Groups condemn Reykjavík layoffs and leisure centre closures

Samfés, the National Association of Youth Centres and Youth Houses, and Fagfrí have condemned Reykjavík City Council’s changes to the professional structure of the city’s youth centres and after-school facilities, mbl.is reports.

The organisations referred to layoffs approved by the city council executive committee on Tuesday. They said key managers with decades of experience supporting after-school facilities had lost their jobs, describing the decision as a major blow to managers working in the field and to the service as a whole.

“The city council’s decision to abolish the leisure centres diminishes more than 25 years of building and developing leisure activities that have been regarded as exemplary work across Iceland and abroad,” the organisations said in a statement.

They also expressed concern about the position of after-school facilities and youth centres as first-level services under well-being legislation. Individualised services previously provided to children and families by the city’s school and leisure division have now been moved to the welfare division, they said. This would lengthen communication channels for professionals working in leisure services.

The organisations said they were deeply disappointed by what they described as a lack of consultation with specialists working at the facilities affected by the changes.

Children and families who have relied on youth centres and after-school facilities as a safe haven can still use the services, the statement said. However, it questioned whether staff would be able to provide the same ambitious professional work for children and families in the city’s neighbourhoods without the support structure that disappeared with the changes.