The Kuulumme yhdessä! series of events allowed children and young people to be seen, heard and have their say
In the spring of 2024, the City of Espoo organised the Kuulumme yhdessä! (We are heard together) series of events for the first time. The events focused on the participation of pupils, supporting well-being at school and bolstering communality. The three-part event series brought together pupils from a variety of environments throughout Espoo. There were a total of roughly 200 participants from 18 different lower secondary schools.
The events stemmed from the City of Espoo’s desire to react to the current discussion and research regarding school segregation and well-being at school. The learning results of children and young people have sparked discussion across Finland. At the same time, national school health surveys and surveys conducted in Espoo have highlighted the need to strengthen the pupils’ experiences of participation and communality. The series of events sought to contribute to responding to these social challenges. Communality and doing things together increase the experience of belonging and inspire learning. The aim was to bolster the positive operating culture of schools and increase the positive emotional experiences of pupils towards their own schools and areas.
Three-part series of events
The three-part event series brought together pupils from a variety of environments throughout Espoo. The activities involved roughly 200 participants from 18 different lower secondary schools in Espoo.
The kick-off event involved music, Yasmine Yamajako’s motivational speech on forging one’s own path and facilitated workshops in which pupils could form groups between school. In the workshops, the pupils took part in the development of their own area of residence and school. In the workshops held by the community instructors, the participants imaged the school and residential area of their dreams by drawing up dream maps and collected ideas to reduce segregation.
After this, mini campaigns for doing good things were organised at each school or local area. The schools were allowed to create the ideas for the mini campaigns themselves or select some from the ready-made idea bank. The aim was to reduce school and socio-spatial segregation from a perspective suitable to young people. The overarching themes of the mini campaigns were “My suburb, the best suburb”, “My school, the best school” and “Kindness across the area.”
In the final event at the City Council Building, the young people presented the mini campaigns of their schools and heard Hassan Maikal’s motivational speech on the courage to try different things and fail as well as an introduction to the Youth Council. The young people voted the mini campaigns into various award series and a mini campaign to take part in the Mayor’s innovation competition.
The mini campaigns inspired good deeds and delighted the entire community of Espoo
Over the course of the spring, the schools planned and implemented inspiring mini campaigns. For example, a campaign was organised at one school to strengthen good feelings and communality, which involved the pupils writing nice thoughts and greetings on slips of paper. The slips were hidden between books in the school library to bring joy to anyone who would find them. Next, the intention is to organise the campaign at the local library.
Various playful sports competitions were also held between the classes of schools in the form of mini campaigns. At the moment, the plan is to expand this well-liked concept to involve competitions between local schools. In other contexts, the mini campaigns covered sustainable development through item exchange markets, for example.
The school campaigns also touched a wide variety of population groups. Some schools carried out their own mini campaign by delivering cards to the residents of nearby senior centres and nursing homes. Day care centres were also visited to enjoy and play with children.
The positive effects of the series of events apply to the entire school community
The events showed how much joy and communality engaging events can bring to day-to-day school activities.
Schools were excited to get involved in the event series. The events and mini campaigns succeeded in building the much-needed feeling of unity. Adults and young people created new links between different schools, teachers strengthened their connections to pupils, and pupils improved their enthusiasm for and engagement in schoolwork. The event series strengthened the pride people have in their own school, local area and the residents of the area.
The feedback collected from the events clearly indicates that there is a need for more similar activities.
The My suburb, the best suburb! project and the Healthy Espoo programme in the background
The event was organised by the My suburb, the best suburb! project, which focuses on reducing school segregation. The project will continue until the end of 2025. The project is funded by the City of Espoo and the Ministry of Education and Culture. The series of events was also supported by the Healthy Espoo programme.
The news item was written by the project coordinator of the My suburb, the best suburb! -project Aino Pietarinen (aino.pietarinen@espoo.fi).