City Project Report Template
1. City: Name of the city, name and contact information of the person providing the
report
City of Goteborg, Sweden
Susan Runsten
City Office
+46 31 368 02 51
susan.runsten@stadshuset.goteborg.se
2. Main themes addressed: Brief description of the main themes addressed
Youth unemployment is a prioritized issue in Goteborg. So is social inclusion and turning
segregation to integration. Young people at the age of 16-19 that do not attend school nor
have a job is one target group. The focus is also on preventing drop-outs from upper
secondary school.
The city wants to further tighten the connections to the local community and to the
business society in order to better reach and provide these target groups with alternatives
that brings them closer to the labour market. The city further wants to explore how
successful youth participation in local community activities can be integrated into
broader perspectives of youth issues including education, employment and crime
prevention.
During the implementation of My Generation (MG) the city office will develop new
methods to follow up and analyze young peoples establishing period through a pilot
project called KOMMUT. The purpose is to increase knowledge on young peoples
different life patterns and to identify key factors related to education, employment and
community activities that contributes to young peoples successful establishment into selfreliant adult life. Increased understanding of youth life-styles can contribute to make the
municipalities different activities better adjusted to young peoples needs.
Goteborg sees MG as a potential platform to explore and connect otherwise fragmented
attempts to promote the youth cause through better coordination. Goteborg also wants to
focus on the issue of being a city for youth.
3. Local Support Group progress: Constitution of your LSG, possible working groups,
comment on how the work is unfolding
A number of preparatory meetings where held in January and February to present MG
and invite interested actors to participate in the LSG (see Diary).
The LSG started up with a Future Dialogue March 6, led by Bob Arnkil and Ulf
Hägglund. 34 people participated. The day was a success with lots of positive energy,
engagement and hope for the future. The event was well documented in Swedish (see
appendix).
The list of people that are invited to the next LSG meeting May 27 consist of 64 people:
 Young people (8)
 Business society (4)
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Social economy (3)
University of Goteborg (2)
Labour Market Administration: national authority (2)
Managing Authority: national authority for ESF (1)
City Office (9)
Education Administration, education age 16-19 (9)
8 City District Administrations (16)
Other municipality administrations: property, social, sports & associations (4)
Municipality companies: housing, business (2)
Others (4)
On the agenda for this meeting are: feedback from the future dialogue, the youth
exchange in Rotterdam and the outreach seminar in Glasgow. Discussion on the
Employment seminar in Goteborg in September + future work for the LSG to develop the
LAP.
We have formed a smaller working group consisting of 13 people from the LSG to help
with the planning of the September city seminar in Goteborg. This group will have its
first meeting May 7.
See appendix for invitations to the LSG meetings and documentation from the future
dialogue.
4. Local Action Plan progress: Comment on how your LAP is developing, what needs and
contacts it is addressing, what do you plan to do next
Goteborg has not started to work on the LAP yet. We will need to analyze the
documentation from the future dialogue and youth exchange further to start this.
We are also waiting for the first results from the pilot project KOMMUT (see question 1),
the political budget for 2010-2012, and the results from the municipalities internal
follow-up process 2009 with a special theme on youth establishing period and young
peoples possibility to influence the municipalities activities.
5a. Go through and Complete the My Generation MATRIX for the work you performed in
your Local Support Group.
See appendix. We have used the matrix to bring out the most important messages from
the future workshop. This has been done based on a detailed transcription of what the
different voices said. The matrix is in Swedish.
5b. Overall assessment of new/better contacts and coordination: Give an overall
assessment how the contacts/coordination between the actors and stakeholders in the
youth issue has progressed in relation to MY GENERATION
The work with the baseline study contributed to get a better overview of what is being
done in the municipality and what are important steps forward.
The preparatory work to form the LSG and then the future dialogue to start off the work
created new contacts between different actors and stakeholders.
In this process a lot of new contacts have been taken from the city office. This is
especially true when it comes to the young people and the business society. We hope to
develop this further during the two years to come with MG. The smaller working group
that now is formed to contribute to the planning of the September city seminar will
probably also deepen the contacts between the different actors.
The youth exchange in Rotterdam further strengthened these new contacts since the
young people that took part in it are also participants in the LSG. From the reports, stories
and movies coming from the exchange, it seems to have been a very creative and
engaging event that we can benefit from in our local work.
At the city office we try to combine findings from MG with our follow-up process of the
many committees and companies (the municipality has a decentralized structure with
about 70 commitees and companies) and our pilot project KOMMUT. The idea is to
make progress when it comes to coordination and strategic development.
