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Fritidsforum - a brief History

The members of Fritidsforum are a motley crew with varying aims, activities and leaders. You can find neighbourhood centres with many employees alongside new community associations, which are run wholly on a voluntary basis. However, most of the members are municipal youth centres which concentrate their efforts on youth activities. The purpose of these guidelines is to clarify Fritidsforum’s view of good activities at the centres, and thereby state the demands that ought to be made on the association members. Hopefully, these guidelines will give valuable support when developing and improving the activities.

1. BASIC VIEW

Fritidsforum, with its associated neighbourhood, youth, and community centres etc, is an important part of society’s social, cultural, and democratic infrastructure. Historically and ideologically the association has its roots in the neighbourhood centre movement of “aid to self-help”-tradition. That means local self-organization, the liberation of people’s resources and a strong belief in meetings between people.

2. GOALS

The basic view and overall goals that Fritidsforum stand for is directed towards an all encompassing view on people and the local community. It is important to note the fact that a centre activity can be well-defined when it comes to target group and type of activity, without coming into conflict with the basic view and the overall goals. One demand/condition is however that the definition is made consciously with knowledge of the local community and life situation of the people involved. The overall goals of the association are to increase the possibilites of the weaker groups of people in society to voice their interests, and to strengthen bonds of friendship between people in general.

2:1 Fritidsforum’s goal is

• to achieve a spirit of fellowship and solidarity between people with differing views, age and background.
• to strive for peace and international co-operation.
• to strive for the development of self-confidence and self-esteem of the individual. Special consideration is to be taken concerning the needs of children and youths.
• to especially support socially (or in other ways) neglected groups to fulfill their possibilities in life.
• to stimulate active and creative engagement in a constructive public debate, and thereby work for increased and deepened democracy.
• to influence and create a sense of responsibility for the activities through democratic forms of organisation.

2:2 Access to good meeting-places

Every municipality and housing area ought to have access to open and carefully designed meeting-places. The state and municipalities should be responsible for the basic economical and material requirements. The location and design of the centre should make it available and attractive to everybody, as well as be able to facilitate different activities. The premises ought to be well equipped, fresh and welcoming, as well as a stimulus for people to do cooperative work concerning common affairs.

2:3 A good centre has clearly defined goals

One demand of a good centre activity is that it’s goals are clearly defined. The goals express the desires of the people concerned, and therefore can’t be formulated along any particular, centrally designed guidelines. The centre activity ought also to be beneficial in the development of ones personality, the formation of opinions, and social change, even if locally based people decide what goals to strive for. However, the goals cannot be in conflict with the basic view and overall goals of Fritidsforum. The goals should also be decided upon democratically and open to evaluation; which means that they should be unambiguous, defined in time, and measurable. Elected representatives, leaders, visitors, and residents in the area, should be well aquainted with the centre’s goals and activities. The goals ought to be open to continual discussion, and to be followed up in, for example, annual reports and evaluations, preferably with the advantage of professional evaluators.

3. DEMOCRACY

Democracy is a form for influence and decision-making. Democracy also involves a view on society, a view on humanity, and a process which constantly has to be deepened and renewed. Important democratic principles are that every human being is equal and that decisions are made at the lowest possible level. Fritidsforum is an organisation similar to a popular movement. All members share the same rights, influence and responsibility. At the meeting of representatives every representative holds the same right to vote. For the association in its entirety to function democratically, the local members also have to be organised democratically.

3:1 Committed elected representatives

A good centre is run by representatives who are elected locally. The representatives are responsible for the overall goals and priorities of the centre. They should be able to involve the parties concerned in a continual dialogue concerning goals, methods, and activities. Employees should have regulated participation in decision-making.

3:2 Democratic organisation

The centre’s elected representatives and staff should ensure that all participators have a good possibility for influence and responsibility over the centre’s activities. All the people in the area are considered to be participators. They should, in a democratic manner, be represented on the board of the centre, or in a similar decision-making body. The management should give priority to work with groups who find it difficult to voice their opinions, and who are unused to asserting their interests. That is often the case with young people with a weak foothold in society.

4. METHODS

To reach the goals set up for the activities awareness and a knowledge of different methods is required. Fritidsforum’s member centres have three main functions: The first is to be an open meeting-place for people with different cultural backgrounds, and different ways of life. Pedagogically this purpose corresponds especially to the “open activity”. The second is to be supportive of people’s self-organisation. This purpose usually calls for a pedagogy called “community work”. The third main function is “public education”. The aim of this task is to increase people’s ability for critical thinking and independent action.

4:1 Open activity

The open activity should facilitate informal and everyday meetings between people with different cultural backgrounds, and different ways of life. Different minority groups should have a respected space. The pedagogy of the “open activity” should be formulated with respect to the groups who are unaccustomed to organising themselves. Children and young people in particular should be given help by the staff of the centre to formulate their goals and to accomplish their possibilities in life.

