
Zoom in and Zoom out
Last week, from 12 – 13.01.2023, CDOP attended the third parters meeting organized in the town of Valmiera, in the west of Latvia.
Village Hosts bring new social, economic and ecological life to small villages and their local economy. They create new livelihoods, and good work, in emerging urban-rural markets: positive-impact tourism, nature reconnection, adventure sports, farm-shares, learning journeys, wellness retreats, work-vacations, heritage trails, and more.
To realise these opportunities, Village Hosts seek out and connect assets that may already exist in a community, but are unknown, or isolated: people, places, buildings, and skills.
Based on these new connections, Village Hosts develop services sustained by new business models: remote working, co-housing, platform co-ops and others.
Village Hosts enable diverse partners and stakeholders to work together – often for the first time. Their work is a form of green infrastructure.
Although the description ‘Village Host’ is new, similar work is of course being done at a local level by local pioneers, social innovators, and enterprising local officials.
But many more such people are needed. In Italy alone, 5,500 small villages (those with 5,000 or fewer inhabitants) have been declining; in Spain, 3,500; in Serbia, 4,700 – to name just three of the countries represented in this project.
An unusual combination of knowledge, skills and qualities are needed to be an effective Village Host.
Village Hosts need ‘hard’ capabilities such as digital skills, or business planning. But as collaboration experts – people who connect people – a Village Host’s most valuable skills are often so-called ‘soft’ ones: hosting, convening, facilitating, animating, and co-ordinating.
a) collect and publish stories
b) provide tools
c) support and enable a community of knowledge exchange
Last week, from 12 – 13.01.2023, CDOP attended the third parters meeting organized in the town of Valmiera, in the west of Latvia.
Open School for Village Hosts | January 2023 Newsletter
Rural communities face sustainability opportunities and challenges that follow trends in migration, food value chains, rural business succession, and more.
Reskilling and upskilling was the #1 priority for 93% of businesses in 2021. It seems that this trend is not going to stop any time soon.
One of the critical objectives of current EU policy is to maintain lively rural areas. Rural activators are the only ones able to change these areas’ fate.
Rural activators are people who have not forgotten or have never stopped believing in that rural reality. They are those who keep the village together, like old and new roots protecting the community from subsiding.