclusive and sustainable transition to a green economy. This is a significant step towards a more sustainable future, which aligns well with our other sustainability projects.
Project Number: 2022-1-PL01-KA220-HED-000085725
Com4AgriPlant is a European project implemented by six partners from five European countries and funded by the European Commission's Erasmus+ program.
The project provides lifelong learning opportunities in the field of sustainable plant-based product production and consumption. It also shares sustainability competencies with adult educators, consultants, and teachers who do not have many opportunities to acquire such knowledge and skills.
This autumn, our agency organized an international meeting of the YURI project. The project goal is to provide young people with the necessary competencies in the field of green social entrepreneurship and also foster dialogue among young people from urban and rural environments, encouraging the exchange of knowledge. Meeting activities took place in Vilnius and also Švenčionėliai. The meeting was productive—together with our partners, we discussed the YURI Handbook, Administrative and Management tasks. We also analyzed our two case studies (North Station in the Švenčionėliai railway station, and Luna6 in Naujininkai), which are based on the best practices of green social entrepreneurship.
Project number: 2021-1-ES02-KA220-YOU-000029041
Democracy, environment, big data—we’re taking part in a project which connects these three elements innovatively. YUPAD (YoUth PArticipatory budgets empowering young people using big Data) aims to empower young people to actively participate in democratic processes and shape their environment, following their expectations and needs. Using big data to inform the participatory budget, it is the first project of its kind, intending to create a digital tool to help the youth and municipalities in identifying city priorities. Participatory budget principles would be applied to fund projects for these priority questions. The initial phase of the project, an analysis of the best practices in youth participatory budgeting, has now been completed, and it will help develop the project further.
Project number: 101049352
This month, our team attended the closing meeting of the international project CREST in Brussels, Belgium. During the meeting, we reviewed the project's results and considered opportunities for future collaborations. CREST, which stands for Creative Repurposing of Educational Spaces for Innovative Student-centered Environments, aims to empower higher education communities to design spaces that prioritize the needs of their students. These spaces foster active learning as well as a sense of community within the university. One of the project's key outcomes is a guide for educational organizations to create student-centered spaces. We’re excited to see how project’s ideas take material shape.
Project Number: 2020-1-SI01-KA203-076054
We’re happy to announce that our agency is part of a new project called WELFARE – Designing future WELFARE systems. Its goal is to foster social innovation and entrepreneurship within universities, taking the welfare sector as the focus point. Together with 5 other European organizations, we will be working towards creating an inclusive learning environment that will help students gain the necessary competencies to become social entrepreneurs. The project is funded by the Erasmus+ program.
Project number: 2021-2-IS01-KA220-HED-000049245
At the end of September, "Feel the Roots" project partners gathered in Reykjavik, Iceland. We discussed the project's progress, challenges, joys, and also visited two museums. The partner consortium is currently developing the gamified platform, and for that, we're researching different cultural heritage manifestations in European countries. During our meeting, we talked about cultural heritage in various contexts: local, regional or national. What problems do we see there, and what solutions can we offer? We will be focusing on these questions to further develop the project.
Project number: 2021-1-ES02-KA220-YOU-000029094
Xwhy is leading the charge towards making university campuses greener and more sustainable by involving the entire campus community, especially the students themselves. SOHACK, a new project by Xwhy, promotes sustainability on campus by encouraging interdisciplinary teams to work together to solve everyday problems. The project focuses on enhancing sustainability competencies, such as interdisciplinary work, anticipatory thinking, justice responsibility and ethics, critical thinking and analysis, interpersonal relations, and collaboration, among students. Through hackathons and placemaking, SOHACK aims to create solutions that involve local stakeholders and the campus community, resulting in a sustainable and resilient campus.
Project no: 2022-1-LT01-KA220-HED-000088562
Surengę interviu ir surinkę įvairių duomenų mobiliąja etnografijos programa, išsiaiškinome, kokius pagrindinius nuotolinio mokymosi iššūkius patiria dėstytojai ir studentai. Ketiname sukurti mokymo kursą, kuris padėtų spręsti šiuos iššūkius ir sustiprintų nuotolinio mokymosi patirtį.
PLACEDU projektas 2021-1-LT01-KA220-HED-000023512.
We are delving deep into learning experience of distance learning while employing our developed mobile ethnography application. We are about to collect thick data in four different universities from students and teachers.
PLACEDU project 2021-1-LT01-KA220-HED-000023512.
We are pleased to announce the successful completion of the SUM project, aiming to provide essential knowledge and skills for aspiring entrepreneurs. The project focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and creating its framework for future startups—it was the main topic we discussed with Vilnius University students in September. During this event, the students also tested the learning platform and asked questions. The final conference, held in Cyprus in October, brought together project partners and attendees from various backgrounds, including government officials and startup employees, to showcase the project's results.
