Valmiera 29 July 2021

There were 7 community members that took the stage and shared stories about the Jāņparks neighbourhood. These people shared their memories of events, places, their families and house building. There were stories about the local park, train station, local shops, items that have significant meaning and also creative men that used to live in the neighbourhood. One of the speakers shared some stories about the relationships between neighbours. More than 90 people gathered around to listen to the stories and also share their memories amongst themselves. There were a lot of private conversations encouraged by the speakers that will always remain unheard but the sense of community and local identity improves in all of them whether they speak loudly or privately.

This event was organized both by the Europe Challenge Valmiera team and the community of Jāņparks neighbourhood. A local community that comes together to share stories about their neighbourhood, families and history is more active as a group in terms of participating in local initiatives, helping one another and having a shared local identity. This was also supported by a short questionnaire that was given to each participant at the event. It consisted of three short questions:

Does exploring the history of your neighbourhood improve your sense of identity to the local community?

Do events like this encourage you to participate more in the activities of the local community?

How do you prefer to be involved in events like these - actively participating and having conversations or passively listening and watching?

45 people gave back a filled questionnaire, of them 43 agreed to the first question and 44 agreed to the second question. When it comes to people’s preference in how they participate - 18 of them said they are more active and talking to one another, but 30 participants said they tend to passively listen and watch. The results of the questionnaire and observations of this event confirmed what we had previously talked about in focus groups - that bringing people together encourages their sense of identity and their motivation to participate in local initiatives and events. The library can be a significant partner in helping these communities by supporting them with human resources, marketing and using existing relationships, experience and knowledge to help reach the community’s goals and have a wider reach.