Presentasion on Digital youth work at E+ virtual exchanges meeting.

1. Digital Youth Work
in Finland
Suvi Tuominen & Juha Kiviniemi, Verke
@verkeorg

2. CENTRES OF EXPERTISE IN THE YOUTH FIELD
6 youth work centres of expertise form a network supporting the
implementation of the objectives set out in the National Youth Work and Youth
Policy Programme 2020-23. The centres are organised under the following
priority areas:
1. Youth Work in Municipalities
2. Youth Work in NGO’s
3. Participation
4. Targeted Youth Work
5. Digital Youth Work - Verke since 2011
6. Youth Work in Schools

4. What does Verke do?
Train professionals:
Last year over 2900 participants
in 18 provinces, online study materials
Produce materials:
Videos, guides, article
publications, podcasts etc.
Consult:
Innovation partnerships,
memberships in steering groups
Facilitate networking:
SomeCamp, Discord server, other events
Research:
Surveys on digital youth work,
research collaborations
Communicate:
Newsletter, blog,
social media

5. www.digitalyouthwork.eu

6. www.digitalyouthwork.eu

8. Digital youth work in Finland
during the coronavirus pandemic

9. A leap on digital platforms

10. Finnish digital youth work goes online
• Historically focus has been on online youth work
• In recent years focus has been shifting to using digital technology
as a tool in youth work (digital gaming, maker activities etc.)
• Now we have come full circle back into
online environments
• For many practitioners online work is
still completely new

11. New platforms for activities

12. More live
content on
existing social
media
channels

13. Some of the central challenges
• How to reach young people to let them now about new offerings?
• How to identify core benefits for young people in our offline
activities and transfer that to an online format?
• Competencies of practitioners
• Lack of strategies and plans that are relevant to new practice

14. Some of the central challenges
• How do we evaluate new activities?
• How do we make sure that relevant new practice transfers to
“post-covid” reality?
• Youth workers do not seem to engage in international online
activities

15. www.verke.org/materials