A Partnership Building Activity with Young People

About the venue: Utøya Island is an island owned by the Norwegian Workers’ Youth League (AUF). It has an over 70-year long tradition of hosting summer camps and activities promoting youth participation and democratic values. In 2011 Norway was shook and deeply wounded, when a terrorist attacked and killed 69 young people on the island. It didn’t take long before AUF announced that the attack was a war on their values, and that they would not let the terrorist win that war. Utøya has since been restored, a memorial site has been built, and it is once again an important training and camp site for young people who hold democratic values and human rights dear.

If one man can show so much hate, think how much love we could show together. Stine Renate Håheim, survivor

About the PBA: A partnership building activity aims to build partnerships. In order to build solid partnerships, it is important to get to know each other and be sure that you share common values. and have the same goals for your common project.

We believe that projects for young people should be owned by the young people themselves, and that is why we also invite representatives from the youth group. The young representatives will be involved in finding the right partners for your project, and in developing a project idea together with your new partners.

In this PBA we will try to get to know each other as best as we can by playing games, making presentations, exploring our values and working in groups. Sometimes we will be together with the whole group, sometimes in smaller groups. Some activities are for young people only, some for the youth workers.

As the activity will happen on Utøya, we will have a guided tour on the island and learn both about the attack and how they are working to promote participation and democracy. We are prepared for the heavy history to have emotional impact on participants and expect that this element of the PBA can result in more awareness about personal and organisational values.

We expect (but cannot guarantee) that the participants will go home with one or more new partners for a Youth Exchange or a Youth Participation Activity, an idea what the project should be about, and a timeline for further cooperation.

Target group: Teams should consist of 1 youth worker+ 2 young people. The young people must be 16-18 years old. If there is a good reason, we can accept teams with 2 youth workers + 2 young people or 1 youth worker + 1 young person.

You must be motivated to network and find potential partners and be prepared to take part in an international project within the next year.

Note: The youth workers must be older than 18 years old and will be responsible for any minor youth in their team. Parental/guardian consent must be provided.

Practicalities: We will be on an island for the whole activity. There are cabins to stay in and a restaurant for all meals. If your team is selected to take part, you will receive an e-mail with more information about how to organise your travel, information about where you will stay, what to bring, the programme etc.

Your team should be able to arrive before 16h CET in Oslo on the 30th of May and you can leave after 13 CET on the 4th of June. Since we will be on an island, we will organise a group travel from Oslo city centre to the island and back.

Pedagogical material: Each team will receive 2 different decks of cards. These cards will be introduced during the PBA and can even be used when you come back home, to support further project development with the rest of your youth group.

*****Disclaimer: This PBA will be implemented in line with the current health and safety regulations in Norway. Participants will be sharing rooms. In case the pandemic makes a physical event impossible, it will be postponed or cancelled.*****