Project number: 2020-1-CY01-KA202-066006
We all have been coping with COVID-19 and its impacts on us for the recent years. Higher education institutions have been struggling while shifting everything to distance and e-learning. Students and teachers have reported many negative impacts (such as social isolation, lack of motivation, etc.) on them while switching to distance learning. We embark to address these negative impacts and see how distance learning could avoid them.
We are happy to start leading PLACEDU (Digital social place for the next normal in education) project. Project number 2021-1-LT01-KA220-HED-000023512.
So many aspects of our lives are now in the digital sphere: work, shopping, entertainment. What about health? Do we have an opportunity to easily schedule appointments and reach out to the healthcare professionals? And if you are a healthcare professional, do you have digital resources to best assist your client?
There is no streamlined system yet, but we want to be part of the solution. Together with European partners, we’re working on a project UNIHEAL+, which aims to develop and redefine digital health in accordance with people’s needs today. This means providing health professionals with digital skills and relevant training, acknowledging the importance of digital health services, and modernizing the healthcare system.
The first phase of the project — research including a detailed survey and a focus group — has concluded. To truly understand the topic, we brought together over 40 healthcare professionals and educators so they could communicate the most pressing concerns and set priorities. Our researcher and project manager Tautvydas Bokmota was surprised to learn that participants didn’t see the digital health system in Lithuania in a positive light. “I believed that due to the Covid-19 crisis, when the e-health system became part of everyday life, it must have been improved and adapted to easy use. Research results contradict this.”
Research findings prove that the project’s goals are worth pursuing. We will be looking forward to sharing results from the next phase of the project.
Project number: 2021-1-ES01-KA220-VET-000033271
All eyes on Kaunas! This week, the city is living and breathing design, and it all leads up to Human City Grid, taking place on Friday, October 14. It’s the first event of such scale, further strengthening Lithuania’s position in the design world. It will be attended by international designers, global design networks, and everyone who wants to learn about cities that are very intentionally designed for people and their wellbeing.
Human City Grid will be exploring the topic of happy cities. How can we experience the city as a service, one that’s capable of making our life better? How can design solve our problems? What are the values designers should abide by in order to come up with practical solutions? The program will include a conference discussing city identity cases, design professionalism, inclusive cities, and similar topics. In parallel, workshops and meetings will be held, where city municipalities can come up with potential solutions to their problems.
Our agency partners Algirdas and Jonas are event initiators and content coordinators. Human City Grid is an opportunity for Lithuanian designers to present their cases and points of view; it also confirms that Kaunas is assuming its position on the international design map as an innovative, result-oriented city, where ideas and inspirations can be fruitfully exchanged.
This weekend, from October 7 to October 9, we invite you to become part of Odyssey. However, we’re not talking about a distant Greek poem. This is going to be our very own adventure, exploring neighbourhoods around Vilnelė river, and Vilnius city as a whole. If you are curious to learn how you can nurture your city, solve practical problems, and make a tangible impact, you are invited to “Vilnelės Odisėja”!
The symposium is part of a wider European project “ULYSSES European Odyssey”, funded by the EU program “Creative Europe”. James Joyce’s Ulysses, the legend of modern literature, was published 100 years ago, but it’s still as impactful as ever. Vilnius is among 18 cities to follow a theme based on the assigned chapter. Ours is chapter 3, exploring the themes of identity, renewal, and never ending movement. What’s a better symbol of movement than water, what better symbol of identity for Vilnius than Vilnelė? Our senior researcher and moderator of the event Eglė Vitkutė says: “I’m looking forward to the symposium because it’s one more step towards an even more engaging and open Vilnius, a city I love very much.”
In partnership with the Vilnius Museum, we offer a program of productive exploration. It includes city excursions to learn the context of different neighborhoods (Friday is for Markučiai, surrounded by greenness and nature, Saturday is for Naujoji Vilnia, a post-industrial place enabling alternative cultural forms, and Sunday is for the fashionable Paupys), panel discussions, and workshops to discuss city development and community building scenarios. Let’s meet this weekend!
Find more information about the event here: https://vilniausmuziejus.lt/vilneles-odiseja/
Next Friday, October 7, we invite you to a conference exploring how social sciences and humanities can contribute to solving global problems locally.
How do we ensure that ‘sustainability’, often used and often mentioned, doesn’t lose its impact and value? In other words, how do we sustain sustainability? We can do that by interrogating the human factor and looking for new ways to make an impact. One of them is through social sciences and humanities. They focus on the human world and its many facets, and therefore can be particularly effective in achieving sustainability goals.
