CreaDive – Building a multicultural working platform for creative sector

A dive into the creative industries

CreaDive is a three-year, ESF+ co-funded project that provides coaching for creative industry professionals, promotes networking, and develops the creative sector ecosystem through various workshops. The project operates in Southwest Finland, and the entrepreneurship and career coaching programs are aimed at both Finnish-speaking and multilingual creative professionals. The ecosystem development workshops are additionally targeted at creative industry companies, third sector organizations, various creative spaces, education providers, and public-sector employment and entrepreneurship support services.

The objective of the project is to enable international and native Finnish professionals to network with one another and collaborate. This supports the integration of international professionals into Southwest Finland and their inclusion in creative industry networks. At the same time, it increases the confidence of Finnish-speaking professionals to work together with international actors and to use English alongside Finnish as a working language.

Humak acts as the project implementer, meaning that we design and deliver the coaching programs as well as other project workshops and activities. The project combines our expertise in both the creative industries and community development. Humak has long-standing experience in the creative sectors and extensive networks in the field. We now bring these networks together and further develop the ecosystem and service pathways to function even more effectively. As project outputs, a description of the ecosystem, a guide for creative industry professionals, and an information package on the project’s success factors for developers and experts will be produced.

Objectives and measures

The aim of the project is to support the integration of creative industry professionals with immigrant backgrounds into Finnish working life as entrepreneurs, self-employed professionals, or employees, and to increase interaction with native Finnish professionals.

This is promoted through five entrepreneurship and career coaching programs and incubation coaching programs, on the basis of which a coaching model is created. The core of the model is long-term engagement, learning by doing, and peer learning.

The project also develops a multicultural, diversity-strengthening creative sector ecosystem using service design methods to better respond to the needs of the target groups. Service pathways are improved, development needs are identified, and relevant actors are brought together.

This is achieved by organizing five service design workshops and five networking meetings, as well as networking events aimed specifically at coaching participants.