This document discusses the importance of digital youth work. It provides an overview of Verke, the National Centre for Expertise on Digital Youth Work in Finland. Verke trains youth workers, produces resources, and helps innovated digital solutions for youth work. The document outlines challenges like ensuring digital issues are addressed in youth policies and strategies. It also provides examples of digital youth work, like using apps for outdoor activities or producing online content for learning. Overall, the document advocates that digital tools should be integrated into youth work to remain relevant to young people's lives.

1. Verke - Centre for Expertise
on Digital Youth Work
Juha Kiviniemi

2. ”If youth work fails to embrace the
use of technology and social media
there is a risk of becoming
outdated and irrelevant to young
people who use youth work
services. ”
- Youth Worker, Scotland

3. “Youth work values are what’s
most important, and then we build
the technology around that:
It’s less about building technical
skills and more about being a tool
to express themselves.”
- Youth Worker, Northern Ireland

4. What is Verke?
• National Centre for expertise on
Digital youth work
• Founded in 2011
• Funded by the Ministry of
Education and Culture,
administrated by City of Helsinki
Youth Department
• Six full time employees

5. Our long term goals
• Knowledge and competences on how to use digital media and
technology in youth work will increase
• The structures of youth work will support the use of digital media
and technology in youth work
• Innovative services and concepts will be created in the field of
youth work, using digital media and technology

6. What we do:
• Train and consult (2687 YW Reached)
• Produce materials
• Share information
• Bi-annual survey
• Build bridges
• Help to innovate new solutions

7. Forms of training youth work professionals
• As part of development partnerships
(formerly VerkeFactori)
• SomeCamp - 2-3 day event once a year
• Distanssi online courses (MOOCs)
• Sessions as part of larger training
events
• Erasmus+ trainings
• Single training sessions as needed

8. Material production & information sharing
• Recently produced: Youth work
throws a lan party, Towards
digital youth work, Digital
youth work: a Finnish
perspective
• Blog, podcast(s), social media,
good practice collection,
newsletter (~1200 subscribers)

9. Focus points at the moment
• Digital media and technology
should be seen as medium,
activity and content in youth
work
• Maker culture & technology
education
• Strategic development

10. The diversity of digitality in youth work
Digital Youth Work
Digital Services
Digital Solutions
Digital Infrastructure

11. Why is strategic development needed?
• Digital issues are not included in
youth policy / strategy papers
• Digital media is seen only as social
media, and it’s full potential is not yet
discovered
• Many projects concentrate on one
activity / method —> a larger view to
digital youth work is needed

12. www.verke.org

13. Cultural & historical context of Digital youth work
• Finnish youth work has been actively developing online youth
work - especially online counseling - for many years now
• Focus now shifted / shifting towards digital youth work
• Other countries have been more active in developing other digital
approaches, e.g. makerspaces, STEM..

14. Why is Digital youth work
relevant?

15. 50 MILLION
USERS? ( A product or innovation is considered ”widely adopted” at this point)

16. 38 years
image: www.sxc.hu

17. 13 years
image: www.sxc.hu

19. 4 years

20. ~2 years

21. 7 months

22. 19 days

23. Technological growth on
an exponential scale

24. Digitalization is not
something in the future.
It is happening now.

25. The ownership of information
has irrevocably changed.

26. Young peoples methods, intensity and
speed of social communication are radically
different from our own.

27. Young people do not
”go online”.

28. How can youth work adapt?

29. The problem with doing stuff ”technology first”?

30. If people don’t have a
personal stake in the
matter at hand,
crowdsourcing (or
youth participation,
for that matter!) just
doesn’t work.

31. Commonly raised topics
• Does every youth worker have to do digital youth work?
• What should the focus of digital youth work be?
• Media literacy?
• Communication?
• Does it need a separate focus?
• Professional ethics and separation of private life in digital youth work

32. Verke’s national guidelines
• Published in late 2016 in Finnish in the book ”Kohti digitaalista
nuorisotyötä”.
• The english translation can be found @ http://verke.org/ as a pdf
or as a part of the book ”Digital youth work - a Finnish
perspective”
• Based on Scottish ”Digitally Agile National Principles” (2014) and
findings from the Screenagers -study (2016)
• Are divided into 8 separate principles

36. Practical examples

37. Examples of digital youth work could be..
• Added value to face-to-face youth work (e.g. complementing a youth participation process
with online interaction between meetings)
• Building new activities around digital tools (e.g. using a GPS-enabled mobile app for a
competitive outdoor activity, fostering social skills in high-risk youngsters using digital
gaming as a team)
• Producing digital content into social media platforms with a focus on non-formal learning,
media education or empowerment
• Providing a low-threshold help-service for young people in need of guidance and support

38. Practical examples
• CyberHus: A peer-to-peer online question service run by an NGO. Lots of
young people answering questions. (DK)
• Netari: An online youth house originally located in Habbo Hotel, an online
service mainly targeted at pre-teens. Now functions in multiple services
helping young people. Run by an NGO ”Save the children Finland”. (FIN)
• Game development programs and e-sports teams with a focus on group
cohesion. (FIN)

39. Practical examples
• An online “ask a politician” service via video for young people (IRE)
• “Nuorten ääni –toimitus” creates high-quality journalism in
mainstream media (FIN)
• Podcasts are a rising trend, as are vlogs
• Exciting examples of harnessing social media services and tools
(snapchat, action track etc.) can be sporadically found

40. Vlogs by youth workers

41. Storytelling with digital platforms (DIG-IT up!)

42. Fisucraft, a Minecraft -server run by a local parish in Finland

46. Exploring Senses (Brighton, UK)

47. Thank you!
Juha Kiviniemi
juha.kiviniemi@verke.org
Tel. +358 40 1835 264
Twitter: @puikko
Instagram: @humanistimotoristi
Verke
Tel. +358 9 310 89067
info@verke.org
Twitter: @VerkeOrg