Our innovation lead Dominykas will be discussing social innovations and their role in sustainability while our research lead Eugenijus will be facilitating the conference events and opening up spaces for conversations, offering an opportunity for the conference participants to talk about their own experiences. This conference, initiated by our sustainability lead Žemartas in partnership with Vilnius University, is part of a bigger European project “SHOUT”. We are happy to be its partners in Lithuania and contribute to sustainability development in a wider European context.
Democracy, climate, and gardens have a reason to be mentioned in the same sentence. We’re contributing to a project “Community gardens: Forward-looking learning centres for democratic values” (GarDem), which puts these words in one context, with the purpose of making a positive impact on cities. Our searcher Greta sees the project’s value as twofold: tackling climate change problems in cities and encouraging democratic participation, where everyone gets their say.
Earlier this month, project partners gathered in Oslo to discuss their ideas. Meeting also included a visit to Oslo City Gardens, where we could see how best practices of community gardening are applied in real life. Greta mentions two of them. First, teaching children about city gardening and nurturing their interest from an early age. Second, building rooftop gardens - a green infrastructure solution which saves space on the ground, but also serves a communal purpose, because it invites building residents to gather and prepare food using ingredients they have grown together.
Community gardening is a valuable practice, one we will keep coming back to and educating about. Taking an active part in European-scale projects gives us an impulse to discover our own methods on how to apply best practices in local contexts, and therefore offer creative, sustainable solutions to our clients.
Project number: 2021-1-NO01-KA220-ADU-000033613
Last week, we were invited by Gabija Platūkytė to visit CLINIC 212. Our partners Algirdas, Jonas, and Dominykas explained the reasons behind CRITICAL and Xwhy coming together, gave more details around the integration process - process which is exciting, alive, and very much still in the making - and recounted experiences from the most recent case, creating new visual identity for Klaipėda city. Why is it important to understand the context and engage all stakeholders? How do you reveal the visual identity, rather than impose it? The audience was curious to learn the value that research brings to clients and creatives, how to embrace research in design practices, and how to manage the inevitably bigger scope of projects. It was a lively late morning, full of cake and curiosity - we hope that similar conversations in the future will open up space for sharing experiences and learning from each other.
On the 9th and 10th of August, the YURI project pilot training took place in Kintai. The pilot training was organized in collaboration with Kintai Kiteboarding Club (KKK) and Kintai Arts Residency. During the implementation of the pilot training together with a diverse group of youth we addressed urban and rural prejudices and stereotypes, we shared intercultural communication knowledge, and we let the youth explore themselves by participating in the activities developed during the project by us and our partners. In addition, during the training, we were provided with feedback and evaluation of the project activities that were tested during the training. We hope that this experience brought new insights into daily life and the way the participants of the training see and understand different urban and rural settings, and contexts.
Project Number: 2021-1-ES02-KA220-YOU-000029041
Sometimes it happens so that our research finds its way into a book. The research on "The modernization of a cultural education system" is such an example. Dissemination in tangibility.
The book (in Lithuanian) is here.
YURI, or Intercultural Urban-Rural Youth Dialogues for Collective Entrepreneurship, since the start of the project, has been aiming to share knowledge and experience within the partnership. This time partners gathered up in order to deepen their knowledge and expertise with participatory theatre/theatre forum methodologies. The partner meeting was finalized with a visit to a green and social entrepreneurship initiative in Paris, France.
Project Number: 2021-1-ES02-KA220-YOU-000029041
Engaging Youth with Urban Gardening Activities (URBAN) is a project, which has been coming to an end. Recently, two students from Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy had the opportunity to increase their knowledge and understanding of urban gardening in the URBAN training, which took place in Amadora, Portugal.
Project Number: 2020-1-EL02-KA205-005750
Our team has been researching the subjective aspects defining safety in a city. Therefore we are glad to have an opportunity to apply this knowledge in creating a concept for the city of Vilnius aiming at increasing perceived safety based on trust principles.
We continue our journey of spreading the word on the URBAN project. This time we had the chance to share our experience and knowledge of urban gardening at Kaunas Valdorfas School. The demonstration of the URBAN platform took place at one of the Waldorf School Network schools in Kaunas. The demonstration was enriched with feedback from the pupils on the platform’s usability, functionality, as well as other important platform-related aspects.
Project number: 2020-1-EL02-KA205-005750
Excited to start working with Kaunas Biennial on their project "Magic Carpets". In the upcoming three years we are going to monitor and measure the impact on local communities by artists in residencies in 16 different places throughout Europe.
photographer Gintare Zaltauskaite
The most exciting adventure we had recently - revealing the story Klaipeda city is living by. The architecture of the process, facilitation and sense-making in such a complexity and on such a scope was done understanding the impact results will carry. Now it is fun to listen about the journey from a position of comfort.
