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Facts Facts Facts
The process of clarification included the perspectives of the area's school children, who became an important mobilising factor and leverage for a shared desire among stakeholders to bring about change.
A shared vision was subsequently formulated, whereby all children and young people in Østerbyen should find their way through education and into employment, as well as the objective of reducing the short- and long-term consequences of child poverty for children and young people in the area (0-25 years).
Organisation
The clarification process led to the establishment of a partnership to strengthen the mobility of children and young people in the area by forming a strong alliance over a 12-year period. Partners defined during the scoping process four main lines of action, each of which has a different impact on the lives of children and young people living in poverty.
• Health
• Culture and leisure
• Learning
• Job/profession
Against this background, a lot of partners involved in the various lines of action got involved. Today, about 50 partners from the local business community, public institutions and voluntary or social organisations are part of the MedVind in Østerbyen alliance, which is organised as a partnership between the Lauritzen Foundation and Esbjerg Municipality.
The partner group, that is, the Lauritzen Foundation and the Municipality of Esbjerg, manages the project's advisory board, which consists of the following:
• Chairman of the Board of the Lauritzen Foundation (Chairman)
• Director, Children and Culture, Esbjerg Municipality (Vice-Chairman)
• Chair of the Children and School Committee, Esbjerg Municipality
• Director, Citizens and Labour Market, Esbjerg Municipality
• Director, Lauritzen Foundation.
In addition, there is a broader steering group consisting of:
• Cultural Director, Esbjerg Municipality (chair)
• Deputy Head, Strategy and Programme Development, Lauritzen Foundation (Deputy Chair)
• Head of School, Urbanskolen, Esbjerg Municipality
• Director, Business Esbjerg
• Daily Manager, Volunteer Centre, Vindrosen
• Job Centre Manager, Esbjerg Municipality
• Director, Local Housing Association, Ungdomsbo
• Director, Museum of Southwest Jutland.
A backbone secretariat of 3.5 FTEs supports the Alliance.
How it works
Over time, the contours of the initial lines of action have been softened. Today activities are developed and targeted according to the age of the young people involved, because this gives a clearer direction to activities and indicates which partners are relevant to have on board.
The partner group approves the strategy and direction of the Alliance, prioritises and mobilises the framework and resources, and has overall responsibility for the Alliance and the continued support for it. In addition, the Partner Group is responsible for raising and communicating awareness of key structural challenges and barriers locally and nationally.
The Steering Group sets the overall targets and is responsible for communicating the initiative's experiences and results, coordinating activities and mobilising lines of action and activities within the Alliance. In close cooperation with the backbone secretariat, the chair of the steering group is responsible for the Alliance's annual plan and the progress of its activities.
The backbone secretariat supports the work of the Alliance by:
• Coordinating and managing close cooperation with all the partners in the Alliance.
• Leading and developing initiatives and ensuring progress within each line of action.
• Providing the relevant research-based knowledge and data to inform action.
Important victories along the way
The city's municipal, professional and voluntary partners have really become aware of each other's resources and the value of working together; reaching out and playing well together. This is of great value to the partners and the efforts made for the residents of the area. Efforts are thus better coordinated and resources can be directed where they are most needed.
'I don't see anywhere else (in the municipality, ed.) where there is as much common ground as here. It's so easy just to drift along and act on impulse. But MedVind can help us see things in a different way and provide sparring that enables us to do something that works better. We can drift, OK, but they can help us get into the right gear'. Anders Toft Andersen, Educational
Head, Præstegårdsskolen
The fact that space has been created for the experiences of the children and young people of Østerbyen to be used on an equal footing with professional experience and to help guide the development and adjustment of initiatives is considered a success. As a first step, under the auspices of MedVind in Østerbyen, the young people's experiences with school and youth education have started to set the direction for future efforts in order to create better transitions to secondary education programmes and improve retention.
'We now have knowledge that we didn't have before. Over the past six months we have taken a close look at the lives of young people and have gained a lot of knowledge from their stories and their experiences on the path from primary school and further into the education system. We have become aware of both risk and protective factors affecting our young people from Østerbyen, and this knowledge will undoubtedly help to qualify future actions and activities under the auspices of MedVind'. Claus Julius, Head of the Backbone Secretariat, MedVind in Østerbyen
Key challenges
• It has been challenging and time-consuming to find the right cooperation platform between MedVind in Østerbyen and the civil society organisations locally and nationally where synergy and mutual value could be achieved.
