ict and youth work in finland

!Marcus Lundqvist

USING ICT, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL

MEDIAIN YOUTH WORK

16.10.2014

Youth Work in Finland

YOUTH WORKCarried out by municipalities, different organisations and the church.

Municipalities play an important role in the implementation of youth work. The municipalities have, altogether, over a thousand youth centres.

BASICSYoung people under 29 years of age constitute 34% of the population of Finland. The role of the Government is to create a favourable environment for the youth work.

BASICS

• educational guidance of young people

• facilities and hobby opportunities

• information and counselling services

• support to youth associations and other youth groups

• sportive, cultural, international and multicultural youth activities

• young people's environmental education

• youth workshop services or other forms of activity suited to the local circumstances and needs.

According to the Youth Act, local youth work and youth policy comprises the following:

WHO ARE WE?

VERKE

Verke, the National Development Centre for Online Youth Work, is one of the national service and development centres for youth work appointed in August 2010 by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Its assignment is to develop the youth work performed online and using the Internet, and to offer services to professionals working with young people around Finland.

Verke, the National Development Centre for Online Youth Work, is one of the national service and development centres for youth work appointed in August 2010 by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Its assignment is to develop the youth work performed online and using the Internet, and to offer services to professionals working with young people around Finland.

MUCH MUCH EARLIERYear 2003 First Youth Work service in commercial online-environment

Year 2005 Netari was founded

Year 2007 Multi-professional work

Year 2010 180 000 young people visited online services

Year 2011 Verke was founded

DIGITAL CULTUREIn order to recognise, acknowledge and support the individuality, uniqueness and genuity of a young person, youth work has to recognise digital culture as one of the central sources of cultural and social capital of a growing young person.

At the same time, youth work professionals must adopt and learn the information and skills required to encounter the youth through digital media.

STATISTICS

0

25

50

75

100

80%87%

76%

100%

Used the Internet in the past 3 months

Uses the Internet usually several times a

day

Followed some social network service in the past 3 months

Has a smartphone in

own use

Prevalence of Internet usage and certain purposes of use in 2013

Ages from 16 to 24

Youth Workers

Culture of fear and other challenges

STEPS TAKEN IN FINLAND

It is not genuine interaction

Working in commercial platforms

Multi-professional cooperation

Online youth work was mentioned in Youth policy development programme 2007-2011

Culture of fear

Digital gaming

THE FINNISH GOVERNMENT’S CHILD AND YOUTH POLICY PROGRAMME

2007-2011

6 Digital generation 6.2 Safe media environment 6.3 Media literate children and young people 6.4 Children and young people as content producers 6.5 Youth work on the Internet 6.6 Internet student house 6.7 Healthy computer use

THE FINNISH GOVERNMENT’S CHILD AND YOUTH POLICY PROGRAMME

2012-2015

Measure 1.4: Media skills and participation in the information society. Youth work appropriations will be allocated to municipalities to establish and equip youth media centres and to launch media education projects. Online youth work and other online applications will be supported to facilitate children’s and young people’s growth, hobbies and opportunities to have an influence !

Measure 9.2: The competence of people working with children and young people. In addition, abilities required for the changing operating environment must be brought up to date. Such abilities are related to information technology, for example.

FUNDING

Ministry of Education and Culture 1 000 000€ / year

for online youth work

Regional State Administrative Agencies

Slot Machine Association

xx € / year

xx € / year

Where are we going?

DEVELOPMENT

CHAT Discussion boards

Facebook

Video chat

Virtual worlds

Digital Games

Own Applications

Maker culture

DON’T LET THE FEAR STOP YOU

JUST DO IT AND DO IT TOGETHER

QUESTIONS?

www.verke.orgmarcus.lundqvist@verke.org @arcius