Nordic Day 2022: Children and youth in the shadow of the pandemic

The everyday life of children and young people in the Nordic countries has been directly affected by the necessary restrictions enforced during the Covid-19 pandemic. Most educational facilities rapidly rearranged their teaching to exclusively or partly remote studies. At the same time most leisure time activities and meeting places closed, putting social life on hold. The crisis has affected children and youth in various ways, and has hit already vulnerable groups particularly hard, such as children and youth with disabilities and from foreign backgrounds.

The authorities initiated and outlined a wide range of restrictions. In retrospect, we are left with a key question: how can we communicate better with our children and young people during crises to ensure that we can see how they are doing?

Children and Youth should be involved

In all the Nordic countries the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is incorporated into legislation, stating that children and youth should be heard and involved when authorities make decisions that affect them.  Why then, have children and young people not been more involved during the pandemic? And what action can be taken? How can we implement immediate measures in consultation with youth from different backgrounds, to ensure their well-being during crises? This theme will be presented by the Nordic Welfare Centre at this year’s Nordic Day on 7^th of June 2022.

Join our discussion on how we can advance our efforts to include, involve and listen to children and young people in the shadow of a crisis. This event is an excellent opportunity to network and share your experiences with colleagues from the Nordics and Europe before the European Social Service Conference kicks off. Nordic youth will provide insight into how involvement would have made a huge difference. Useful practice for inclusion and involvement of children, youth and their families will be highlighted and shared. We also introduce promising practice for inclusion of children and families with immigrant background.

Register for the Nordic Day: https://essc-eu.org/register-2/

The keynote speakers and program will be available later at our website.

About the European Social Services Conference
The conference is the largest annual forum for public social services professionals in Europe. Taking place in Hamburg, Germany from 8-10 June 2022, this year’s conference focus on rethinking planning, implementation, and evaluation of community-based social services. The conference aims to inspire with examples, aspire for change, and a better outcome for children and families, young and older people, migrants, people with mental health problems or disabilities.

European Social Services Conference 2022’ homepage

Living conditions of children and young people in the Nordic region

Integration in the Nordic region