Ungdomar i föreningslivet ur ett Hemslöjdsperspektiv

Abstract

The reason of this thesis is my own involvement in the Swedish craft organisation - Hemslöjd and my desire to strengthen the organisation’s youth activities. Hemslöjden has since 2005 worked actively with children but very little with adolescents older than 14 years. I was active in Hemslöjden in my youth and I now see that many young people are interested in crafts but very few are active in a craft organisation. The essay's goal is to explore what craft organisations and youth organisations do to engage young people and to get members. I want to find successful concepts and to share them with nonprofit organisations. How does Hemslöjden work with youth? How do youth organisations work with youth? Why are some organisations more successful in organising youth? The thesis is divided into three research fields - youths, nonprofit organisations and Hemslöjden. The focus is on young people aged 13 - 25 and the method of research is to interview people within different nonprofit organisations. I interviewed four Hemslöjds organisations but only one has any youth activities. The three youth organisations interviewed are Fältbiologerna , Scouerna and Sverok. These three organisations were chosen mainly because of their many youth members and their active youth participation. Fältbiologerna works with children but their focus is on youth activities. They have a national network which enables meetings over the club boundaries. The Scouts have more of a fokus on educating than the other organisations and have a strong focus on children. They have an age plan for the members with different levels, those who choose to stay in the organisation up in adolescence are strengthened in their membership and have a strong commitment. Sverok is the largest youth organisation in Sweden. The purpose of the association is to help young people to practice their gaming hobby. They actively work to help young people to start of their own local gaming organisations and have over 1000 organisations tied to the main organisation. All interviewees mention a critical point when the children grow up and become teenagers, this is a time when they break with the organisation or go into a new one. The most important factor to engage youngsters in an organisations is to make sure they have their own arena in which they can control and decide the content all by themselves. But they also need to have support from adults to maximize the positive participation of youngsters.