Continuing our journey through Europe, after Poland and Spain we also visited Helsinki in Finland. Participating in the workshops, we learned more in the international environment about what inclusion means to young people and how professionals working with young people can work on it.
More about the IncON project
The workshops were conducted as an integral part of the Inclusion is On project which is funded under the Erasmus + program as a KA2 strategic partnership between 6 different countries: Finland, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy and Estonia. The project holders are a Finnish organization New Akatemia .
What did we do in this training?
The training brought together 14 experts in the field of youth work working on the IncOn project and coming from various organizations: Nuorten Akatemia , The Finnish Youth Association , Radio R , Tarto Youth Work Center , Federation of Children’s and Youth Municipal Councils, The Discipline e and HUKI. In addition to international partners, we were joined by a dozen participants working in organizations across Finland.
During this time we shared the results of research translated in each country, in which experts working with young people presented their thoughts on the difficulties in organizing activities for young people, what barriers affect their participation and how to make these activities available to different groups. The aim of the research was to understand the current situation and challenges in the availability of activities for young people in different countries and contexts. Continuing the research, we additionally scratched under the surface at the workshops and learned a lot more about inclusion and various terms related to it.
Inclusion is an important part of working with young people
Through interviews with organizations from other countries, we realized that the approach to inclusion differs depending on the community in which we live. Some organizations spend less time thinking about how to make their activities accessible to various groups of young people, while other organizations already have clearly established standards and written manuals on this topic. Workshops like this show us the diversity of approaches, but also the importance of thinking about how to include young people belonging to different nationalities, religions, sexual orientation, marginalized groups and so on. In addition, it is important to exchange experiences and ideas among experts so that inclusion becomes an indispensable part of working with young people.
