The document summarizes national online youth work in Finland. It discusses the history and goals of Netari.fi, an organization that provides online youth services. Netari operates in popular social media sites, using a multiprofessional approach with youth workers, nurses, and social workers. The goals are to connect with teens online and provide support services virtually. Netari has a presence in sites like Habbo, IRC-Gallery, Facebook and others. Services include discussion, events, and providing help on issues like family, school, health and leisure activities.

1. National multiprofessional online youthwork

2. Internet usage in Finland

3. Frequency of use

4. And what the future holds?

5. Brief History of Netari.fi Started as a project in 2004 Project involved 4 capitol area cities Main goals were to find out how to make contact to teens online and how to imply youthwork methods to online enviroments Project ended in fall 2007 Netari.fi was included to governments Development Programme for Child And Youth Policy Since 2008 work has evolved to nationwide, multiprofessional online youth work.

6. Present organisation of online youth work 26 municipalities involved 78 youth workers around Finland 11 person team coordinating and developing Supported by Ministry of Education and Culture and Ministry of Social Affairs and Health

7. Aims To carry out and develop national youth work performed online. To make contact with that section of youth who spend a large part of their time in various Internet environments and is not necessarily in contact with already existing youth work.

8. Principles and methods Operates in already popular social network sites, mainly. Tehnical solutions mainly from service providers, youth work adaptation from Netari.fi Quick contact to large amount of teenagers in Finland in main target group (13-18 years old) Principle to be available, not squeezing in Stability of contact, regularity and trustworthiness very important Work is mainly done within opening hours, 12 opening hours per week Online youth work includes discussions, events, games, quizzes, themed evenings etc. Depending on environment there is 4 to 10 workers online at the same time from different cities. They are connected via VoIP-connection. Collective work method. Peer tutors are trained by youth workers, tutors work alongside as volunteer with youth workers. They chat online, organise meets and camps.

9. Netari working environments - Habbo

10. Netari working environments - Habbo Habbo is based in 2000, localized versions in 32 countries 13 000 000 unique visitors per month world wide, Finland and UK most active countries. Basically 2D-avatar chat with most of web 2.0 tools such as IM, tagging, groups, games, user generated content, sharing and modding of it etc. Average age of visitors is approx. 12 years, in Netari-room 13 years Activities in Habbo-hotel include games, building and decorating your own room(s), trading furnitures, masquarades, Netari has own room and in that space youth worker is available during opening hours.

11. Netari working environments – IRC-Gallery IRC-Gallery was established in 2001 by users of Internet Relay Chat aka IRC App. 500 000 users Average age of users is 20,64 years, Netari focuses on teens from 15 to 18 years of age Basic SNS-structure, Profile, friends, communication, photogallery, commenting and diary etc.

12. Netari working environments – Netari-tv Netari-tv started as cooperation pilot between Netari.fi and Finland's national public service broadcasting company YLE Netari-tv combines elements of web-tv, chatting and interactivity between watchers, chatters, host and visitors of the show Aims of Netari-tv is to provide low threshold possibilities to participate to netari-tv´s broadcasts in many ways

13. Netari working environments – Demi.fi Targeted to teenage girls 50 000 weekly users Netari will start working in Demi autumn 2010 Youthworkers and nurses hosts theme discussions weekly Gallups, polls, etc

14. Netari working environments – NetariVille Will start autumn 2010 Competitions, polls, quiz, activities Chat two times a week; youthworkers, nurses, social workers Is in developement User have ability to share their photos, videos, etc.

15. Netari is open weekly 36,5 hours in total Opening hours Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday IRC-Gallery 18:00-21:00 18:00-21:00 19:00-22:00 19:00-22:00 Habbo Hotel 17:00-20:30 17:00-20:30 17:00-20:30 17:00-20:30 Netari-TV 18:00-19:00 Facebook 18:00-21:00 18:00-21:00 Demi.fi 17:30-21:00

16. Multiprofessional Netari organisation: 1. Health Centre of City of Helsinki -3 professional webnurses 2. Social services department of City of Helsinki -1 Project planner, 1 social worker, 1 psychiatric nurse 3. Youth crime unit of Police department of city of Oulu - police officer working every Friday evening online Aims for multi-professional work Through multi-professional cooperation, the project aims to lower the threshold for those youths using the facility to seek social and health services when necessary. The plan is to also bring multi-professional services, through the Netari operation, straight to the Internet environments popular among young people.

17. Other use of social media – Facebook Fanpage

18. Other use of social media – Twitter

19. Other use of social media – Delicious

20. Netari-visitors

21. Netari-discussion topics Main discussion topics are within few main categories: 1. Family/Home - Relationships within family, with parents, siblings, relatives - Problems with communication, substance abuse, domestic abuse - Separation from home 2. School/Studies/Education - study motivation, school success, education orientation, future plans - communication with fellow students, teachers - bullying, problems with classmates etc. 3. Leisuretime - Hobbies, music, sports, culture, - Substance experiments/use - “I’ve got nothing to do”, motivation to pick up and carry some activities - Health (mental/physical), depression, anxiety Topics and points of view vary on age of participants and therefore between environments

23. Development Training and education - National online youth work training twice a year - Topic-trainings via VoIP-connection - Seminars and conferences - Co-operation with main applied sciences universities Publications - blog on The Finnish Youth Research Society's page - online youth work manuals – link - study book will be published in spring 2011 Research - Two user group surveys per year - Workers fill a surveys after every working hour and private conversation - Involved with The Finnish Youth Research Society's research

24. Internet, social media and youth work Internet can be considered as a space where youth work should be present Social media provides large variety of tools to use in that space Work can be done with already existing contacts or to gather new contacts for example in spesific suburb or district-> extension of local youth house/club Besides using internet an social media to extend local youth work there should be resources to work in those spaces that are not depended on ties to physical surroundings -> working in online space These spaces requires their own resources and should be considered as new “city” or “suburb” where youth worker should be available

25. You can find this presentation at: www.slideshare.net/netari