Listen to a conversation here.
Designing and Implementing a Corporate Social Responsibility Framework for StartUps as a Visibility, Growth, and Multiplication Tool (SUM) project's training took place in Nicosia, Cyprus. We engaged to train the participants about start-up culture in relation to CSR and SDGs, core individual (personal) and organizational values, stakeholder management, as well as other topics. The training was complemented with a site visit, where we got to learn how corporate social responsibility is being implemented in the largest and oldest dairy factory in Cyprus.
Project number: 2020-1-CY01-KA202-066006
The first transnational project meeting of the Feel the Roots project took place in Gijon, Spain. We engaged participants to address European identities, cultural heritage at local, regional, national, and European levels, tangible and intangible cultural properties, intercultural differences and commonalities, etc.
Project number: 2021-1-ES02-KA220-YOU-000029094
We are excited with this critically important domain we are starting to create: merging research on trust with public engagement in infrastructure creation. This innovation will lead better cities we all live in.
If you are interested in this domain or want to use it in your own work, please email us.
The first training our team was a part of was held in Barcelona. We engaged participants to address belief systems, prejudices and stereotypes regarding identity in rural and urban settings, exchange ideas on ecology, share ideas about green and social entrepreneurship, professional projects and expectations in youth contexts, and etc.
Project number: 2021-1-ES02-KA220-YOU-000029041
We had a chance to share our knowledge and experience on urban gardening and its manifestations in theory and practice. It helped students to explore urban gardening practices and possibilities further.
More about the project here.
Revealing a concept takes time and engagement. Connecting Sapiegu historic site with the inner knowledge of Contemporary Arts Centre and happening trends is a careful dance that insists on precision. We are on it.
This year Social Business Forum will be held on 28th and 29th of May. The dialogue will happen between social business ecosystem leaders and decision makers from variety of fields. The goal is to navigate the understanding of how crucial it is to develop this domain both for the economic sustainability and societal prosperity.
Registration for online participation
The event programme.
With current circumstances revealing different perspectives on what is the core of a strategic view, our team is involved in steering Klaipeda Integrated Action Plan to find how SDG16 can be at the centre of various tactical decisions.
The research revealed that by taming the regenerative sea energy a person and the city are breathing in a sustainable rhythm. And that is the definition of a fulfilling life in this city.
Our team has accepted a responsibility to identify the narrative of the main sea-city in the country. Collecting data about the city, embracing information of people's everydayness, and making sense of it all is a challenge we see purpose in.
Further the baton will be given to our friends Critical to create a visual language this city will speak in.
More about the process here.
As we spent a great deal of time revealing the true identities of places and organizations, it was a joy to be invited to speak about identity of a librarian at the “Birziskos readings” event.
This community is one that unites.
Full keynote here.
At the XV Lithuanian Urban Forum our partner Eugenijus was delivering a message of how to insert trust-based principles into the process of urban planning . This message was a bridge for various stakeholders to step on and start a dialogue into the future.
Keynote here (in Lithuanian).
Our team was responsible for delivering trainings on communication and policy themes at a cornerstone SHOUT project event. We support the pursuit to shape the innovation process by including Social Science and Humanities into a practical dialogue.
More about the project here.
The HUB where the further interaction and useful resources will be held.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Project Number: 612364-EPP-1-2019-1-LT-EPPKA2-KA
We helped Vytauto Didziojo University to rethink their spaces towards student-oriented learning. Our team together with educators and students created a vision for the "aquarium" space.
Researches have pointed out that student-oriented learning improves motivation, enhances understanding of the information, boosts engagement.
The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Project Number: 2020-1-SI01-KA203-076054
Vilnius was selected to become UNESCO's City of Literature. It means a responsibility to recognise "past, present and future: a strong cultural heritage, a vibrant and diverse contemporary cultural scene, and aspirations to extend culture to the next generation at home and to other cities in a global partnership". We are happy to see our collaborative work delivering such fruits.
We know it is no longer sufficient for companies to offer good products and services and focus on stakeholder value alone, they also bear a great responsibility for the state of the environment and society by shaping their relationships with the ecological and social environment and their internal processes. Therefore, our team has co-created an educational course as an easy shortcut to the ranks of socially responsible businesses, providing a variety of different ways and methods, acting strategies, etc. for a start-up to become ecological and responsible enterprise.
The project “Designing and Implementing a Corporate Social Responsibility Framework for Start-Ups as a Visibility, Growth and Multiplication Tool-SUM” is co-funded by Erasmus+.
