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Ruuti supports young peoples’ civic participation
Kaisa Bremer & Juha Kiviniemi 2.10.2014
Often only a minority of young people shapes the agenda as “the young people”
Ruuti strives to give a voice to all young people of Helsinki
”Traditional” youth participation in Finland
• Youth councils in municipalities• Often elected among young people that are already active• Youth councils directly represent the youth in that municipality
+ Easier to understand and adopt for decision-makers+ Easier for youth workers to maintain- Narrower scope of positive experiences for fewer young people- Tends to favor already active young people and discourage immigrants etc.
Our vision in Ruuti:
1. Every young people in Helsinki has a positive experience on participating in decision making as a citizen.
2. Young people’s initiatives are taken seriously.3. Young people are heard in the issues relevant
to them.4. Young peoples’ initiatives are actually making
Helsinki a better city to live.
Ruuti as a system
• For the whole city of Helsinki, not just the youth department
• Run by the youth dept. & the school dept.• Started in 2011• A ”work in progress”
Supporting active, democratic citizenship via:
• Groups as a default unit to co-operate with• Doing things together: society is made for me and for others
• Concrete activities• Doing things that matter most for the young
people and suit their interests
Structures to co-create Helsinki together with its young people
• Annual City Hall Gathering / Event “Ruutiexpo”• Annual meeting with the decision makers “Päättäjämiitti”• Providing support & services for all active youth groups to
bring their ideas and voice into local decision making• 400 professional youth workers & 90 youth centers• Annual school student board meetings to discuss and improve
school life• Annual participative budget cycle shifts local decision making
power towards youth• Young peoples’ initiatives via www.ruuti.net
Decision-makers meeting – ”Päättäjämiitti”
• Over 80 young people and several municipal representatives and officials / workers (2014)
• Themes discussed are chosen by young people, discussions are on their terms
• Officials put forward discussed action plans in their own name – not as an organisation
• Examples: Summer job vouchers, more sports events, better information on school nurses shifts
• All action plans can be followed online
RuutiExpo• Our biggest event of the year• Held annually in the City Hall• Aims to showcase different avenues of participation via
municipal offices (Youth work, libraries, office of sports etc.), NGOs and other organisations
• 4520 young people and 60 different offices / organisations (2013)
• Also a venue for direct participation• Challenge: How to ”package” the event so teachers can
incorporate the event in their classes? How to layout the fragmented program so visitors can find things most relevant for them?
Recurring themes: What do young people in Helsinki want to change?• Equality• School: food, interaction with teachers,
participation etc..• Public transportation• Job opportunities for young people• Leisure activities for young people
What is the core group?• Consists of 20 annually elected
young people• Their task is to work together
with the youth department to ensure that Ruuti works properly
• The group also has multiple agendas on what they want to improve in Helsinki
• The group agrees on their own operating culture and rules
• Frequent meetings with the director of youth services, politicians, city councilmen etc.
• A high emphasis on learning within the group; it is up to the youth worker to ensure that every member can fuction in the group
Ruuti core group for 2015
Core group election
• Young people between 13-17 years can enroll as candidate
• Voted online by all young people between 13-17 in Helsinki
• A very diverse group: Ethnicity, main language, background, skill level..
Topics which Ruuti core group 2015 wants to improve in Helsinki
• Equal rights (Racism, language minorities etc.)• School issues (school participation,
counseling)• Youth leisure activities• Sexual harassment towards young people• Job opportunities for young people• Bullying in schools
Participatory budjeting
Participatory budjeting gives direct budget allocation and activity planning power to young residents in selected youth work districts.
Aims to be used in every youth work district by 2018.
Challenges for Ruuti
• How to document participation activities that have been done
• How to gain more candidates / voters in the core group election
• How to lower the treshold of participation• How to strengthen dialogue between officials
and young people in general
New municipal law
• New municipal law in Finland in final stages of parlament approval
• Requires all municipalities to strengthen youth participation via mandatory ”youth parlaments or similar participation groups”