4:2 Community work

The centre should be so firmly established in the area as to be open for the needs and initiatives found among the people living in the vicinity. To accomplish this function some kind of visiting activity, and social mobilisation, is often called for to strengthen people’s resources. The staff of the centre should also develop the cooperation with different associations and public participants in the area.

4:3 Public education

The staff of the centre also function as public educators. Their task is to promote the personal development, the quality of life, and the readiness to action, of the single individual. The environment of the centre should stimulate people to a critical social debate, and to make them actively contribute to the kind of changes they all agree upon.

5. CONTRIBUTORS

The employees and the voluntary workers should be the bearers of Fritidsforum’s ideas and have a special responsibility to realise and develop the goals of Fritidsforum. Since a prerequisite for centre activities is qualified contributors, it is important to give the contributors priority to education and training.

5:1 The role of the contributor

The contributors at Fritidsforum’s member centres should have education which corresponds to the three main functions: “open activity”, “community work” and “public education”. By taking part in what Fritidsforum has to offer when it comes to education and training, as well as other activities, contributors are able to increase their insight and competence indifferent current issues and ways of working.

Fritidsforum - not simply a forum for recreation

Democracy, solidarity, and compassion are developed through human interaction. It is therefore imperative to ensure that there are possibilities of meeting together, at youth- and community-centres, or the neighborhood center. Society must be built and organized in such a way that the social fabric is strengthened at city-block level. Fritidsforum views the centers not only as institutions for recreation, but would also like them to be at the heart of the effort to improve and influence society around them. In what way is Fritidsforum working for this to become a reality? Let us describe some of our activity:

Open Centers

Every citizen has a right to enjoy meaningful recreation, and access to quality meeting-places.When local authorities shut down youth centers for financial reasons, or remove the foundation of neighborhood, youth, and community centers, a means of promoting communication and understanding, especially between Swedes and immigrants, is lost. Fritidsforum is carrying on a campaign with the purpose of providing decisions-makers, center visitor and leaders with appropriate information. ”Öppna Gårdar”(Open Centers) -campaign has received a considerable response. Fritidsforum demands legislation that guarantees the right to meaningful recreation, and that the government invests more aggressively in the interests of youths.

What about the girls?

Teenage girls are all but forgotten in municipal youth center activity. Girls are perceived as a passive group, difficult to involve in center activities. Boys are easier to involve, and more readily take advantage of the resources made available to them. Therefore boys are favored financially, greater funds being focused on boys (e.g. ice-hockey) than girls (e.g. equestrian sports). Research into recreational habits shows that approximately 10 percent of available resources ought to be redirected in favor of girls activities. Most of what is written or said concerning youth in the news, investigative reports, and research papers is mainly about boys. Boys are seen and heard. They make their presence in the public arena felt in a strong way. Girls, on the other hand, are practically invisible. We are conditioned to this from early childhood. Youth centers have traditionally been based on the needs of boisterous boys, the whole endeavor being shaped by this. This neglect of girls is not a circumstance unique to youth- and community-centers, rather it is evident throughout human society. Fritidsforum endeavors to emphasize activities for girls, and to strengthen center guides in this work. In 1993 the project ”Men tjejerna då?” (What about the girls?) was concluded. The purpose of this project was to give girls increased influence in recreational activity, and to find a method of working which is based on the needs of girls. The project clearly showed that teenage girls are not content with sitting at home, but rather are just as interested in, and in need of, meaningful recreation as boys are. Methods and content needs to be structured and adapted so as to appeal to and reach girls.

International meeting-places

In an ever-changing world it is important that youths have the opportunity to meet with youths from other on countries, on an equal footing. Through our involvement with ECYC, European Confederation Youth Clubs, UFN, Ungdom och Fritid I Norden (Youth and Recreation in the Nordic Countries), as well as IFS, International Federation of Settlements this is made possible. For members, opportunities for youth exchange, visits to other centers, and participation in conferences all over the world, are provided. Youth counselors have the options of language travel and volunteer work abroad. ECYC is a web of 20 000 clubs with about 4 million members. By means of a database it is possible, for example, to quickly research the feasibility of taking the local group of heavy-metal fans to visit a like-minded group at a center in Spain.

Open Centers for everyone

Nothing says that a meeting-place necessarily has to be a youth center. Fritidsforum has many different kinds of members. Youth-, community-, and neighborhood-centers, local associations, music-, and culture-houses, etc. What unites us, among other things, is the desire to provide open activity for people of all ages. Open activity strives to facilitate and provide space for people to meet together. The activity is voluntary and open to everyone. Visitors attend when they wish. Fritidsforum is a forum for the development of new forms of activity in this field.

