Challenge 1 – Supporting youth in their local communities through inter-agency and interdisciplinary approaches in welfare services – How can it be facilitated?

Research shows that an increasing number of children and young people are growing up under challenging conditions, causing negative consequences in terms of well-being, school performance and education, family stability, physical and mental health and friendships, social events and leisure activities. Different countries offer different welfare services to support children, youth and their families, for instance financial support, health- and social services, practical and vocational support, various learning and development support systems, and child protection systems. The various welfare agencies can offer similar and/or overlapping services. Using Norway as an example: Families can get both practical and financial assistance through both social services, health and care services and child protection services. When different welfare services have both common and special areas of responsibilities, it can be difficult for children and young people to access support to meet their needs.

Inter-agency efforts and cooperation within the welfare services' shared responsibility to promote welfare and well-being can promote a more targeted and joint focus on children and young people within the local community, through cross-professional knowledge and skills and access to various resources and support systems. Such targeted and joint focus can also have a preventative effect regarding health related or different social problems for all residents.

It is therefore interesting to include different views and voices in discussing the topic of how to promote well-being and welfare for children and young people in the local community, through topics such as:

  • How can various welfare services be organized to promote access to necessary information and support for children and youth?
  • How can local authorities secure that children’s and youth’s experiences and views are obtained and taken into account, regarding how to promote general welfare in the local society?
  • How can an organization chart mapping all welfare services facilitate access to relevant and necessary welfare services for children and youth? What information is relevant? How can access be facilitated through its design? How can information be made accessible to children of various ages?
  • How can voluntary organizations contribute to and complement the overall resources?

The results of the group work on the challenge will be presented through a poster presentation.

Challenge 2 – Empowering school collaboration: Safe and brave spaces to promote mattering

Mattering is a state of mind. It concerns the feeling of being appreciated, respected, and recognized, wellness, and the feeling of being worthy and being acknowledged. It incorporates respect for diversity, the need for belonging, inclusion, and fairness. Mattering adds the value of being able to make contributions and make a difference. This leads to empowerment, autonomy, and a sense of control over our lives, mastery, self-efficacy and self-determination. Mattering is the experience that you are valued and can add value, and it is highly relatable across geographic and cultural boundaries. Mattering has the potential to prevent exclusion of individuals and discrimination. Mattering is an essential concept to empower students and challenge the schools internal and external collaboration to facilitate safe and brave spaces for students to promote their well-being.

In this challenge, the objective is to create methods that facilitate safe and brave spaces that enable mattering. This challenge invites participants to explore new approaches to safe and brave spaces.

  • How can professionals working with children and young people create methods, arenas, and processes to develop safe and brave spaces?
  • How can professionals promote brave spaces that prevent the exclusion of individuals, and how can it prevent discrimination and violations of human rights?
  • How can schools – in collaboration with others – establish safe and brave spaces for children and young people in vulnerable situations?
  • How can safe and brave spaces be facilitated through collaborative research?
Challenge 3 – Professional practices and research promoting youth wellbeing in cultural contexts

(Previous title: Strengthening Youth wellbeing in Sápmi)

In this challenge we invite participants to join a journey where you will explore different cultural contexts, such as urban multicultural cities, rural towns, arctic environments and indigenous areas. By working together, the challenge will inspire to gain new insights and reflections on factors in professional practices and research promoting youth wellbeing in a multitude of varied contexts.

A. Professional practices in Cultural Contexts

Social workers and other professionals meet youth in different life circumstances and contexts. Enhancing young people's feeling of belonging and mattering is key to promoting good mental health and preventing anti-social behaviors such as crime or drug use. Discuss challenges for professionals working with youth in urban, rural, and indigenous areas. Use your background to explore cross-disciplinary perspectives on factors that matter for youth well-being and sense of belonging in these different contexts. Explore how professionals can adapt their practice to different contexts (urban, rural, indigenous). Make three creative examples or approaches to “game-changing” or “best practice” scenarios of how professional practices can matter to young minds in varied contexts.

B. Research on Vulnerable Youth in Welfare Services

In the second part of the challenge, we invite you to reflect on common challenges in research on vulnerable youth in welfare services. Consider especially how ethical concerns, participant recruitment and contextual factors may impact the quality and reliability of research findings. Reflect on how understanding these challenges can improve future research efforts. Make a model of 3 innovative and practical recommendations for future research, enhancing youth wellbeing and ethical concerns.

Goals of this challenge:

  • Identify effective strategies to improve youth wellbeing in professional practices.
  • Enhanced knowledge of how different cultural, indigenous and geographical contexts affect the experiences and challenges of youth.
  • A deeper understanding of the complexities in researching youth in welfare services.
  • Enhanced problem-solving and analytical skills.
Challenge 4 – Using creative methods in a group setting

(Previous title: "Implementing Fiction Literature in Public Health Nursing Education".)

