Today we are at an eid festival in Malmö, talking about our project Nya Vägar!
The aim of the Nya Vägar project is to inspire young people in better ways in areas where there is a risk for those young people to end up outside society. The project is carried out in collaboration with organizations in Malmö, Landskrona and Helsingborg. The idea is to strengthen the conditions for young men and young women to be more confident in their democratic values and help find a path with meaningful leisure time, education and work.
This program supports young people who are at risk of being radicalized and joining violent extremist groups.
To achieve these goals, a number of ambassadors for democracy are recruited and trained. This involves young people from the target group who want to get involved in working with democratic issues and the spreading of information among their peers while working with various activities.
The training of the ambassadors includes the following subjects: knowledge of Swedish society, knowledge of Islam’s view on extremism, knowledge of educational opportunities, knowledge of the labor market and knowledge of life within organizations.
In this way the ambassadors are enlightened in their role both as role models in youth groups but also when they work together with a project manager with various activities and meetings with other young people.
The training of the ambassadors completed in June of 2019. During that time, ambassadors have participated in eid festivals in Helsingborg and Malmö to inform others about the possibilities of the project.
During the late summer and autumn of 2019, the ambassadors have then carried out a number of activities while getting more young people involved.
In December 2019, a final seminar was arranged where the results were made public. Our partner associations, other organizations and representatives from Malmö municipality, Helsingborg municipality and Landskrona municipality and other municipalities in the region were invited to this seminar. The ambassadors and other young people also had key roles here.
Today we are at an eid festival in Malmö, talking about our project Nya Vägar!
In the project Nya Vägar “i flera kommuner” which started this year, we have finished training with the ambassadors of the first group, which consists of people from Helsingborg, Landskrona and Klippan.
A new group started the day before yesterday where young people are being trained to be democracy ambassadors. Linus Nilsson, who runs the association f4forening, came and talked about his experiences of working with young people and answered our questions! Thank you Linus, and thank you to everyone else who participated!
Nya Vägar’s democracy ambassador training is in full swing and we have had two lectures so far. The first was held by Alaa Alkot. He lectured on association life, on what role it has in society, how to start an association, etc.
The second was held by our own chairman of the organization, Khalil Zeidan, who works as labor market secretary in Malmö city. He talked about job hunting and education. Among other things, the challenges for young people in the labor market were discussed. This week’s lecture will also be held in Landskrona, and Helsingborg afterwards. The young people in the project come from different cities and it is an important part of their education that they visit each other’s cities, both to learn more about each other’s associations and ways of working with young people!
Last Saturday, our Nya Vägar project kicked off for its second run. Thirteen young people from Malmö, Helsingborg and Landskrona gathered to share their involvement with young people. The project leaders talked about what is included in the training to become a democracy ambassador, which is the basis of the project.
We also talked about how important it is that those who participate share their own experiences of working with young people, and with what they have learned in their training as a democracy ambassador when they then go out into society and meet other young people with Nya Vägar!