On Monday evening, a meeting was held between about 20 different voluntary organizations and study associations in Umeå that discussed how they can best cooperate if there are many refugees.
Need to be controlled quickly
According to Åsa Norin, operations manager at Vän in Umeå, everyone agreed that a clear organization is needed where civil society on a broad front can cooperate with the municipality.
And that a clear channel must be established quickly in order to be able to take advantage of people's commitment.
- We have a strong civil society, but no single organization can fix this themselves, and neither can the municipality.
Right now you do not know where to direct your offer if you want to help.
We would like to see an idea-driven public partnership on a broad front between civil society and the municipality, she says.
Goes too slow
For a week now, the municipality has been working on developing a coordination agreement with civil society, but according to Åsa Norin, the voluntary organizations think it is too slow.
- The commitment is there and civil society is on its toes, but we stand a little and stomp.
It is unique that there are so many organizations collaborating in Umeå.
Now we hope that the municipality will start a dialogue with us as soon as possible so that we can plan how the collaboration will work, she says.