Revive! Strengthening rural communities through local libraries
The Revive! project will be strengthening rural communities through their local libraries, developing new ways of engaging and collaborating.
The project will develop and pilot a new collaboration model for the libraries to work in synergy with their culture & creative field actors, for the benefit of the community and reviving neighbourhoods. Also, the citizens are engaged to share their needs and wishes regarding their neighbourhood.
The model is tested through practical pilots in two municipalities, one in Latvia and another in Finland. Both partner municipalities have a dedicated library that wants to work in new ways with their neighbourhoods, citizens, and the creative professionals.
Context
Many rural areas across Northern Europe are facing declining populations, reduced social and cultural activity, and weakened community life. Public institutions (such as libraries) remain important local gathering spaces, but they often lack practical tools and structured methods to lead community revitalisation efforts. At the same time, cultural and creative professionals have valuable skills for engaging communities, but collaboration between libraries, citizens, and the creative sector remains limited.
The Revive! project was created to address the lack of accessible, cost-effective, and transferable models that help rural libraries activate local communities and revitalise neglected neighbourhoods through culture and citizen participation. The project develops a collaboration model that connects libraries, citizens, cultural and creative sector professionals, and local stakeholders to co-create activities responding to real community needs. The partners are across Latvia and Finland.
Tools
The project will develop, test, and share the “Revive! Collaboration Tool” — a practical step-by-step methodology for library-driven rural revitalisation. Through pilot activities in Latvia and Finland, libraries will work with citizens to identify local needs and collaborate with cultural and creative professionals to implement community-based activities tailored to those needs. The project will also explore new partnership and co-financing approaches involving local stakeholders and private actors. The final open-access tool will enable libraries and municipalities across the Central Baltic region to replicate these methods, strengthen community participation, and support more vibrant and resilient rural neighbourhoods.
To support this goal, Revive! will also produce practical guidance, case studies, and step-by-step collaboration models that libraries and municipalities can easily adapt and use in other rural areas
Results and impact
The project will strengthen the capacity of libraries to act as active drivers of community development and rural revitalisation, helping municipalities adopt more effective, citizen-driven approaches to improving community life. Additionally, the cross-border cooperation between Latvia and Finland will ensure that the tool is practical and adaptable to different rural environments, while enabling knowledge exchange between partners with different levels of experience. In the long term, the project aims to support more vibrant, inclusive, and resilient rural communities, while also creating new opportunities for collaboration with cultural and creative professionals.
Duration and funding
The Revive! project will be implemented from July 2026 to December 2027. It is co-financed by the Interreg Central Baltic program with a total project budget of approximately 200,000 EUR.
Contact person at the NDPC: Liene Abaroniņa, liene@ndpculture.org