FIFTH WIN NEWSLETTER

Final conference, lasting outputs and partners' reflections

We are pleased to share that the fifth and final edition of the WIN newsletter has been published, marking the closing chapter of a project that has connected communities, institutions, and individuals across seven regions in the Danube area.

This edition celebrates the outcomes, voices, and lessons gathered over more than two and a half years of transnational collaboration to strengthen women's position in labour markets of peripheral industrial regions.

A central highlight of this newsletter is the WIN awareness-raising campaign, which grew far beyond communication into a genuine ecosystem of action. Across seven pilot regions, the campaign reached over 400,000 people through digital channels, media, and events, directly engaging more than 3,900 women, 155 employers, and generating 161 job applications in Bosnia and Herzegovina alone. From employment fairs and podcasts to theatre, hackathons, and community spaces, the campaign demonstrated that awareness becomes meaningful only when people can experience it firsthand.

The newsletter also reflects on the WIN Final Conference, held on 6 May 2026 at the Oroszlány Mining Museum in Hungary.  The venue, shaped by industrial history, could not have been more fitting for a forward-looking conversation about women's futures in exactly these kinds of regions. Partners, speakers, and participants explored institutional barriers, social innovation approaches, and the conditions needed for lasting change.

Two major project publications are introduced: the WIN Methodological Toolkit, offering practical steps and real-life examples from 2.5 years of co-creation, available in all partner languages and the Social Innovation Booklet, documenting 26 co-developed ideas and 13 tested innovations across seven countries. 

The newsletter also presents WIN LIKE A WOMAN! — Sociopoly, a collaborative board game developed to raise awareness of the challenges women face in the labour market, available in seven languages.

Coming soon to the project website are the final policy outputs: Local and regional action plans (D3.2.1), Policy recommendations to the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (D3.2.2), and Policy briefs (D3.2.3).

The newsletter closes with reflections from partners — voices that speak to the human dimension of the project: the trust built, the communities strengthened, and the conviction that meaningful change is possible when people and institutions truly work together.

Read the full newsletter HERE.

Thank you to all partners, stakeholders, and communities who were part of the WIN journey.