Recently I have had the privaledge of travelling to Sweden with my colleague Lisa and Ken from YMCA England and Wales. The main aim of the study visit is to learn about social enterprise that takes place in YMCAs across Sweden with a view to taking key tunes back and implementing them within YMCA Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Is it social enterprise/enterprise/social or something else?
This has been one of the questions we have been asking and wondering since registering our interest for the trip. How is it different to what we do in our YMCA? Is it more than what is on paper? The answer is it's a bit of everything and sometimes it's not strightforeward to put it neatly into a box. The big thing that comes across is their passion for young people and their passion for creating spaces for young people to grow and making it happen so they have an impact.
Hotels, holiday camps, festivals, skateparks and sports
Various projects create capacity and space for the young people to grow. Some of the projects such as Kom Hotel ran by YMCA Central, Stockholm are straightforward enterprises to generate income to run the organisation however there are opportunities for young people to get involved with leadership programmes to grow in the hospitality industry which has lasting impact for future careers.
Some prospects such as basketball are the foundations on which the YMCAs such as JKS have been built. Memberships and grants have helped an organisation grow from 1945 to an otgnaition today that have over 60,000 participants each year. Basketball is s social enterprise project they generates enough funds through membership as grants to break even and allow others who are less fortunate in the community to play basketball for FREE. But Basketball has become much more than that in the community it is a way of life and has made a community of many cultures and backgrounds inclusive so young people and grow. Not only in basketball but as leaders in their community to make life for everyone better. The chairman of JKS is only 26 but his story is truely inspiring thanks to the opportunities the chairman before him made possible through his own passions for making things happen for young people. Basketball has also changed the community by helping to found a community 6 week summer festival that turns over £2.4 million. Again this could be classsed as a social enterprise as it generates opportunites for the community to take part for FREE. How? By raising funds through grants and sponsorship from local businesses. How have they've accessed this amount of money? By taking time to build their relationships with key organitions and learning from their mistakes. Did it come over night? No it has taken 7 years of hard work and dedication but their passion and support of each other has helped them 'fill big shoes'.
Youth leadership - social project or social enterprise?
One of the most interesting things that has come out of the trip has been how much Sweden YMCAs put emphasis on allowing young people to grow thorough leadership whether it's going on youth leadership programmes to work in summer camps or training young people to support in projects or involving young people in the design of spaces. All the opportunites availabile are giving young people the chance to 'fill big shoes'. But importantly because the young people they are involved in decisions they use the services to their full potential.
One project 'Calm Streets' that isn't run by YMCA but another organisation that has developed out of a YMCA called Fryhuest trains young people to become role models in their community to keep the streets a safer place. These young people then go out into the community with the project to keep the streets of Stockholm safe at night which is paid for by the transport department. Surplus generate from this contract goes back into the programme to allow more young people the chance to go through the programme. This is values to both the young person and the community.
If we invest in young people in this way this project and many others also has potential across our YMCA and others across the world but we need the same passion and patience that YMCAs have here to make it work over a period of time.
What can we learn ?
- Passion
- Patience
- Investment in youth leadership
- Involve youth in creating their spaces to grow
'We create spaces for young people to grow' - we also need to give our organisations room to grow into big shoes!
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