Future Cities Platform

Across the Baltic Sea Region, small and medium-sized cities face rising pressure: they must respond to climate change, rebuild social cohesion and maintain trust in public institutions—often with limited staff and resources. Many local public authorities and NGOs want to work in more participatory, creative and people-centred ways but lack practical methods, political backing or confidence to use them in daily work.

The Future Cities Platform brings together the achievements of successful EU projects—such as Cultural Pearls, Liveability, CCI4Change, NEB-STAR or EDITUA—that have tested new ways of involving citizens, using culture, creativity and design to strengthen resilience and improving neighbourhoods through co-creation. Their tools, stories and networks are now combined in one joint effort.

The platform delivers four core outputs that consolidate the involved projects' results:

• a Future Cities Playbook, a practical guide for creating a shared city vision and turning it into action;
• an portfolio of tested tools for cultural and participatory work;
• peer-learning and an online learning community for cities and NGOs;
• and a policy brief explaining why culture and creativity are strategic investments for resilience and liveability.

By connecting more and less experienced cities, supporting civil society and making proven methods easy to use, the platform turns culture and co-creation into everyday tools for shaping better cities across the Baltic Sea Region.