Community work brings cooperation

A long-range goal is that every neighborhood should have a community center or a flexibly equipped youth center that promotes the development of local cooperation between neighbors and associations. Therefore an important purpose of community work is to improve the possibility for people to start their own associations and collectively take responsibility for the local cultural and recreational activity. Some of the ways in which Fritidsforum promotes community work are educational courses, published materials and editorials. By seminars links can be established between research and practice, contributing to development among members based on knowledge.

About Fritidsforum

The first neighbourhood center in Sweden, Birkagården in Stockholm, was established in 1912. The founders were inspired by the settlement movement in Great Britain.
The idea of neighbourhood centers was spread over the country and 1937 a national organisation was founded. After the Secon War a lot of youth clubs were established.

Today Fritidsforum is a multipurpose organisation for social, cultural and educational work. The constitution states that the overall aim is to encourage and help, especially young people, to develop their possibilities and capabillities to take part in the society. Fritidsforum works with this aim through developing programs, which promotes good opportunities for public participation.Education and learning are important activities of Fritidsforum. Each year Fritidsforum arranges seminars, courses and meetings for voluntary and professional leaders. The educational activities concern very much different parts and aspects of community work. There is also a long tradition of peace activities.The national headquarter deals with service, rooted in the very basic needs of clubs and neighbourhood centers, together with developing new methods of working.

Fritidsforum also publishes a magazine Fria Tider and is in charge of a publisinghouse. Fritidsforum is a member of UFN, the Nordic youth club organisation, ECYC, European Confederation of Youth Clubs, as well as IFS, International Federation of Settlements and Neighbourhood Centres.

Internationella samarbetsorganisationer

Fritidsforum är medlem i och samverkar med:

European Confederation of Youth Clubs

ECYC är ett kontaktnät för uppemot 20 000 (ungdoms)klubbar med ca 4 miljoner medlemmar. Via Fritidsforum kan du få hjälp med gårdsutbyte att t ex åka med gårdens hårdrockare till en likasinnad gård i…, varför inte, Spanien. Se möjligheterna!
Arbetar i första hand med att stimulera ungdomar till internationellt utbyte utifrån fritidsgård ex, festivaler, seminarier, gård mot gård utbyten och volontärarbete mm.
Medlemsländer: Österrike, Belgien, Cypern, Danmark, Finland, Frankrike, Tyskland, England, Island, Irland, Norge, Ryssland, Sverige Till ECYC >>>

Ungdom och Fritid i Norden

UFN är ett nordiskt samarbetsparaply som initierar till utbyten mellan fritidsgårdar genom seminarier, festivaler mm
Medlemsländer: Grönland, Färöarna, Island, Norge, Danmark, Sverige och Finland.

International Federations of neighbourhood centers

IFS har medlemsorganisationer över hela världen och spänner verksamhetsmässigt över många sociala och kulturella utvecklingsområden. I Europa så har medlemmarna bildat en Euro-group för sitt samarbete. IFS
Medlemsländer: Sverige, Finland, Danmark, Tyskland, England, Österrike, Rumänien, Bulgarien, Tjeckien, Ungern, Polen, Litauen, Lettland, Estland, Ryssland, Holland, Frankrike, Spanien och Albanien. (Medlemmar även i Mellanöstern, Afrika, Syd- och Nord Amerika. Till IFS >>>

Övrig representation

Fritidsforum är medlem i Svenska FN- förbundet >>>
och i LSU, Landsrådet för Sveriges Ungdomsorganisationer >>>
Fritidsforum deltar också i Nationella kommittén för samordning av internationellt arbete.

Vi hjälper gärna till för att inspirera till internationellt arbete på fritidsgården.

Fritidsforums internationella arbete

Grunden för Fritidsforums internationella arbete finns i stadgans vision, grundsyn och mål. Dessa pekar särskilt på ”att utveckla öppna och demokratiska mötesplatser, där särskilt unga ges möjlighet att utvecklas i ett sammanhang av alla åldrar”.

Det ger Fritidsforum bland annat ansvar för att ungdomars behov av umgänge med andra än sin egen åldersgrupp tillgodoses även i internationella sammanhang. Fritidsforum vill därför lyfta fram såväl rena ungdomsevenemang, som tillfällen och miljöer som är mera brett åldersinriktade.

Det internationella arbetet ska givetvis utgå från medlemmarnas intresse och behov. Fritidsforum ska bevaka hem- och fritidsgårdars intressen genom att delta och vara representerade i olika organisationer och nätverk, som berör det internationella området.

Fritidsforum är fullvärdig medlem i ett antal internationella organisationer. Därigenom tillförsäkras vi ett utbud av aktiviteter som seminarier, konferenser, projekt, läger, festivaler o liknande, men också möjlighet till utveckling av fritids- och hemgårdsverksamhet.