6. Youth engagement: Is there progress in new/better contacts on the youth issues you are
addressing? Where have you made most significant progress? Progress on getting real
youth involvement – what, with whom, how…
To get in touch with young people that could be interested to participate in MG, we used
channels such as:
 The municipal Youth Council
 Youth centers
 Upper secondary schools
 Folk high-schools
 Gecko.nu (web forum for youth activities in Gotehnburg)
 Youth associations (scating etc)
 ESF projects targeting youth
The city office will continue to work through these channels in the project.
At a preparatory meeting with local youth in February seven young persons at the age 1622 turned up. Four of them later took part in the future dialogue and three went to the
Rotterdam exchange. To prepare a workshop in Rotterdam eight young people
participated in an education and employment workshop at the city office to discuss the
present situation for young people in Goteborg. This discussion was a good start up for
the workshop in Rotterdam with documented results.
One clear message that came through in the future dialogue was that the young people
wanted to be taken more seriously and that their opinions should be valued higher. They
want to be involved in the planning and decisions of activities targeted at themselves.
They also perceived that adults are prejudiced towards young people and wished to get
rid of this and instead develop a mutual dialogue between generations.
Both before and after the Rotterdam youth exchange, the group of participants have met
on several occations to ensure the exchange will bring effects on the local level through
continued and expanded engagement. Ideas range from visiting schools to initiate lobby
actions directed towards the politicians. The methods and strategies to spread the word
and increase the engagement must be organic and open. On one occation two of the
participants took part in a panel debate with local politicians on the issue of youth crime.
At this event contacts were established with an organisation concerned with youth who
have a criminal past, Unga Kris, which was on a later occation visited by the same two
participants.
7. Local community engagement: Progress with work with local communities - what,
with whom, how, what better/new contacts? (this might not be your priority, but tell us
what you do here – or not – and why).
In the preparatory meetings that were held to constitute the LSG and arrange the Future
dialogue, representatives from the city district administrations took part. The districts
youth centers were well represented. We encouraged these participants to help us involve
other local community stakeholders such as NGOs etc. This was not very successful.
However a social cooperative called “the way out” showed great interest when
approached.
The Future workshop was hosted by the youth center TeenDream in Backa and four
young men attached to TeenDream started up the day by giving us a Hard Rock
performance. This made a very good start to our day. The local community voice was
represented by civil servants from the youth center Meeths Salonger down town, from the
ESF project Navigator at Hisingen and from the neighbourhood Gårdsten in Northeast.
The local community voices spoke about the need to get focused on shared aims and
cooperate to reach these aims for the youth work in the city. The voice emphasized the
involvement of young people in this and the need to increase our understanding of young
peoples needs. At the same time young people need to deepen their knowledge of
working life and employers needs. One way of doing this is through better cooperation
between schools and business society.
Next LSG-meeting May 27 will be hosted by Meeths Salonger. To try and engage more
NGOs we have invited the administration for social affairs and sports & associations.
With their help we hope to identify more NGOs that is interested to get involved in MG.
For the Outreach theme Goteborg has chosen to write a case study on The Young&Safe
Collaboration and Backa Base. This has created contacts with the housing companies and
social workers in this particular field.
8. Educational community engagement: Progress with work with the educational
community - what, with whom, how, what better/new contacts? (this might not be your
priority, but tell us what you do here – or not – and why).
The education administration is well represented in the LSG with civil servants from
central administration, counseling, dropout activities, the “Safety Net” project etc. The
University is represented by two researchers from the department of social work and the
department of work science.
At the future dialogue the education voice spoke about the need to develop better
cooperation between different professions and not work in a contra productive way.
MG can offer a platform for this. Individually based support and alternative roads to
fulfilled education was emphasized.
9. Business community engagement: Progress with work with the business community what, with whom, how, what better/new contacts? (this might not be your priority, but
tell us what you do here – or not – and why).
To inform and try to involve business society in MG we reached out to the following
actors:
 Chamber of commerce (Handelskammaren)
 Swedish trade and industry association (Svenskt Näringsliv)
 Business association (Företagarna)
 Young entrepreneur association (Ung Företagsamhet)
 Manpower
 Business Region Goteborg (BRG)
 Labour Market Administration (Arbetsförmedlingen)
Everybody except the chamber of commerce has accepted to participate, some more
actively than others.
At the Future dialogue Företagarna, Ung Företagsamhet and Manpower gave voice to the
business society. They spoke about the handicraft trade, the need to have qualifying
processes for this and other professions, vocational training, the possibility for young
people to start new businesses, and also the need for young people to better understand as
well as be appreciated in working places. There is a need to improve communication
between the young and the employers, to fight discrimination and prejudice and to find
new tools that help the young to get a foot into a working place. Possible tools that where
discussed was coaching and mentoring. There is also a need to develop a more creative
and inclusive labour market that can engage and utilize young peoples potential, skills
and ideas.