More information here.
We have been researching and defining the urban gardening concept in Lithuania and abroad. This substantive understanding invited our team to educate youth trainers about urban gardening in Germany.
This week our team was responsible for designing and executing a workshop on collaborative heritage ecosystems in a post-pandemic European Union. Providing an understanding about how adaptive reuse processes can provide space for collaboration, engagement and bottom-up driven regeneration.
More about the event.
This Thursday Dominykas will be talking about the context business leaders are in - responsibility to foster trust-based culture.
About the event.
Our team has decided to care for infrastructure beyond the scope of one or two projects. We are committing our own resources to create an impactful place in Kintai. Stay tuned.
The location.
While working on various projects the patterns across them emerge. We start to see meta-stories shaping our daily stories. At this moment in history the meta-story all need to focus on and put as many resources as possible is trust. This the most valuable currency defines our worlds that are fracturing too fast.
The interview about how trust impacts city development can be found here (in Lithuanian).
Our team is working on strategic and tactical moves that would open up Vilnius old-town for more-human behaviour. This time we enhance parking spaces with human actions.
If you are interested in participating click here.
Participatory budgeting is one of the most effective ways to include citizens into the city planning and enhancement of their habitat. It is a possibility to develop a city according to actual needs and foster so needed trust between government and populus. Therefore, our team is happy to help Vilnius city municipality in introducing and developing participatory budgeting in the capital.
Our partner Zemartas was kindly offered a responsibility to moderate an important event about locality: "How cheese-makers from Dzukija are changing the world: the responsibility for the place you inhabit." The goal of this discussion was to reveal how human activities can make a positive impact to a place and other people. It is important to understand that our values define the outcome we are creating in the long term. As Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess stated: “Whether to preserve mountaintops or riverfronts as natural areas for wildlife habitat and other conservation objectives, or to permit these areas to be used for industrial or recreational activities, is an ethical question.”
The recording is here.
The trust-based-management-tool our partner Dominykas has been working on has been chosen by Kaunas University of Technology as an example of social innovation and added to its textbook. A beautiful reward to mention.
The textbook can be found here (Lithuanian).
Eugenijus has established his name as one of the leading experts in placemaking domain. His insights and research has been used all over Lithuania, hence creating a sustainability-oriented impact nation wide.
Here Eugenijus is explaining the perimeter of what defines placemaking and why it is important to cultivate such activity.
Watch on LRT (Lithuanian Radio and Television) in Lithuanian.
Our partner Dominykas has been involved in creating innovation that fosters trust by empowering employees. Mo Museum - one of the leading museums in the Baltic states - enhanced their volunteers with the platform and we celebrate that.
More about the collaboration.
More about the platform.
We have been working with an international team to enhance organizational problem solving by embedding human sciences into the process.
Here is an example of the impact such an approach creates in Lithuania.
Our team was involved in creating the framework for the upcoming school project. Working together with architects by enhancing their view with our insights about human learning phenomenon was an impactful journey.
We had a pleasure to have an interesting conversation about our work and how applying philosophy serves public good. The full dialogue with Juta Liutkeviciute on LRT "Cultural week" can be found here.
The good news is that applied humanities are in high demand, so we are growing and would love to have more people on our team!
Currently we are looking for.
Our team is starting to research the domains of social responsibility and transparency in relationship to startup culture. Finding the right framework and delivering it as an education programme is at the core of "Designing and Implementing a Corporate Social Responsibility Framework for Start-Ups as a Visibility, Growth and Multiplication Tool-SUM" project. Creating Curriculum and Open Resource Toolbox for startup community should compliment the overall arch of SDGs we are engaged with.
Project 2020-1-CY01-KA202-066006
Performing arts is responsible for direct and indirect benefits society have been experiencing. This value to the audiences is difficult to measure, yet important for further resource allocation and understanding the impact of the sector. Our team was chosen to create methodology for evaluating this impact and test it by pilot field research. This is being done for the first time in Lithuania, so we are super excited to take this challenge.
Photo by Ahmad Odeh.
The research objective was to assess the impact of art residencies in the Republic of Lithuania on the artist/ creator, environment, and other factors and to provide recommendations for successfully implementing Lithuanian art residencies and the Culture Support Fund- funded program.
The summary (in English) here.
The summary (in Lithuanian) here.
Full report (in Lithuanian) here.
We are always balancing between chaos and order, anxiety and boredom. Finding that thin line is "being in the moment", "flow", "fulfilment". In our office we have a simple sentence from few words hand-written on a piece of paper attached to a board - "Rejoicing in work" ("Šventė dirbti" in Lithuanian). These words (written at our humble beginning) helps us to keep close distance to that line every single day.
