Although the dialect has been stigmatised for a considerable period over the last century, leading to a decline in use, interests in preserving and promoting the use of it are currently rising, resulting in initiatives such as dialect festivals, writing competitions and other culturally engaging projects. The municipality council of Rijssen-Holten holds one conference per year in dialect, and in 2008 declared their desk workers officially bilingual, to lower the threshold for the inhabitants of Rijssen who feel more comfortable in speaking Twents, rather than Dutch. Other municipality councils have recently indicated that they are willing to try dialect conferences, such as the municipalities of Hellendoorn and Wierden.