10. Local authority engagement: Progress with work with the local authorities, including
the management/decision making levels - what, with whom, how, what better/new
contacts? (this might not be your priority, but tell us what you do here – or not – and
why).
The municipality has 21 city district administrations and in total about 70 different
committees and companies. The strategy is to try and involve as many of the concerned
administrations as possible. The city office has a function to coordinate and work towards
a “whole city perspective” regarding issues like urban development, segregation and
employment. The youth issue is clearly on this agenda. Since the youth issues are a
priority in so many different political areas there are also a lot of different units at the city
office that are involved. The civil servants in these different units has been identified and
have meetings regularly to talk about My generation, KOMMUT and our follow-up
theme on youth 2009. The management is informed and involved.
11. Political decision maker engagement: Progress with contact and support of the
political decision makers – what, with whom, how, what better/new contacts? (this might
not be your priority, but tell us what you do here – or not – and why).
The City Executive Board took a decision in August 2008 that the City of Goteborg shall
participate in MG. The new Chairman or the City Executive Board/Mayor has
proclaimed that young people is one of her priorities. Because of the worrying
economical situation youth unemployment are to be especially in focus and workplace
training should be offered in order for them to get practical experience. Hopefully MG
will contribute to fulfill the political aims regarding young people in our city. As our lead
expert put it - young people as a resource for the city and the city as a resource for the
young.
MG was also presented at a panel discussion with local politicians, civil servants and
community actors in Angered (northeast district). The meeting was addressing the
situation for young people in Angered.
12. Other, what: Possible other actors relevant in your city you have engaged with
The managing authority for ESF in Sweden, ESF-Rådet has appointed a civil servant to
work with us in MG. She is very interested and willing to contribute in the network. She
will analyze the content of our ESF Operational Programme until June 30 and are also
prepared to take an active role in the planning and realization of the September seminar
for MAs.
13. Possible visits to other MY GENERATION projects: Have you visited other MG
projects? Which? What did you learn?
The person that traveled with the young people to the exchange in Rotterdam got the
possibility to see some of the Rotterdam youth projects.
A group of employees working with the “Skyddsnätet” project are planning to go to Bari
where they have established contacts for exchange. They wanted to get in touch with the
MG contact person in Bari. Other actors have also showed interest in the MG cities, one
of them being Ungdomsstyrelsen (National authority focusing on the national youth
policy) who wanted to do some comparative studies between different European cities
and was wondering if the MG network could be a way in.
14. What material have you assembled on your MG? Have you kept an ”MG diary”?
Mention what multi-media material, interviews, reports of events etc. you have possibly
assembled
One person at the city office has been writing an MG-diary. This same person has been
interviewed by Västekot (local radio) and Göteborgs Fria (local alternative press) about
MG and its youth participation.
The Future dialogue has been well documented by another employee at the city office.
Notes where also taken on some of the preparatory meetings to inform about MG and
invite different stakeholders to the LSG.
A web article was published in Vårt Göteborg about MG and the future dialogue.
The city office has developed a new webpage on urban development issues where news
and documentation on My Generation is published.
15. Overall assessment of progress in your MG project: Where do you feel you are
making good progress? What obstacles have you met? How could you improve?
The network has had a good start in Goteborg. It has been well received among the
different actors and the willingness to contribute and learn from the network is high. It
has been possible to connect MG to other processes in the municipality in a satisfactory
way. The MA (ESF-Rådet) is also very positive and willing to participate in an active
way. Important steps have been taken to involve young people, local community and
business society. The challenge is now to capture and utilize this potential during the
years to come. This will include finding the strategical issues to focus on in the LAP and
identifying who will be responsible for what. The political dimension needs to be an
integrated part of this.
16. Questions and requests for MY GENERATION: Do you have questions/
requests/ideas/need of support from the MY GENERATION management and experts?
ANNEX TO THE CITY PROJECT REPORT: Documentation from the future dialogue,
youth exchange, invitations to LSG meetings. Helen x 2 + Lena x 2, inbjudan x 2, matris
minnesanteckningar från 2 förberedande möten, diary.
Article on website Our Goteborg:
http://www.vartgoteborg.se/prod/sk/vargotnu.nsf/1/ovrigt,goteborg_i_nytt_europeiskt_samarbete_
for_ungas_framtid
Entries and material of My DIARY of your city, as it is unfolding