Eugenijus Kaminskis immersed himself into a slow and meaningful conversation with delightful Urte Karalaite about this line. The dialogue opens up variety of aspects about "being in-between" phenomenon and shines a light on how humanities can be applied to solve problems in city planning, sustainable development and business strategy. Enjoy.
On Spotify.
On Apple Podcasts.
Art residencies are an integral part of the professional activity of artists, therefore the Lithuanian Culture Council initiated the study “The Impact of Art Residences”, which was implemented by Xwhy / Agency of Understanding. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of Lithuanian art residencies on artists, their successful careers, competencies, professionalism and persuasion, and to provide recommendations for the implementation of Lithuanian art residencies and the Culture Support Fund funded program “Art residencies of Artists and Cultural Creators in Lithuania”.
The research will be presented on 10 Dec. at 15.00.
Youtube meeting place.
Facebook meeting place.
Our partner Eugenijus is talking about his experience in creative placemaking. Insights on why this method is so effective and sustainable.
Dialogue (in Lithuanian) here.
What is a role of the cultural sector in this pandemic?
We discussed how people are experiencing anxiety about reality and what to do about it.
More here.
We are looking forward to sharing our findings about the role of culture in the context of this pandemic at the "Cultural Innovation Forum". The patterns emerging from the field where actual people live indicate what organizations should focus on. Culture is at the centre of attention when tectonic shifts happen.
Our team has been working on a conceptualisation of urban gardening phenomenon for more than a year. We are applying this knowing to integrate the concept into the city lives. Here is a guide focused on Vilnius.
The creative placemaking method is commonly used in activating infrastructure. Nevertheless, as the practise actively invites people to co-create, we used this technic to understand what the place is speaking and copy-write on that. Creative co-writing emerging from the place happened in Palanga.
There comes a time when a client asks to deliver results uber fast. We call it blitz research. This time Go3 needed to understand the product positioning possibilities "yesterday". Our team delivered the results on time and managed to make sense of the thick data properly. We hope the insights will enhance the people everydayness in the Baltic states.
Our research team was hired to evaluate the impact art residencies create for the environment (place) and the artists. As quantitative data is not enough to grasp the essence of the matter thick data collection has to be enabled. For that reason we have engaged variety of stakeholders to provide their experiences and insights on the situation.
Economical indications measure the market size and overall structure of culture impact, yet misses an underlying sociocultural value. Our team has been working on the more precise theoretical model to evaluate the impact culture is making in the particular contexts. Very soon it should be included in the strategies nationwide.
We thought you may like to check our SHOUT video. We invite everyone who is interested in Sustainable Development Goals and have a social sciences and humanities background to contact us and explore various ways of collaborating in order to reach sustainable innovations. You can be a student, teacher, SME or NGO. Let‘s talk.
Video is here.
Our team has a tradition to move to vacation places for a different style of working during the summer time. Harmonising holiday everydayness with work duties is where we are heading for the rest of this summer. It has proved to be productive, interesting and inspiring.
Comprehensive Plan of the Territory of the Republic of Lithuania is the fundamental document shaping nation's development. Our team was working on culture sector definition - making sense of the data and interpreting patterns.
Here is a brief about our involvement.
Photo credit: Romanas
Klaipeda region has been a good example of regional development in Lithuania for some time. Nevertheless, the move to reveal their own identity based on values acted out is the next level of conscious growth.
Our team was honoured to navigate this fundamental process.
Summary in English.
As Vilnius is getting back to rethink P. Cvirka square activation plan, we are revisiting our perspective on the place and situation. We have identified that adapting J. Galtung conflict transformation model and understanding that all infrastructure objects are at the same time functional solutions and socio-cultural domains enables the process to have a sustainable long-lasting result.
The end of the previous year suggested certain important elements impacting the upcoming year. Our team analyzed and interpreted them to guide organizations into a better future. Then the pandemic happened and trends became irrelevant due to their internal structure - the fundamentals defining them changed. Therefore, now our team is diving deep into the shifts shaping the longterm behaviour of ours.
As COVID-19 is pushing us to rethink many daily habits, at SHOUT we are researching in 9 countries how Social sciences and Humanities can help to overcome crisis like COVID-19. It is obvious that quarantine puts a lot of pressure on people psychological health. How we should keep our social lives strong and fulfilling and also how we can help people to recover in postpandemic world.
Photo: A queue in front of hairdressing saloon the first day after the strict quarantine
Almost a year ago our team decided to research trust manifestations and principles in organizational culture. The process is still on going yet certain insights are revealing itself. As the topic is very relevant to virus-defined environment our partners have asked to share the findings this time with the executive branch of all Lithuanian libraries.
