Study Visit for Youth Workers in Rural Areas

Participate in a Study Visit about Rural Youth Work

This study visit takes you to the northernmost parts of Finland and Norway to explore youth participation at various levels—governmental, municipal, regional, and non-governmental. Along the way you'll gain insights, connect with others, and develop ideas to boost youth engagement in your community.

What is the Study Visit About? 

This study visit focuses on: 

• Exploring and sharing practices for youth involvement and participation in rural and geographically remote areas. 
• Encouraging organisations from rural areas to utilise Erasmus+ Youth opportunities, such as Youth Exchanges and Youth Participation Projects. 
• Building partnerships for future projects and fostering international cooperation. 

Through visits to small communities in Inari and Utsjoki (Finland), and Tana and Nesseby (Norway), you’ll experience first-hand how youth workers and organisations in small municipalities and/or remote districts work to engage young people.

Are you the right participant? 

This study visit is for you if you are 

• If you are a youth worker who works in a geographically remote area 
• If you are interested in youth participation and you want to discuss how to involve young people more in organisation work, activities and decision making 
• If you are resident in Finland, Norway, Sweden or Ireland 
• If you are curious about international youth projects 

If your municipality or organisation is interested in starting international youth work, you can apply as a team. You can bring along a team member, colleague, manager or someone relevant in starting international youth work.

What Will You Gain? 

• Inspiration and Good Practices: Learn how public institutions and organisations in rural areas engage and involve young people in decision-making and societal participation. 
• Interactive Experience: Meet both local youth workers and the other participants, share experiences and realities with each other 
• Possible Partnerships: Network with youth workers from Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Ireland to find shared goals and maybe collaborate on future projects. Receive direct support from national agencies in Finland and Norway to create your own Youth Exchanges or Youth Participation Projects. 

How Does It Work? 

The study visit takes place in an area where distances are long, and population is small. This will provide interesting perspectives on youth work and different working ways in geographically remote areas but will also affect the practical arrangements in our activity. 

• Flights to Ivalo airport may be full, so we ask you to arrive rather early than late 
• If you have to arrive a day before, we will accommodate you with meals 
• We travel on bus almost daily, for a few hours at the time 
• Accommodation in Utsjoki will be in two different hotels, due to the capacity of the hotels 
• Some of the presentations may be visits to us, rather than we visiting them 
• Some presentations may be online 

Practical Details 

• When: 7th – 11th of April 2025 
• Where: Starting and ending in Inari, Finland 
• Flights should be booked to Ivalo Airport

Small steps for a better world 

In our activities we support the principle of a safer space, where no one is discriminated or bullied because of their background or person. We want you to respect the same principle. 

We want to enable the participation of people with all kinds of abilities. The nature of this activity makes it challenging for people certain disabilities. Please contact us so we can see if we can cater for your needs. 

We also strive to make the world a little bit greener. This is why we are primarily choosing vegetarian or otherwise sustainable diets whenever possible. We also encourage you to consider travelling to the destination on land as much as possible.