Funding cuts halt school youth work in some Finnish municipalities

School youth work is continuing in Varkaus but has ended in neighbouring Joroinen as Finnish municipalities decide whether they can afford to continue the service. Yle reports that research shows the work can reduce bullying and strengthen a sense of community.

At Waltteri School, a lower secondary school in Varkaus, youth worker Hanna-Kaisa Havukainen says her most important tasks are meeting students and listening to them without rushing.

Known as Hanski among the students, Havukainen greets everyone with a smile. She has worked at the school for three years and is familiar to all its lower secondary pupils.

“Hanski is the school’s sunshine,” ninth-grader Helmi Korhonen says.

During a morning break, Havukainen organised a bingo game in the school lobby. Dozens of students waited to see whether their numbers would come up.

Havukainen is at the school five days a week throughout the school day. She organises activities, leads group-building sessions and is available for individual discussions.

Waltteri School has all of Varkaus’s lower secondary pupils, more than 570 students. Havukainen estimates that she meets at least 250 pupils every week, amounting to about 10,000 encounters a year.

“I want to do school youth work so visibly that every student knows who I am and knows they can turn to me about anything,” Havukainen says.

Municipalities face difficult funding decisions

School youth work has become more common in recent years through government project grants. There are now about 500 school youth workers in Finland. When the project funding ends, municipalities must decide whether to continue the work.

Elsa Mantere, a special adviser on sports and youth affairs at the Association of Finnish Municipalities, says many municipalities have made the positions permanent, but the situation remains difficult.

“The economic outlook is not bright, so municipalities have to carefully consider which forms of youth work to invest in,” Mantere says.

Varkaus decided in the spring to make its school youth worker’s position permanent.

Waltteri School principal Teemu Mustonen considers the decision important because he says the work has had many positive effects.

According to Mustonen, positive contact between young people and adults has increased, vandalism has decreased and the atmosphere at the school has improved. He also says students are experiencing less loneliness.

“School youth work gets young people to meet one another during the day, which helps reduce feelings of loneliness,” Mustonen says.

Joroinen chose a different approach

In the neighbouring municipality of Joroinen, a school youth worker was employed through project funding for several years. Last spring, however, the municipality decided to end the work.

Education director Mika Huovinen says the municipality did not apply for a new project grant and had no money of its own to fund the position.

Students collected signatures in support of continuing the work, but the municipality decided to invest in youth work during the evenings instead.

Huovinen says the idea of school youth work has not been abandoned in Joroinen. The municipality will apply for government project funding if it becomes available in the future.

According to Huovinen, the municipality’s lower secondary school, which has 130 pupils, already has good resources to support young people.

“In addition to a psychologist, a school social worker and a public health nurse, we have six special education teachers and 14 instructors,” Huovinen says.

A school youth worker costs about 45,000 euros a year. The economic situation is tight in many municipalities, including Joroinen.

Mantere says municipalities make their decisions based on local needs.

“You cannot directly say that one municipality is doing well and another is doing badly,” she says.

Researchers call for continuity

Antti Kivijärvi, a senior researcher at the Finnish Youth Research Society, and his research group have compared schools that provide school youth work with schools that do not.

The results show that school youth work can reduce bullying, improve friendships and strengthen a sense of community.

At Waltteri School, Havukainen leads group-building activities for new seventh-graders. The aim is partly to help new students get to know one another and overcome their nervousness.

Kivijärvi says municipalities should find funding models that allow the work to be developed over the long term.

“The results do not emerge from a project lasting a couple of years. Permanent employees and stable networks are needed,” Kivijärvi says.