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The Hub

After the launching of the first phase, a booth infrastructure in a donated space in the Arken, we’re slowly but steadily moving towards the second phase, a pop-up structure created by ARKNAT and architecture students from Umeå Arkitekthögskolan that will be built on the Stora Torget.

The group of students, who volunteered their times and skills for this project, spent a weekend in Övik in January to do some scoping, brainstorm ideas and draw the first sketches. Their meals were sponsored by local businesses such as Mamma Mia, Café UH, Hälsobaren, Wayne’s Coffee, and their overnight stay by First Hotel Statt, while a space to work was donated by House Be.

With the help and tips of ARKNAT architects Martin Björklund and John Grundström, they will design the perfect, dynamic, welcoming place to liven up Övik’s city centre.

Allehanda and Radio Sverige both took interest in the project. You can sign up and read the article here, or listen to the short interview given by founder Sam Coleman and operations manager Chiara Corbatto here.

The High Coast International Hub is now working on planning an exhibition of their first sketches, that will be held in Oskargallerian for a few weeks so as to raise awareness of what will happen and invite people to join and take part in the project in any way. The Hub will be a place for everybody, and everybody’s place.

Read more about the Hub here​​​​​​​.

Downhill skiing and ice skating events

The High Coast International Club January event was very well attended! Around fifteen of the club members met at Bjästabacken for some evening downhill skiing. Experts and beginners alike hit the slope, amongst laughters and falls. Burgers were grilled, coffee and tea were drunk, new friends were made!

The February Club event was the most successful so far! The members met at Nyängets havsbad, grabbed some skates (or brought their own), and skated on the ice to Fjälludden and back, then had some fika and warm drinks! Or, if new to the ice, they just stayed in Nyängets and had a skate around. Either way, no one was be left behind, and the High Coast International Team made sure everyone had a good time!

Have a look at our events calendar to see what the next event will be here.

Hubbub

The platform that will power the Hub is evolving, as the High Coast International Team beta tests it in the Arken booth. We’re adding visuals, lists, infos and soon experiences too!

Hubbub will be a multipurpose tool: to gather more information possible about things to do in Övik, to serve as a “welcome package info” to anyone who might be new in town so as to let them know where everything is, and to become a Blocket for experience! This means experience creators (that is, anyone who wants to create an experience), will be able to share their course, workshop, service on our platform and get people to sign up, getting money from it. This will create a gig economy, and help people make new friends, create connections and have an extra income.

It’s still under construction, but you can check it out here.

International Job Fair

Our team is planning the first job fair of the year that will take place in May in Örnsköldsvik.

While getting in touch with companies that might be interested in joining in (both members of our Club and not), we have also started a dialogue with Umeå universitet and Mittuniversitetet in Sundsvall, who will help us sourcing the right international candidates based on what the companies are looking for.

The High Coast International Recruit programme will play an important role in reversing the trend of “brain drain” in Övik. The youth leaves to go to university and then doesn’t come back. International workers or Swedes from other cities may come to Övik for work, but find it hard to settle in, join a community, meet new people or find information about local activities and events, so they leave.

The job fairs will help to attract new people to the area (“brain gain”), while the Club and the Hub together with the Hubbub technology will help the retention phase, by connecting people and keeping them active and interested, and overall happy with the life in Övik.

Check out more about the High Coast International Recruit program here.