Work Package 4 is an action research project that explores how fictional texts can be used as a pedagogical tool in public health nursing education. The project explores how public health nursing students can utilize reading groups as a health-promoting initiative for pupils in secondary and upper-secondary schools in Arctic areas. WP4 is a further development of a PhD project focusing on how to use fiction literature in health dialogues in upper secondary schools (Fjelldal et al., 2024). Fiction literature can be used in dialogues and this initiative enriches young people’s emotional understanding and empathy and can provide a practical framework to support young people's mental health and well-being.

Norwegian Public Health Nurses (PHNs) play a crucial role in health promotion and disease prevention through their work in child health clinics (0-5 years), adolescent health clinics (13-25 years), and school health services (6-20 years). PHNs working in school health services have individual and group health dialogues with young school pupils of different ages. These dialogues can be structured according to guidelines or open-ended discussions with one adolescent or a group of pupils about their health or other concerns. However, we know that there can be communication barriers between young people and adults and that they also could have conflicting interests. Relevant research has presented those creative methods such as drawing, photographs, videos, music, or a text/ poem could be a starting point in how to reach and communicate with people who are hard to reach (Bergvoll et al., 2023; Fjelldal et al., 2024; Laholt et al., 2017).

The Challenge:

We want the participants in the EUGLOGH course to use creative methods/ visualization methods, such as pictures, music, a poem, etc. to explore what it takes to engage young people who are difficult to reach. The result from the challenge can be presented as a PowerPoint presentation, a role-play, a discussion event, or a podcast.

References

Bergvoll, L. M., Fjelldal, S. S., Clancy, A., Martinussen, M., & Laholt, H. (2023). How do public health nurses in Norwegian school health services support siblings of children with complex care needs? Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/scs.13184
Fjelldal, S. S., Clancy, A., Auklend, M., & Laholt, H. (2024). Reading Groups as a Health‐Promoting Intervention in Upper Secondary Schools: A Qualitative Study. Public Health Nursing.

Challenge 5 – How can we enhance youth participation and inclusion in social development?

Involving youth is a key in the shaping of tomorrow’s society yet ensuring meaningful involvement and real influence for young people is a challenging task. It is particularly difficult to engage those who often remain on the sidelines—whether its due to social barriers, exclusion, or a lack of accessible platforms for participation.

This challenge invites participants to explore new approaches to:

  • Include those who typically do not participate – How can we reach young individuals who are often left out, ensuring that the diversity of experiences and perspectives is represented?
  • Engage youth as active contributors – How can we create methods, arenas and processes that enable young people to influence important decisions and contribute to societal development?
  • Lay the foundation for sustained education engaging youth – How can we develop sustainable education that facilitates continuity in youth participation, even as youth groups naturally evolve over time?

Participants engaging in this challenge are encouraged to draw on examples and cases relevant to their expertise and field. The following examples are shown only to give some ideas to different initiatives that have been/are being implemented in Tromsø. Feel free to use your own examples if you find them suiting your discussion in a better way.

  • One example is Tromsø’s achievement of becoming the European Youth Capital in 2026, where youth involvement is a central theme across various levels of planning and implementation. How can Tromsø develop innovative processes to engage young people across sectors and backgrounds? And what are the lasting effects of a time-limited project such as the European youth capital-initiative?
  • Another example is the establishment of the research centre Arctic Youth, which focuses on children and youth in Arctic communities. How can research and development initiatives ensure that young people actively contribute, and how can we ensure the inclusion of at-risk groups as an integral part of such efforts?

Goals of the challenge:

  • Explore strategies and methods to enhance youth participation across sectors and themes.
  • Develop solutions that are inclusive and reflect diverse perspectives.
  • Contribute to discussions and insights that can be applied in various contexts and societal levels
Challenge 6 – Innovative Digital Learning

Co-creating research-informed digital tools that include the perspectives and participation of those involved. What can digital innovation look like in interdisciplinary projects?

In today's world, where technology is a key part of every field, digital innovation is driving significant changes in how we approach interdisciplinary projects. This transformation is reshaping how we collaborate and share knowledge across different disciplines. At the core of this change is the collaborative creation of digital tools based on research. These tools are designed to enhance project outcomes by incorporating diverse perspectives and encouraging active participation from all stakeholders. This inclusive approach ensures that technological advancements address a variety of needs and contexts, enriching the collaborative process.

These initiatives offer opportunities to explore the potential of digital innovation in interdisciplinary work. By combining insights from fields such as science, technology, humanities, and ethics, we can develop resources that enhance digital collaboration. These resources help teams acquire the essential skills needed to succeed in complex, technology-driven projects. Ethical considerations are crucial in guiding these innovations, ensuring that technology is used responsibly while protecting the rights and identities of all participants. Ensuring data security is particularly important in digital collaborative environments to safeguard sensitive information and build trust among team members.

In this challenge, we encourage you to think about the following questions:

  • What digital literacy skills do people need to have? How do we ensure everyone has the digital literacy needed to participate fully in these projects?
  • How can you improve collaboration for everyone involved?
  • How do we balance the need for data to drive innovation with the need to protect individual privacy?