Preparing the keynote and waiting for quarantine to end.
We had been working on National Comprehensive Plan of the Republic of Lithuania 2030 for quite some time. Focusing on culture and its further development nationwide. The results were recognized by the LR President’s cabinet underlining that this document will be the core in shaping the welfare of the country. The next step for the researching and recommendations to materialise is to concentrate on actionable solutions. Together with a new team we are starting this process now.
More about CPTRL.
We do acknowledge the seriousness of the situation COVID-19 has created. We also know it is temporarily. Therefore, our team is encouraging initiatives directed at making our livelihood better.
Streets are calm, time is defined by home - there is some spare time to answer few questions helping us to live in a more sustainable city.
Click here to start.
The ground is shaken and uncertainty is the only thing certain, we need to stabilise the situation. Being social animals people seek the other to reestablish their own. Relationships create resilience, meaning and growth. We have been forgetting it and moved towards transactional way of being: calculating everything on the basis of what this action will give me. Now it is time to focus on doing anything one can to improve the current. Together. It will bring us stronger.
Currently majority of organizations are moving to remote work. We know how unusual the practise is when applied on a such scale. Therefore, our team is giving some anthropological insights on how to make this transition more convenient and keep the process going.
The insights here.
Drawing by Charlie Mackesy
Every decision is rooted in a particular spot with its according context. Our work on sustainable urban mobility has revealed car-centric perspective being such a spot. It drives all the decisions and values by which the impact is measured.
For this reason working on humanizing Vilnius old town we decided to focus on few actions: involve related communities into a mobility reflective process, publicly reveal the contagious mental spot defining the issue.
Integral strategy development invites decision-makers to asses resources at hand, identify relevant trends and understand the human context that they are dealing with. It is the path in order to start moving in sustainable direction. Yet the goals are only solid if they stem from an authentic ground. Therefore, localized values are crucial when dealing with a sustainable development.
As we have started working on Klaipeda region strategic matters, our team had gathered relevant political stakeholders to reveal region's identity from their perspective, identify values through the Sustainable Development Goals model and define their possible applications in the region.
More info is here.
Today community has become a trendy word to describe healthy attitude towards real estate development projects, mass marketing campaigns and product innovation cycles. Unfortunately in many cases we recognize a word without true action. In order to understand the reasons behind this situation we could outline variety of cultural aspects, yet this time our recent experiences underline one.
We have an honour to work with Vilnius municipality on connecting communities with infrastructure development projects in their domains. As people there are the main users and primary source of information we encourage different dialogues with appropriate groups. In 2019 our team had a lot of such encounters and have learnt a transformative principle. Community engagement and building requires accepting vulnerability. This principle is not a mere word, but a model forming an important axis in a whole action plan. Acknowledging prejudices, reframing problems and truly engaging are few elements at work there. It is difficult, yet one has to go there and sit down with eyes fully opened in order to create a sustainable future. Otherwise it is just us and them.
Various organizations having a relationship with people outside of their common domain (usually a big city) is arrogant in the approach. It is easy to get lost and start thinking that what you see from your glass tower is what actually happening on the ground. Then you start talking to people without knowing the language they use. We have a different perspective. We go there and we stay there till the place starts talking to us.
This time our team provided a workshop in remote Silai in Lithuania town to encourage regional growth in Lithuania. We are taking the first steps in implementation of Comprehensive Plan of the Republic of Lithuania 2030 in the cultural sector nation-wide. Our goal was to pack it into the meaningful stories that reveal patterns for next steps to be taken.
Interview about the event (in Lithuanian).
Creating often implies some kind of destruction. Therefore, choosing what, where and how to create has to be a conscious and thought-through decision. Otherwise, it takes more than it gives.
Actors of Urban Change programme is promoting conscious creativity as they put it: “To tackle today’s complex urban problems more effectively, we need a new way of acting: collaborative across sectors and borders; bringing local culture and local voices into the processes shaping the future of communities – for collective, lasting change.”
We are proud to help Actors of Urban Change in choosing the right projects for further growth and funding. Here in Berlin one of our partners Zemartas Budrys together with acclaimed urban theorists and practitioners Charles Landry, Clothilde Sauvages, Matthias Einhoff, Marta Klepo and Agnieszka Surwillo-Hahn has been working long hours to make the right decisions and pick the most exciting and dedicated projects for the implementation.
