Youth policy in municipalities

It is in municipalities that decisions are made on many of the factors of most importance for the situation of young people. Here we present the various conditions that have proved important in the process of getting results in the municipal youth policy.

Municipalities in Sweden have extensive autonomy. This means that the goals established by the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament, are requirements for the state but only advisory for municipalities. Youth policy in municipalities can, if the municipalities so wish, start from the national objectives but the way it is executed in practice is shaped on the basis of the conditions in different municipalities.

Swedish municipalities have many different kinds of motives for conducting their specific municipal youth policy. They can involve giving young people influence over issues that affect their everyday life, preventing and combating problems that young people may run in to or focusing on welfare and resource issues for young people, such as work, housing and education. The different motives also lead to different approaches in youth policy work.

Factors that have been shown to be important for achieving results in the municipal youth policy:

Really wanting to
A shared political will is necessary to develop a cross-sectoral youth policy. It is also necessary for such a policy to have legitimacy in all the decision making sectors.

Knowledge-based policy
It is important to know what life is really like for young people – both to learn about young people’s own view of their life situation, through surveys, for example, and to learn from research results, statistics and studies about young people. There are also a series of different regulatory and policy documents for municipal activities that it is good to be aware of when pursuing youth policy work. Examples of regulatory and policy documents that can both supplement and be coordinated with municipal youth policy are the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Agenda 21, the 1994 School Curriculum and the Local Government Act.

Cross-sectoral cooperation
Youth policy is a cross-sectoral policy area. This means that issues affecting the living conditions of young people are located in many different sectors in municipalities. Therefore, working on the basis of a cross-sectoral youth policy is about seeing all activities from a youth perspective. This results in a holistic view of young people’s conditions, which facilitates the coordination of different political measures.

Objectives and strategies
A politician who wants to be able to direct municipal action so as to improve young people’s living conditions needs youth policy objectives and strategies. There are many different ways of formulating objectives. In some municipalities objectives are based on results of local investigations into young people’s life situation, other municipalities base their objectives on the national objectives for youth policy. It is of great importance that the objectives are followed up regularly and developed and that they have acceptance in all decision-making bodies in the municipality. It is also essential to evaluate municipal youth policy to see what effects it has had for young people in the municipality.

Young people’s influence and participation
It is important that young people are able to influence and participate both in matters that concern their own everyday lives and in questions about the general development of society. Influence and participation in the municipality can relate to various matters, such as influencing conditions in your own school, participating in a youth council or sitting on an elected decision-making body.

International cooperation
Many municipalities use international cooperation –youth exchanges, for example – as tools in municipal youth policy. Several municipalities have also attested to how their youth policy work and their young people have been strengthened through contacts with young people in other countries.