Month: July 2025

My name is Hugo, and I am currently participating in the IVY program, focusing on the European project ATLIC as part of the Chamber of Commerce of Santiago team. This initiative aims to promote Blue Economy projects across the Atlantic area. The project brings together various entities from different countries, including Ireland, France, Portugal, and northern Spain. It is this diversity, united by a common goal, that makes the initiative truly unique. Thanks to this project, I have had the chance to meet many inspiring people with different perspectives on the Blue Economy, which has greatly increased my awareness and engagement with this field. I have participated in several activities, with more to come. The most recent one was a national stakeholder meeting in Samos (Lugo), where we discussed the key topics to be addressed in the final stages of the program. It was a great experience, and I even had the opportunity to present some of these topics to the participants. – Hugo, IVY Project Partner at Cámara de Comercio de Santiago de Compostela, Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Services and Navigatio Santiago de Compostela, for the Interreg project ATLIC, under the programme Interreg Atlantic Area. Discover more about ATLIC project Click Here Discover more about The Santiago Chamber of Commerce Click Here

Hey everyone, I’m Rezija Egmane, and I’m currently volunteering in “Impact Hub” Liepāja in project “Your Future Profession” as a part of the Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) program. My experience is taking place in Liepāja, Latvija – a city near the beach, with beautiful views and people with energy! “Your Future Profession” runs for 6 months and 40 young people (18 to 25 y.o.) from Sweden and Latvia get  the opportunity to promote the competitiveness and development of innovation abilities, purposefulness, leadership skills, as well as self-determination. Activities during the project are meant to increase the number of youth employment. Project is and will provide the opportunity of being acquainted with at least 3 employers (networking and dialogues between counterparts of the labor market), and possibly becoming an employee or a start-up founder. During the months of the project (from November to April)  participants have the opportunity to work with career consultants, mentors, determine your desired future profession, determine personality types, improve your CV, and communication skills. In addition to all of this, participants choose either to start your own entrepreneurial journey or become an active job seeker. The best thing – they have the opportunity to try out different professions by having internships. The most active participants will have the opportunity to go on an international internship exchange! Overall this project helps participants “try on” different professions, career paths for their future, works on their leadership, development, experience, motivation and work towards their career goals. As a part of my role, I’m working on the marketing and communication with participants and speakers of the  “Your Future Profession” project”. I’m helping organizing events, coordinate internships and work with participants. By working with these tasks I’m building my confidence in communication and in event organizing in which I had very little experience but had the drive to develop it. Being in the project “Your Future Profession” I love seeing and working with youth that have different values for life and know that they want more and work on it. It gives incredible inspiration to focus even more on this project and what it gives. I’m amazed with supportive partners and teamwork with each other. Each masterclass and internship is a step closer to reducing unemployment and new startups to improve employment and economy in Latvia, Sweeden and the whole Europe.   – Rezija, IVY Project Partner at Impact Hub, for the Interreg project Your Future Profession, under the programme Interreg Central Baltic. Discover more about Your Future Profession Project Click Here Discover more about Impact Hub Liepāja Click Here

Hello! I’m Carolina and I’m currently IVY Interreg Project Partner in Finnova Foundation for the Interreg Spain-Portugal Program and, namely, for the Interreg FIREPOCTEP+ Project. What is it?  Briefly, “Interreg” stands for European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), is one of the two goals of European Cohesion Policy (that aims to correct imbalances between countries and regions), and has the function to implement joint actions and policy exchanges between different Member States of the European Union.  FIREPOCTEP+ aims to strengthen forest fire prevention and suppression systems in the cross-border region between Spain and Portugal known as “La Raya”, where wildfires have become increasingly common due to climate change and deforestation. To reach this goal, the project partners cooperate by sharing their knowledge, experiences, human, material, and financial resources. Lots of actors will benefit from this Project: the partners of the consortium; the cooperation territory and its population; the regional and local administrations, territorial managers and emergency response operatives; the technical professional groups that are specialized in forest fire prevention and suppression, climate change adaptation and mitigation. But what about my contribution? As an IVY Interreg Project Partner, I am supporting Finnova Foundation’s technicians in the management of the Interreg Project, collaborating with the communication and marketing department in creating FIREPOCTEP+ Project’s promotional materials, press releases, and contents for websites and social media; helping in organizing and managing events related to the project; participating in technical meetings and maintaining contact with the project partners. I am also developing sustainability actions for the project and analyzing contents to find appropriate solutions to the cooperation territory’s challenges.  I am grateful to the IVY Program for allowing me to have this experience, being an opportunity to deepen my understanding of European territorial projects, cooperation and Cohesion policies. Moreover, not only can I take part in promoting cooperation between Spain and Portugal, but I am also learning new things, improving languages, meeting people from different countries and backgrounds, and developing useful skills for my professional career.   Contributing to the European Cohesion Policy, and to the FIREPOCTEP+ Project in particular, makes me happy and proud because I care a lot about the environment, and I believe in the positive impact we can make every day with our actions. – Carolina, IVY Project Partner at Finnova foundation, for the Interreg project FIREPOCTEP+, and the programme Interreg POCTEP. Discover more about FIREPOCTEP+ project Click Here Finnova Foundation Click Here