Xwhy is proud to start a very exciting project “Social Sciences and Humanities in Intersectoral Outreach for better education and sustainable innovations” (612364-EPP-1-2019- 1-LT-EPPKA2-KA) together with 12 other partners all over Europe. During the upcoming three years, we are going to develop education programmes for Social sciences and humanities graduates, host brilliant students in our company, collaborate with academia and NGOs in developing innovative solutions in order to reach Sustainable Development Goals.
With digital tools expansion and virtual worlds extension people start to loose sense of what is happening around. Suddenly all that was connected become fragmented. This feeling skaters trust into many pieces. We identify such phenomenon in variety of cases starting from financial services going to the realms of public sector.
As a practical example of this situation, the government of Sweden has created the Trust Agency. The move defines Nordic countries doubling down on their real gold - trust. We where invited to moderate an event on trust-based public management and share our insights about trust creation based on four principles: familiarity, vulnerability, openness, consistency.
Photo: Annie Spratt
Internship is an interesting concept going back to the subject of craftsmanship. Mastering an art, which required time, specific know-how and tools was a dream come true for many young people. Unfortunately today quite few organizations perceive it as cheap labor or one-way process. Nevertheless, “Bring Together Lithuania” is an exception that creates platform for young people to grow and help companies improve.
We had an opportunity to participate in the program. Ula (from Chicago) joined our team to create a strategic model with conceptual mind-set change for urban gardening application in Vilnius. She told us that this internship pushed her to think of the ways coming back to Lithuania.
More information about the program is here.
Photo: Caroline Attwood
We are working on urban gardening strategy for Vilnius! Urban gardening embraces social, cultural, economic and environmental practices. Each single place might have a different approach towards urban gardening, however, every single city must have a working structure in order to boost communities and their gardening practices since these give local fresh produce, better access to good food, but also help to connect people with people and people with nature in cityscape. We are figuring out what the purpose of urban gardens in people's minds in Vilnius is.
Photo: Markus Spiske
Driven by the need to understand the upcoming trends in various markets we went to one of the best events about the future there is - the Wall Street Journal “The Future of Everything” conference in New York. The participants consisted of ESPN President, Warby Parker co-founder, Washington Wizards owner, Reddit founder etc.
Underlying insight connecting all dots emerging from keynotes and conversations is that innovation (as a goal by itself) is losing value, whereas culture (as a framework for creating benefits) is becoming the most used word from the Daily Show creative team to the Slack co-founder.
More about the conference is here.
Libraries are the cradle of culture within communities. Everything that is happening there has an immense impact on regional development. We went to share our experience in researching and working on a national strategy for culture at the international conference “The possibilities and potential of integrating sustainable development goals to libraries.”
The information about the event is here.
In March of 2017 we decided to share our thoughts about the usefulness of purpose-driven-model within the business context. Two years has passed and ‘purpose’ is still being aliented from the business language. Therefore, we invite you to find this text again.
The article is here.
Photo credits: Reuters
Money digitalization and technological advancement in society changed people's relationship to money. One generic strategy to make everything easy and fast does not grasp the real issue. The need to fulfill slow and fast money cultures has to be met.
"Red associates" perfectly defined the situation in this video.
Source: Vimeo
An article published three years ago today hasn't lost its relevance.
True innovation is born and not manufactured. It is sustainable because it is alive. It cannot be replicated but it can be anticipated. It all goes back to Socrates - "Wisdom begins in wonder".
The article is here.
Photo credits: Wikipedia
Statistical significance has been the most important way of determining the value insights for a very long time. Evaluating if something is important or not. However, the dark side of statistical significance has been ignored. This dark side also is known as the categorization process that pushes crucial and real facts to the non-existence.
Now the prestigious science magazine is strongly questioning the need for statistical significance in general.
The article here.
Illustration by David Parkins
Our consortium has attracted 3 million EUR investment to create Stasys Eidrigevicius Arts Center in Panevezys.
Usually, infrastructure activation starts with finding the right financial resources. When applying for funding, standard projects require common writing practices. On the other hand, there are ones in need to reveal the identity of an idea within an interconnected context. Then a different kind of perspective in communication and writing has to be applied.
More about it is here.
Photo credits: Administration of Panevezys city municipality
Our company was founded by three unalike people. All of them studied philosophy together yet later on explored different interdisciplinary paths. Seeing the need of contextual deep thinking in business Eugenijus, Zemartas and Dominykas decided to act together. The process took various shapes and forms till the boundaries were established. Such momentum required new identity. That's how and why Xwhy was born.
Big market volatility, fast-pace innovation, Artificial Intelligence, globalisation, Big Data, emerging middle class in developing countries, robotisation, trust issues and many more tectonic moves are creating market for proper understanding of happening phenomenons. Therefore, our advisory agency is heading towards helping various organisations to make sense of the worlds around and finding the best paths to move forwards.