NORSKO: Innlandet Regional Forum for Youth Participation 
In the Norwegian region of Innlandet, they take the involvement of young people in decision-making processes seriously and have therefore established the Regional Forum for Youth Participation, which aims to further strengthen the voice of young people in the national public health programme.
Basic information
| Name of the city/town/region: | NORSKO / Norway |
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| Contact: | Eintveit, Maria |
| Organization: | Healthy Cities Norway, Innlandet County |
| E-mail: | me@sunnekommuner.no |
| Phone: | 4741106445 |
| Subject: | Komunikace mezi veřejnou správou, občany a dalšími subjekty, participace |
Description and outputs |
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| Čeho se podařilo v rámci Vašich aktivit/projektů dosáhnout? | Youth from the Participation Forum played a key role in mainstreaming youth participation into the agenda of local municipalities in the region. Through their seminars and other activities, they hope to contribute to greater participation of youth in these municipalities. They also provided concrete ideas on how to encourage young people to participate at the local level and how to effectively organize youth participation in public health. This group of young people provided valuable feedback to municipalities and organizations. One of the important activities that took place under their baton was the organization of a regional conference on mental health and youth participation, which attracted approximately 120 young people from the Innlandet region. Participants had the opportunity to draw inspiration, motivation, and participate in discussions and lectures mainly on the topic of youth mental health. Topics such as: - How to behave so that everyone gets along - How to allow everyone to have their say - What public health and quality of life means for young people - In discussions with specific municipalities, the opinion of young people on certain projects was used |
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| Describe the main purpose / aim of your activity / project. What were its side effects or secondary results? | This initiative is crucial for the future development of the society, therefore, within the participation forum, young people have the opportunity to present ideas and advice that can help ensure better involvement of youth in the public health program. The young people who participate in this forum work directly for the Innlandet region. The aim is to ensure that the public health program really reaches all young people in the area. There are 6-10 youth representatives active in the forum, who are trying to promote youth participation and at the same time improve mental health within the national public health program. Together with the coordinator, they planned activities to stimulate and improve youth participation in the region. As part of the activity, three seminars were held for local municipalities, which included online and face-to-face forms. These workshops looked at youth participation and the factors that influence mental health in the local community. The participants of these seminars gained valuable knowledge and skills on how to stimulate effective youth participation. There are regular meetings with project managers, municipal administrators and other key people, including representatives from the local university and mental health organisations. |
| Were the implemented activities documented? | |
| Start of activity: | 01.01.2019 |
| End of activity: | 01.06.2022 |
| How was the activity funded? | Aktivita byla financována z rozpočtu krajské rady. |
| Detailed schedule: | Bylo financováno 50 % pozice koordinátora a rozpočet na regionální konferenci mládeže ve výši 200 000 NOK. |
Recommendations and inspiration |
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| What recommendations / advice can be deduced from the implementation of your activities and provided to other municipalities with a similar intention? | The forum is entirely dependent on having a coordinator who can spare time to run the youth forum. Sometimes it is necessary to work in the evening as the young people are in school during the day. It is important to tailor meetings to young people, invest time in getting a good relationship and a safe and stimulating environment for meetings and processes. This is essential for engaging young people. Also take time for the young participants to get to know each other and establish common rules for how they will work together. The forum is currently suspended due to financial problems with the district council. However, it is planned to resume operations in the fall of 2023, when a new period of the public health program will begin. A quote from one of the forum members reads: "Our Regional Youth Participation Forum works to improve young people's mental health and coping skills. We aim to highlight cultural issues of youth and raise awareness of how our emotions affect our future prospects. We want to help to strengthen young people's mental health and support their independence with tools and knowledge." |
| Describe the main strengths of your activity / project during its realization? | It was evident that the young people were very grateful and excited to have managed to create a conference where they bore most of the responsibility for both planning and implementation. |
| Describe the main weaknesses of your activity / project during its realization? | The obstacle is the dependence of this activity on the coordinator within the regional council. Unfortunately, our coordinator left in the spring of 2022, and thus the forum temporarily suspended its activities. |
Media, promotion |
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| How was the communication with the media and what were the media outcomes? | Emails and social networks were mainly used for promotion. https://www.facebook.com/SorOdal.kommune/photos/a.654623584601658/3810940705636581/?type=3 https://www.facebook.com/Ung4Reg/ |
Partakers |
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| Name: | Innlandet - Krajská rada |
| Web: | https://innlandetfylke.no/ |
Another partakers |
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| Název: | Inland Univerzita aplikovaných věd |
Name: | Korus (organizace zabývající se prevencí zneužívání návykových látek) |
Name: | Ungdom og Fritid (Národní sdružení klubů volného času a středisek mládeže) |
Name: | Mental Health Youth (nevládní organizace, která se snaží zvýšit povědomí o problematice duševního zdraví) |