• It has been - and remains - challenging to create continuous readiness for change on the part of management and staff, and to ensure that real and lasting change is created, rather than just trial and error. In many ways, we have succeeded, but constant and sustained focus is required.
'A lot of people do new things because they're nice, cooperative people, but they do it in a way that enables them to slip out and go back to the way they used to work. I'm very grateful that there's a fund behind us that provides some authority: "Well, it's what we promised...". There is desire for change that's not just going to go away'. Pia Niemann Damtoft, Job Centre Manager, Esbjerg Municipality and member of the steering group, MedVind in Østerbyen
Value for partners in the alliance
• Stronger cooperation and networking involving municipal and civil society partners.
• Legitimacy and the courage to work more experimentally in municipal administration.
• Ambitious and exploratory use of data as a basis for action.
• Closer and more flexible cooperation between municipal departments, creating faster solutions.
'I hoped that the project would help us get into contact with other departments. We each had our core tasks and knew there was a problem out there, but we didn't have the resources to really and properly work together. We all did a bit of this, but it wasn't 'real'. In the end, though, we were forced to work together because we had outside help and because the management bought into the idea so strongly'. Pia Niemann Damtoft, Job Centre Manager, Esbjerg Municipality and member of the steering group, MedVind in Østerbyen
'From day one, we have experienced a courageous municipality that has let us in at several l evels in the municipality - even to those areas where there were problems and where they wanted to do better. The fact that we have been cooperating with different departments at different levels of staff responsibility has provided us as a foundation with some very valuable insights, which also make us better at understanding the municipal reality - and so also where we as a foundation have the potential to support the biggest social changes in the target group through our cooperation with the municipality and other partners'. Kathrine Geisler Madsen, Deputy Manager, Strategy and Programme Development, Lauritzen Foundation
At the same time, there has been a growing awareness that social mobility also requires establishing relationships and building bridges with the surrounding community, so that there is a natural interaction across the whole field.
'The goal is to have an alliance that includes the 'single-family neighbourhood'. If we are to succeed in creating social mobility, we need to create mixes across families. We haven't succeeded in that yet'. Pia Niemann Damtoft, Job Centre Manager, Esbjerg Municipality and member of the steering group, Medvind in Østerbyen
Another key insight is about how data-driven analytics create value. Linking knowledge and data across multiple systems provides a strong basis for adjusting and developing action. This happens far more frequently today than in the past, because there is a secretariat to do the job.
'Our part-time job programme was established on research results combined with municipal employment data on young people aged 15 to 17. Significantly fewer young people from Østerbyen have a part-time job than Esbjerg's young people in general, and with the knowledge we have from research that young people in part-time jobs have a significantly greater chance of ending up in further education and subsequent employment, it became a major focus area for us to develop and establish a workable part-time job programme in Østerbyen. And we can already see that it works'. Claus Julius, Head of the Backbone Secretariat, MedVind in Østerbyen
Results
MedVind in Østerbyen has become a well-functioning collaboration platform where stakeholders bring in challenges and use knowledge and databases to decide on courses of action. Several programmes have been launched to promote the well-being and learning of children and young people in different ways. For example, the part-time job initiative in Østerbyen is a cross-sectoral collaboration that has resulted in more young people in the area having a part-time job.
MedWind in Østerbyen has contributed to increasing trust, cooperation and coordination between municipal and civil society partners. The Backbone Secretariat facilitates and guides new initiatives and supports dialogue and collaboration with analyses and data. This did not happen before.
The project was evaluated in spring 2022. The evaluation documents that:
• Since the programme started, perceptions of Østerbyen have changed, and today it is seen as a district in development.
• There is great optimism in the area today: 72% of MedVind actors in Østerbyen believe that the programme will contribute to improved social conditions in the long term, and that more children and young people in the area will get an education and find jobs.
• There is a changed mindset among stakeholders in the area, in the sense that cooperation and knowledge sharing are valued higher than before.
(Source: Evaluering af MedVind in Østerbyen, Moos-Bjerre 2022).
