Director of Youth Affair Tommi Laitio´s presentation on youth work in Helsinki to a delegation from Minnesota 6.5.2014.

1. Youth Work in
Helsinki
Tommi Laitio @tommilaitio

2. 600 000 residents
10-17yo: 41 000
13-17yo: 27 000
5 000 / age group

3. 12.3 13.8 15.1 16.5 17.6 18.3 19.0 19.5 20.0 20.6 20.8 21.1 21.4 21.8 22.2 22.6 22.9 23.3 23.7
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
13-19-year-olds according to language 2012-2030
Kantaväestö Vieraat kielet yhteensäFinnish, Swedish Other

4. Integration
Too much of this =
obedient servants
Emancipation
Too much of this =
Consumer-like
Citizenship
The ”Impossible” Formula of Youth Work

5. Youth Department
75 locations
400 staff members
30 m € budget

6. Building young people´s
capabilities
”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.

8. Helsinki´s goal:
every child/young person
has at least one hobby.

9. Usually only a few people use
the voice of all..
In Helsinki´s Ruuti Programme,
everyone uses their own voice.

10. Ruuti Participation Programme
1. Every young person has a positive
experience of participation.
2. Young people´s initiatives are taken
seriously.
3. Young people are heard in issues
affecting them.
4. Young people´s actions and initiatives
improve Helsinki.

11. In political participation we put focus
on deliberation and negotiation.

12. Ruuti Budget:
In two districts, young people
decided on our work in 2013.

13. http://www.supafly.net/maalauspaikat/
1.Suvilahti
2. Kalasatama
3. Nuorten
toimintakeskus
Happi
4. Luuppi,
Kontula
5. Pihlajamäen
nuorisopuisto
6. Jakomäki
7. Östersundom
8. Arabia

15. Public services are
meaningful only when
they strengthen relations
to other people.
People´s joint actions
need to influence the
structures.
People´s relations to other people
are not outcomes of public sector
interventions.
Starting point in
the public sector should
always be trust and help.

16. • Tommi Laitio
Director of Youth Affairs
City of Helsinki, Youth Department
Hietaniemenkatu 9B
PL 5000, 00099 City of Helsinki
tommi.laitio (a) hel.fi
tommilaitio.munstadi.fi
ruuti.net
twitter: tommilaitio