Equality for children and young people builds wellbeing for the whole community

Espoo’s children and young people are active and equal individuals, who all have the potential to learn through interaction with others.

“We are building equal learning paths from early childhood education and care through pre-primary education to basic education and all the way to upper secondary education, always in a learner-oriented manner and in collaboration with children, young people, their homes and our partners,” says Deputy Mayor for Growth and Learning Harri Rinta-aho.

We strengthen equality between the city’s areas, among other things, by ensuring that every area has access to high-quality services for children and young people. We also play an active role in integration. One of our goals in this respect is to increase the learning outcomes of children and young people with an immigrant background to halve the gap between their learning outcomes and those of the native population.

We provide services with the help of the whole Espoo community, emphasising communality and inclusion by involving children, young people and their guardians in the planning of services.

Our activities focus specifically on strengthening the sense of inclusion and equality of children and young people.

Hanging on the walls here and there are reminders of the school’s values: a school project on equality, an aphorism on respect and, in the best spot in the lower grades’ lobby, a gigantic framed golden zero. Lagstads skola has been working hard for a long time to make all pupils feel welcome and equal at the school. By involving pupils and staff, the school strengthens the message that everyone is equally valuable and must be treated with respect.

“We think that everyone has the right to take up space. This applies to both children and adults. No one should feel the need to act smaller than they are – everyone has the right to be seen. Every child and adult has something to offer. Regardless of their background, religion, disability or sexual orientation. These things do not matter. We are all human beings, and we are all wonderful,” says Agneta Torsell, headteacher of Lagstads skola.

The school is a combined primary and lower secondary school with grades 1–9. The school also offers small group instruction for grades 7–9. The school building also houses a daycare centre and preschool, Lagstads daghem och förskola. Agneta Torsell does not remain silent when it comes to discussing equality. Nevertheless, she must stop and think for a moment before answering the question of how Lagstads skola deals with equality issues. However, this is not because she is speechless, but because equality work is part of the school’s day-to-day.

“When I started as headteacher of Lagstads skola, I was given the opportunity to start managing the legacy built by the previous headteacher. The previous headteacher had created an atmosphere at the school where it was a given that we would not tolerate anyone being subjected to insults or other inappropriate behaviour,” Agneta says. “I believe that we as adults can do a lot by showing that we consider ourselves to be good just the way we are and that we don’t have to be a certain way to be good enough. We also show that we think that the pupils are good as they are and do not try to change them,” Torsell explains.

At the beginning of the school year, the school rules are reviewed with the future seventh-graders. Older pupils help explain to new pupils how things are done at the school. The pupils themselves appreciate the approach and the common rules, so they are happy to take on the task.

“The new seventh-graders find it more interesting to listen to older pupils than my lecturing,” Torsell says, laughing. Perhaps it says something about our attitude that the school mascot is a cuddly toy that we rescued from the waste bin. Ior the cuddly toy is allowed to go everywhere with the pupils and can also talk and discuss things with them, in a different way to how the headteacher could.

Lagstads skola wants to emphasise that everyone is equal. The school often celebrates various theme days, whenever there are any on the calendar. The idea is to try to address and discuss a wide range of issues and show that everyone is important. The themes may include different religions, disabilities or sexual orientation. It is important to emphasise that equality and non-discrimination really apply to everyone. On 17 May, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia was observed, during which pupils had the opportunity to visit different themed programme points during their lunch break.

What about the golden zero displayed in the lobby? It symbolises the school's zero tolerance for offences. At the beginning of each school year, pupil volunteers visit the first-grade classroom to explain the zero tolerance policy and introduce the golden zero. They also hand the teacher a golden zero that is put in the classroom. The golden zero reminds pupils and staff of the school’s values every day. 

The Youth Pride Café opened in the autumn of 2021 at Ohjaamotalo in Leppävaara. At the Youth Pride Café, young people can engage in free-form activities, such as chatting and playing games, but each session also has a theme. These themes may include activities such as making waffles or badges, spring planting, arts and crafts or doing manicures.

The Pride Café is open on Wednesdays from 16:30 to 19:30 at Lintuvaarantie 2. Visitors to the café are primarily LGBTQ+ teens aged 13 to 17. The Pride Café will be closed for the summer, but will reopen in August. The staff of the Pride Café include youth workers from the Helsinki Pride community and Espoo’s Youth Services.

Youth Services will be holding an accessible city-level event for children and young people in cooperation with the Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities at Espoonlahti Sports Park on 30 September 2023.   

“The large event area allows accessibility to be taken into account and implemented. This will be an active, cross-sectoral event featuring a variety of activities, such as opportunities to try out different sports and assistive equipment as well as virtual games, music and dance. This event will offer fun activities for everyone," says Cultural Youth Work Coordinator Nils Nordling.

The general upper secondary schools of Espoo are multicultural communities that promote equality in cooperation with their students.

At Mattlidens gymnasium, which offers Swedish-language general upper secondary education, the student council regularly organises a Queer Club café. The students can have coffee and snacks, play games and have a good time together.                   

In the spring, Leppävaara General Upper Secondary School held an equality week(external link, opens in a new window) (link in Finnish), which included an LGBTQ+ workshop organised by the Helsinki Pride community and Espoo’s Growth and Learning Sector, where students could make badges with LGBTQ+ themes.

“There was an information point with information on activities targeted at LGBTQ+ young people, among other things. The idea began with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which fell during that week. Each day had its own theme, under which equality was promoted through various activities and other programme content,” says Community Instructor Henna Uusisalmi from Leppävaara General Upper Secondary School.

As part of the implementation of the equality and non-discrimination plan, the teachers of Kuninkaantie General Upper Secondary School have participated in training on equality and sexual diversity. The training has covered both respectful concepts and good practices, and has sought to promote equality and non-discrimination in everyday life at the school.

In addition to this, students have attended information sessions held by Youth Exit on the topics of personal boundaries, sexual violence, sexual harassment, consent and the revised legislation on sexual offences.

A privilege walk exercise is planned for the autumn, first for teachers and later for students. The privilege walk is a exercise that allows us to examine the various privileges in society and their effects on both personal behaviour and the lives of others. Its objective is to make privileges visible and gain an understanding of how it feels when you have or do not have certain privileges in your everyday life.

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For more information on the Pride Café’s weekly programme, check out the Instagram account @nuorten_pride_kahvila_espoo

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