THEME 1: Meaningful and active leisure for children and youth 

The first theme of the conference focused on meaningful and active leisure for children and youth. In ensuring this, the feeling of belonging is important. In the Nordic countries, leisure activities are often run by voluntary leisure and sport organisations in the civil society sector. This taps into the power of communities but may also exclude some people due to participation costs.

In Sweden, a government project is working on creating a model with a prepaid leisure card to ensure every child has fair access to enjoyable leisure activities. Currently, children from low-income families don‘t have the same opportunities to participate.

– We need to work towards equality in health, and the leisure card can be one piece in the puzzle of reducing loneliness and strengthening physical activity and social interaction. We need to provide all children aged 8–16 with meaningful leisure time, says Madeleine Larsson, Senior Analyst and Project Manager at the Swedish Public Health Agency.

Similar models have already been developed in Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. Representatives from each of these countries gave a presentation before a joint panel conversation.

Iina Berden, Special Government Advisor at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland: The Finnish model for leisure activities as a tool to improve the well-being of children and youth in Finland

The reformed Finnish model for leisure activities was presented in 2021 after years of development to improve the well-being of children in primary and secondary school. The model combines existing best practices with cooperation between schools and organisations that provide leisure activities.

– In comparison to previous after-school activities and in a radical change from former practice, the children were asked two questions in a biennial pupil survey distributed to every schoolchild: What activities would you like to try, and what would you definitely like to do?

Iina Berden says that children have suggested a wide range of over 80 different activities.

– It came as a surprise to us that children were interested in so many things! We initially believed they would be mostly interested in sports rather than culture and science, but we were completely mistaken.

Iina Berden highlights that the key to the success of the Finnish model was to tailor leisure activities according to the children’s suggestions in cooperation with organisations providing leisure activities. Another main idea of the Finnish model is to target every child, not only those who don’t have hobbies, in order not to single out anybody.

– Crucially, the quality of after-school activities should be as high as in the hobbies taken up in the evening.

When evaluating the model, the children mentioned that genuine interaction with the teacher was the most important factor in making the leisure activity meaningful.

– Iina Berden, Special Government Advisor at the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland.

Michael Lind Olsen, Specialist, Culture, Library and Sports section, Roskilde Municipality, Denmark: A strive for equal possibilities for socially disadvantaged children – an introduction to social partnerships and leisure card in Roskilde Municipality

 
Roskilde Municipality has a leisure card scheme in order to create equal opportunities for disadvantaged children and young people. The model connects disadvantaged families with sports associations, providing a leisure card to cover participation fees for up to three seasons, and supporting the organisations in keeping the children participating actively.

– In Roskilde we have learned that the leisure card makes a difference for a lot of families and children. In many cases the leisure card is all a family needs in order for the children to start playing sports.

Michael Lind Olsen suggests that certain families require additional assistance, which is facilitated through collaborative efforts with sports organisations, called social partnerships.

– We have partnered with seven different sports organisations in Roskilde to support their work with disadvantaged children.

The municipality offers financial aid to these organisations, enabling them to hire a dedicated staff member who focuses on maintaining children’s participation.

– When we, as a municipality, support the sports associations in their work with disadvantaged children, the positive output is far greater than the money we put in.

Margrét Lilja Guðmundsdóttir, Chief Knowledge Officer at Planet Youth: Engaging young people in organised leisure activities – perspectives from Iceland

 

The Icelandic prevention model is well known for its data-driven and all-encompassing approach to health promotion among young people. The model, which also includes a leisure card, focuses on four domains: family, peer group, school, and leisure time.

– We have seen that sports and other leisure activities can have a preventive impact on substance use among young people. We focus on high-quality activities, and our key aim is to avoid having so-called non-doers, people without involvement in an activity. It takes a village to raise a child. We are not putting the responsibility on the individual child. More than anything else, it is community work.

Margrét Lilja Guðmundsdóttir also underlines the significance of supportive adults in a child’s life. While the Icelandic prevention model has historically targeted alcohol, nicotine, and other substance use reduction, it now extends its methodology to address issues such as excessive screen time, energy drink consumption, and sleep deprivation.

– I’m thrilled to see how we are implementing upstream prevention. The effort put in now is going to pay off later on.

Panel conversation on the Nordic models to ensure a meaningful and active leisure for children and youth

After listening to the presentations from Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, Madeleine Larsson, of the Swedish Public Health Agency tasked with developing a leisure card model for Sweden, initiated the panel conversation that followed. 

– I enjoyed learning how Finland engages school children directly. The equal opportunity work in Denmark was interesting to hear about. And, of course, Iceland, with the emphasis on local communities and upstream prevention. It’s impressive that the Icelandic model includes so many arenas, not just leisure time activities.

The panel conversation focused on keeping the leisure activity programmes running effectively, both keeping the participants active and ensuring enough funding. The panel agreed that if the models work smoothly, the projects will pay for themselves later on thanks to their preventive effects.

Iina Berden from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture pointed out that while much of the emphasis typically lies on smaller children, more resources could be allocated to teenagers.

– It is not uncommon for children aged 12–15 to stop participating in leisure activities. We usually explain it away by pointing out that teenagers are just not that interested. But I don’t agree. I think it has more to do with how the organisations respond to young people’s needs. Teenagers usually need much more interaction.

The same phenomenon has also been observed in Iceland, where Margrét Lilja Guðmundsdóttir from Planet Youth emphasise the importance of keeping everyone involved. According to her, the answer is the education of both coaches and parents.

– To educate people in the leisure domain is really important. We have also chosen to put extra effort into educating parents and caregivers, particularly those from immigrant backgrounds, on the importance of their child participating in leisure activities.

Community and upstream prevention came up repeatedly in the conversation. In order to keep politicians and municipalities interested in funding the project, it is vital to share success stories, as was recognised by Michael Lind Olsen from Roskilde in Denmark.

– Around 5 % of school students in Denmark experience school refusal. I recall a situation involving a girl who was struggling with attendance and heading down the wrong path. However, her father enrolled her in a club, where her team coach became her mentor. Within a year, she transitioned from staying at home to becoming an active part of the team and returning to school. She even took on a leadership role in recruiting new members.