Fryshuset

Fryshuset is now the largest youth centre in the world, but it started in 1984 just using music and basketball to divert young people from gangs. Whatever the size, its key principles can apply anywhere:

recognise people's potential and value and build self-esteem
instill a sense of belonging to something that's cool
focus on their passionate interests
teach them to be their own problem solvers
give them opportunities to try new things and gain fresh perspectives
give them practical supports.

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Recognise potential and value and build self-esteem

Sweden has the highest youth unemployment in Europe and is forecast to have labour shortages from 2015, following current trends. Making the most of young people's talents is thus critical to the sustaining and developing country's quality of life. Fryshuset sees young people as a solution with their own personal value, not a problem, and it draws out young people's talents. Self-esteem is the key to transforming their negative experiences to successful lives on terms they can be proud of.

Belonging to something that's cool

To engage young people, there are indeed many approaches, but an underlying one is to give them a sense of belonging. Gangs provide this, so an alternative place to belong has to not only feel good and help them, it is also more appealing if it is seen to be "cool". Fryhuset provides this coolness with appealing activities, concerts, role models and a considerable sense of presence in the city.

The sense of belonging comes through accepting people for who they individually are, really listening, and providing activities that many young people are interested in, so they already have something in common. In addition, young people are encouraged to bring others with them to Fryshuset. One young boy even brought his grandmother to go skateboarding with him - and she had a great time!

Passionate interests

One of the key ways of recognising that value is by supporting their development of passionate interests. Th Söderberg quote ese are predominantly interests distinct to young people but which have a career path - gaming, skateboarding, dance, basketball and music for instance. Fryshuset has found that young people tend to be clear about their passionate interests from a young age, so developing those is an opportunity they value. By supporting them to pursue these, it shows they are being taken seriously. In response, they provide activities both out of school hours and at their own school for 16-20 year-olds. At the school, young people can convert an interest into a professional-level talent by focusing on their key area. They mix with students from other interests for subjects such as Swedish, maths, English and history. FUSE is a project that combines passionate interests out of school with training, support and fun, taking people interested in the music business and developing their talents up to a level of interest to professional record labels. (Translated, FUSE stands for label, training, support and entertainment.)

Learning to be problem solvers

Part of young people's value and self-esteem is to teach them to see situations differently, think through them, and find their own solutions. Fryshuset does this in all interaction with the kids they work with, but their social projects such as Lugna Gatan ("Easy Street"), United Sisters and Din Bro (Your Brother) provide in-depth work to develop these skills.

In everyday situations that arise, they are asked, "Why did you do that?" "What do you think will be the consequence of that will be?" "What could you do instead?" Once young people are used to this line of thinking, they can make healthier choices and also help others.
The Lugna Gatan project teams youth workers with young people to work in their local areas or along their subway line (red, green or blue) to relate to and support other young people. This way they bring their own knowledge of the local area and people with the critical thinking and problem solving skills from Fryshuset.
Teaching people to be their own problem solvers also reduces adults' need to use forms of discipline that reduce young people's self-esteem, from telling them what to do and shouting to hitting them.
In the Building Bridges project, adult males act as positive role models for young men. Many of these have come from similar backgrounds or had worse experiences. They can say, "You think you have problems? You should hear what I've been through! But look where I am now. You can do it too."

Giving young people opportunities to try new things

For those that aren't yet clear about their passionate interests, there are opportunities to try new activities in out of school hours.

the many activities run in Fryshuset on a daily basis - basketball, music (see FUSE above), and skateboarding, for example.
the Lovely Days programme provides 100s of activities during school breaks, for a year's pass of 100 SEK (around £10/€12)
the social projects include such as camping trips to develop team working skills,
Fryshuset has worked with the national Sea Life centre on a project that takes young people on trips to the archipelago and teaches them about working on the sea. This aims to lead to job opportunities in a large sector with an aging workforce.

Practical support

Personal and career development are huge factors of Fryshuset's work, but they also recognise that these can be held back if other aspects of their life aren't working. With this in mind, they have a range of practical supports:

Lugna Gatan, mentioned above, for smoothing local difficulties along public transport routes and in disdavantaged areas.
Ensamma Mama (Single Mum) support for single mothers and their children under 12 - providing support networks with other mums and children, opportunities for mothers to have time off for themselves, and guidance in more effective discipline approaches.
Specialist support from outside Fryshuset if children or young people have especially deep problems they need help with.

Find out more

Quite a lot of Fryshuset's website is available in English, which you can explore here. For the full Swedish website with some translation imperfections, you can use this link that uses Google Translate for English.

For study tour visitors's views, see Scottish impressions from the Stockholm Tour.