Fryshuset
Fryshuset takes responsibility for youth to feel like an important part of society. They work with all young people with a special focus on those who live in socioeconomically challenged areas.
Fryshuset foundation is a non-profit organisation and is religiously and politically independent. They run around 60 meeting places all over Sweden where their youths can exercise their passions, create and partake in activities run by youth them self, attend trainings and work. They strive to create a society where young people are seen, heard and their ideas and opinions are taken into account according to the belief that that helps create a creative and solution-focused climate where they dare to consider new ideas and solutions.
The target group for this project is youths ages 12-29 who are in risk of developing a criminal or destructive lifestyle. Their goal is to reach especially those who live in marginalized areas where the trust in authorities often is sparse. They want to counteract recruitment to criminal gangs, crime and drug-abuse. The projects aim is also to have a positive effect on the target group by encouraging a positive view on the future, further democratic values and increase trust in authorities, therefor many young people today don’t feel included in society.
The main components of the project is an educational part, a meeting place, field work and individually customized support. The education aims is to prepare the participants for studies (higher or other), working life and to support them in finding motivation and personal goals. The meeting place purpose is to be a welcoming environment where their personnel can build relationships and trust with the visitors. Several of them tells us that the places here they “hang” outdoors feels unsafe, partly because older individuals frequent the same places and that they try to provoke fights. The individual support often consists of getting out of an addiction or other types of destructive environments, often connected to family or criminality. They also offer motivational counseling to foster a will to leave a destructive lifestyle and create a positive change. Fryshusets work with this target group has originated a collaboration with Malmö city theatre and the play “Med livet som insats” (With life at stake).