Setlementti Puijola is beginning to build a new model for boys’ work in North Savo. The PoikaZone project is aimed at boys and young men aged 10 to 20. The project will begin at the start of September.
The project has received 45,000 euros in funding for its first year to develop regional youth work. The funding was granted by the Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority, formerly the Regional State Administrative Agency.
At Setlementti Puijola, the project has been planned as a three-year whole, but funding is applied for one year at a time.
According to Puijola coordinator Annukka Rytkönen, the work in the first year will mainly take place in the Kuopio area. The plans include activity-based groups, open community-based activities and small-group pilots. Activities are intended to be organised, for example, in the city’s youth centres and in Setlementti Puijola’s own premises.
“We felt it was important to be able to start building boy-specific work in North Savo,” Rytkönen says.
Originally, funding was sought to cover the salaries of two employees. Because the grant awarded was smaller than the amount applied for, the first year will begin with a part-time project worker and without a permanent dedicated space.
According to Rytkönen, there is a need for gender-specific work.
“We are not yet living in a world where everyone can be everywhere safely and feel accepted. That is why we believe there is still work to be done in gender-specific youth work,” she says.
Setlementti Puijola has carried out gender-sensitive work for a long time. Kuopio’s Tyttöjen talo Girls’ House has been operating since 2011, and boys’ work has also previously been carried out in project form. According to Rytkönen, the activities at the Girls’ House have shown that they often attract young people who do not necessarily feel that municipal youth work activities are for them.
In addition to young people, the project’s second target group is adults who work with young people. During the project, Puijola will take part in youth work networks in North Savo and more broadly in Eastern Finland. The aim is to bring knowledge of gender- and culture-sensitive work into these networks and to assess the need for such work in the region.