In €90,000 project, Estonia's Green Tiger to host dreaming workshops this May

On this year's Let's Do It civic action day, the Green Tiger Foundation (SA Rohetiiger), a multidisciplinary cooperation platform, plans to organize dreaming workshops. The dreams collected in these workshops will be used in creative works and to engage local residents in shaping the future of their region. The project will cost a total of €90,000.
"The planned dreaming format establishes that these dreams should be positive, look ahead to the year 2050 and carry the idea that humans are part of nature, emphasizing and highlighting the importance of biodiversity," the project description states. "All collected dreams will remain available in an online environment for everyone to read and use."
According to the foundation, Estonia and the world alike are facing significant environmental and social changes, impacting the economy, jobs as well as people's everyday lives.
"The transition to a sustainable and climate-neutral economy is inevitable, but the decisions and processes involved are often complex and spark uncertainty in society," the foundation describes in its project.
After these dreams are collected, creatives and cultural figures will be able to use them in their own works. The project's organizers believe this will have the potential to shape the values held by the people of Estonia.
A new exhibition at the Estonian Museum of Natural History is also planned to showcase a future vision of Estonian nature based on these dreams, while Estonian-American conductor and composer Kristjan Järvi is likewise set to create a new production inspired by them.
Also partnering with Green Tiger for the project is the AI and Robotics Center Estonia (AIRE) at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), which will use artificial intelligence to create a model of Estonian residents' system of values based on the dreams collected.
According to the creators of the Green Tiger project, mapping people's dreams is necessary, because many political and economic decisions are made without broad public involvement, leading to opposition and eroding public trust in both decision-makers and change itself.
"Active public involvement is necessary so that changes don't feel imposed, but instead become understandable and acceptable to communities," Green Tiger explains.
"At the same time, local governments and communities need additional strategic input based on residents' actual needs and dreams," the foundation continues. "The current decision-making process doesn't sufficiently take grassroots-level opinions into account, which is why many development directions and solutions have grown disconnected from ordinary people. Involving local residents in shaping their region's future lays a more trustworthy and impactful foundation for regional development and sustainable development strategies."
Groundwork to begin this month
This month, the Green Tiger Foundation plans to train 150 so-called "dreaming leaders" to engage with communities. This will be followed by a marketing campaign this spring, leading up to the collection of dreams in dreaming workshops in May. In the final stage of the project, a comprehensive report based on people's collected dreams will be drawn up and shared with local governments and communities.
The total cost of the project is expected to be €90,000, of which Green Tiger is applying for €20,000 in state budget support. Dreaming workshops in Hiiumaa and Ida-Viru County will be co-financed by the European Union, while nationwide activities will be supported by the Skaala fund.
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Editor: Barbara Oja, Aili Vahtla