Policy Plan 2021-2023

Foreword

Since early 2020, the COVID pandemic has kept the world in its grip. It is not clear how long the pandemic will continue, but it is clear already now that this will continue well into 2021 and probably beyond as well.

We cannot make an estimate yet how this will influence our activities in 2021, but we felt the need to update our Policy Plan 2020-2022 already now, taking this new situation into consideration.  For example, the ABANA blacksmith Conference (USA) and the FORCE Hereditary Breast Cancer Conference (USA) in 2020, in which the Society was suppose to participate and for which funding was secured, were cancelled due to the pandemic. International cooperation on craft activities and ecomuseum development also will be delayed until things get more back to normal

The information on this page is a condensed version of the full and downloadable Policy Plan,

Summary

While the Society used to be one of the very few non-profits to do annual community events like Easter in the early 2000s, now many organizations and villages in the region organize similar events. As such, we will limit the number of such events in the coming period.

In contrast to the statement in the 2020 Policy Plan, the Society will continue to facilitate Thematic Children Summer Camps and other events for children of the Jilovice municipality and others.

The Interreg-Danube project Network on WWI heritage preservation ended in 2019, but we will continue with several of the activities, in particular actively involving locals and schools in extending the heritage activities and developing heritage tourism with our foreign partners. In addition, once the COVID pandemic recedes, the Society plans to shift a part of our focus to helping cancer patients in our region.

Planned projects – activities – events in 2021-2023

Kojakovice Museum 20 year.

Our Kojakovice Museum will exist 20 years in 2021. We plan to celebrate this with several activities and events around the museum and in the village. We also plan to publish a book about the history of the people and the farms in the village. Funding will be sought in 2020 and 2021 from the Region of South Bohemia, the Municipality of Jilovice, and foreign and Czech visitors of the museum. 

WWI Heritage conservation and heritage tourism.

Work on the new permanent WWI exhibition will continue in the coming years. Source research and interviews with people from the region will help us extend the database with information of soldiers from the region that fell during WWI, both on the Austro-Hungarian side and in the independent Czech Legion fighting on the Allied side. Time and funding allowing, we also plan to publish a booklet about the WWI memories and events affecting the village. Funding: see ad 1).

Craft Network: combining craft education with heritage conservation in an international network.

As part of the NETWORLD activities, we involved apprentice blacksmiths in making a WWI monument and our new WWI exhibition. We also organized a Youth Exchange, visiting Slovenia and Italy. During this exchange, we visited the European Centre for Training Craftsmen in the Conservation of the Architectural Heritage (Thiene, Italy), the Faculty of Design (Ljubljana, Slovenia), and later the Danube University Krems (Krems, Austria). All agreed in principal trying to  establish a European network project for crafts and heritage conservation. Preparatory activities will start in 2020, aiming to prepare an EU application under the new rounds of EU projects for the period 2021-2028. 

As part of our Craft activities, the Society has obtained a first grant for taking three apprentice blacksmiths and two supervisors to the 5-day ABANA blacksmith conference in upstate New York in June 2020. The visit will be combined with visiting other blacksmith events and demonstrations, especially about the involvement of our apprentices in heritage conservation.   

Ecomuseum restart

In the early 2000s, the Society was involved in pilot projects and international cooperation to help develop the Ecomuseum concept in especially the Visegrad Four countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary). An Ecomuseum is a museum without walls, involving the local people in preserving and presenting their heritage. This concept failed to gain ground in our region. It was too short after the fall of the Iron Curtain; locals were not much interested in becoming involved in another volunteer community activity.

Now the concept is getting renewed attention and the Society is a minor partner of a LEADER – LAG European cooperation project on developing or reviving Ecomuseums. The Society hosted the first project meeting in Prague with participants from five countries. However, late in 2020 is was decided that the project would be only open for LAGs. Since we are not a LAG, it is not clear yet if we can continue with an active role in the development of this initiative.

Education – EU Erasmus+ programme

Part of raising awareness for craft networks, heritage conservation, cultural tourism, and ecomuseums can be realized within the framework of EU Erasmus+ projects on student, staff, and stakeholder mobility. Our initial proposal was runner-up but did not get funded in the end. We wait for the COVID Pandemic to recede before submitting it again. .

Online Cancer Support Platform

Experiences with cancer patients in our direct surroundings show that patient information, doctor-patient relations, and support organizations are less good in our region compared with, for example, the Netherlands and the USA. We are investigating the need for and feasibility off establishing an information platform and discussion forum for cancer patients based upon the Dutch, UK, and US experience. A cooperation with the Hereditary Breast Cancer association and other USA parties was put on hold due to the pandemic, hopefully we can resatart this effort in 2022.

Financial restrictions

Currently, we are still repaying a loan to our bank needed to pre- and co-finance the NETWORLD project. Repayment had to be dealyed and extended due to income losses as result of the pandemic. This limits our efforts to start or join new larger EU projects that need significant pre- and co-financing.

Marketing

Visitors to our centres mention that they have problems finding us, and also that our websites are not easy accessible on smart phones. In the coming period, updating our websites to mobile-friendly and more attractive for tourists will have a high priority. We will announce our activities more pronounced on social media and platforms like Trip Advisor and Booking.com, and also update more regularly. We will try find funding for a media campaign, but if no funds are forthcoming, the work will be done with volunteers.

 

The full Policy Plan including mission and organization details can be downloaded here