Freedom as an

active state- how Helsinki´s

youth work builds up

capabilities?Tommi LaitioDirector of Youth Affairs

City of Helsinki

Citizens for Europe Seminar

28 May 2013

595 000 residents

10-17yo: 41 000

13-17yo: 27 000

5 000 / age group

We re dealing with the first global

generation in Finland s history

Cross-border families

New notions of a family

Real experiences of discrimination

Tested capabilities for empathy and

negotiation

Diversity of world views

Generational experience of

constant competition

A lot more scared

Strong ethos of help

Strong ethos of fairness

Strong trust in institutions

The Youth Department supports youth in

becoming active citizens.

Activities are directed at all young people

in Helsinki, with the aim of encouraging

them to find the forms of activity and

recreational spaces that suite them best.

The Youth Department constantly updates

its working methods by monitoring youth

phenomena and changes in the living

conditions of young people.

Mission

(Ruudin päättäjämiitti / Katri Riikonen NK)

90 locations

1 332 487 visits (2012)

770 hobby groups (2012)

10 257 members (2012)

1,3 m € in grants for NGOs (+rents)

400 professional youth workers

29,5m€

”The capabilities approach starts from a

very simple question: what are people

really able to do and be? What real

possibilities do they have?”- Martha Nussbaum: Creating Capabilities. The

Human Development Approach.

The Paradox of Youth Work

IntegrateEmancipate

Core

principles of

our work

1. Default unit is a group

2. Freedom to choose

has intrinsic value

Youth clubs as settlements90 locations ranging from local youth

clubs to animal farms, repair shops and

skate parks.

3. We focus on doing

concrete things.

Youth work is not a service.

Young people are not our customers.

Freedom, wellbeing and democracy

are all active states of being.

Freedom to, not only from

Democracy is a possibility to act, not a state

of affairs worth celebrating.

Wellbeing is built

in joint activities with others.

A Good Society Is A Society

of Action

4. Society is made of

me and the others.

Political questions are far too serious

to be left for professionals.

- Hannah Arendt (Vita Activa)

Our goal in Ruuti (gunpowder), ruuti.net, is that in

the future all young people have annually an

experience of democracy.

Ruuti Budget: for the first time in Helsinki´s history

young people in two areas decide on our work and

spending for 2014.

Main daily writes on Ruuti:

Metro elevators smell like urine.

Main daily

writes on

Ruuti:

More

painting

surface to

the city.

Public interventions

are meaningful only

when they strengthen

people s relationships

to other beings.

People s joint actions

ought to have an impact

on the system.

People need to have the

capabilities to run their own lives

and play a meaningful role in

the lives of others.

The default approach of the

public sector ought to be help.

Tommi LaitioDirector

City of Helsinki, Youth Department

Hietaniemenkatu 9B

PO BOX 5000, 00099 CITY OF HELSINKI

(09) 310 89045

tommi.laitio (a) hel.fi

tommilaitio.munstadi.fi

twitter: tommilaitio