A stronger Nordic youth movement (SNYM) is a two-year, EU-funded project aiming to support youth organizations and youth themselves to take a more active role in civil society and civic organizations. Through cooperation and capacity building it aims to encourage youth to support each other to create more interest in cross-border cooperation, mobility, active citizenship and democracy.
An objective we want to achieve is to create spaces where young people from different countries and backgrounds can meet and learn from each other. We believe that it is important to meet in person, but also to facilitate online meetings and digital channels. Our objective is that in a long-term perspective, these activities will result in many more international activities and further cooperation in the future. These activities might be study-visits, summer camps, participation in democracy festivals and so on. We also want to look at ways to include a more diverse group in our organizations and this project can help us interact and involve a variety of youth and youth organizations from the whole region.
The project consists of three workshops during which youth from all over the Nordics will have a chance to get together to discuss and discover different ways they can get involved and make a difference in their own communities. The aim is also to support networking between the participants and their organizations, to create stronger cooperation.
The workshops:
WS 1: Mapping a Nordic youth movement – In March 2024 in Helsinki
This activity will lay the foundation for the rest of the work done throughout the project and help find the main issues we need to work on going forward. It will also give us an understanding if we need to invite other organizations to further activities.
WS 2: Building a stronger Nordic youth movement – In November 2024 in Copenhagen – more information about the program and registration coming in the fall.
WS 3: Strengthening a Nordic youth movement – In April 2025 in Helsinki – more information about the program and registration in the beginning of 2025.
These activities will benefit youth from the whole region and give them new competencies to engage and become active citizens in their local communities, as well as in a pan European context. During the activities, participants will gain both new skills such as communication and problem solving, as well as project management and strategic thinking, as they will take part in planning the activities as well as the end results.
Youth involvement
The projct is led by Pohjola-Nordenin Nuorisoliitto, which is a youth organization lead by young people under 29. Our partner in the project is Föreningarna Nordens Förbund and Föreningarna Nordens Ungdomsförbund. These organizations are committed to maintain the project’s commitment to young people and giving them a voice.
The project has introduced a steering group to set up, plan and produce the content of the workshops based on the project plan. There young people come from all over the Nordics with different experiences and backgrounds in civil society and organisations. This gives the project more value, and a better insight into the issues conserning youth today.
Meet the Steering group:
Viola Løvig Thomassen (Denmark)
Elina Pyhtilä (Finland)
Polina Tashinova (Finland)
Svava Þóra Árnadóttir (Iceland)
Anfisa Gluz (Norway)
Markus Karlén (Sweden)
Isak Sörling (Sweden)
It was a happy group of youth from all over the Nordics who joined us for the first workshop in Hanaholmen, Finland in March 2024. It was a pleasure to be inspired by such amazing people, and never a quiet moment.
We look forward to seeing more of you in Copenhagen, Denmark in November!
Project description
A stronger Nordic youth movement is a EU-funded Erasmus+ project. The aim of the project is to create recommendations for how we can support young people to participate in civil society, and create opportunities for them to influence societies and civil society organizations. During the project we will organize three workshops looking into the present and the future, and list concrete recommendations on how to involve youth more in decision making. The workshops are organized in March 2024 in Helsinki, November 2024 in Copenhagen and May 2025 in Finland, the location is still open.
The workshops welcome young people from all over the Nordics, who are interested in Nordic cooperation and youth participation. We do not require any previous knowledge or experience in civil society organizations from the participants, in fact we hope for participants with a wide variety of backgrounds.
Project duration
1.9.2023-31.8.2025.
Partners
Pohjola-Nordenin Nuorisoliitto
Föreningarna Nordens Förbund / Föreningarna Nordens Ungdomsförbund
Project number
2023-1-FI01-KA210-YOU-000154580
