Nordic meeting: children’s and youth development

Machine-translated from Faroese and not yet reviewed. Read the original.

To kill three birds with one stone, we had kindly persuaded the main organiser of the annual Nordic youth council meeting to hold the meeting in the days after Pallas Spelen, which we were attending anyway. Not only was the meeting held on the Monday and Tuesday afterwards, but Daniel Bergin even arranged for it to be held at the same hotel where we were staying.

Besides Guttorm Sørensen and the undersigned from the Faroe Islands, the meeting was attended by 5 Danes, 4 Swedes and 2 Norwegians. They were mostly members of the national federations’ children’s and youth councils. A few work in paid positions, but most are volunteers. It soon became clear that most of them were full of ideas, energetic and enterprising, with plenty of results to show for it.

Here Martin Lauesen from Denmark is giving a presentation (Photo: Daniel Bergin)

As usual, the different nations gave presentations on the initiatives they have launched recently, and also reported on how some slightly older initiatives have turned out. It is very exciting to hear about these initiatives and how much effort they put into them. What the other countries have in common is that they all have initiatives in which primary and lower secondary schools are also involved. This is done in many different ways, but the aim in every case is to steer more children towards athletics. FÍF’s task here is to assess what opportunities exist in the Faroe Islands and what suits Faroese conditions. There were plenty of ideas, though, and at FÍF we really have something to think about.

On the second day there was further discussion of Scandi Camp. Ole Christian from Norway and Ronja from Denmark, whom we know as capable leaders from the last Scandi Camp, will again be the main organisers of Scandi Camp 2011, which will be held in Hønefoss, an hour outside Oslo. An invitation has been posted on Scandi Camp’s Facebook page.

Work has also been done on a joint Nordic athletics badge, or proficiency badge. The idea is that all young athletes should have the chance to earn a proficiency badge in the various athletics events, and the Faroe Islands will of course be part of this. The test will not be based only on results, but to a large extent on technical skills.

This was the 5th year running that this meeting was organised. In January 2010 we were the hosts, and next year the Norwegians will host. These meetings are very rewarding, and my hope is that this will be reflected in the day-to-day work with athletics in the Faroe Islands.

After the meeting ended on Saturday, all the participants were invited to an “Aktivitet”. Only the organiser, Daniel Bergin, knew in advance what this involved. So it was with great anticipation that we boarded the bus at the station in Malmö. It turned out that we were driven to “Utmaningarnas Hus”, a place where teamwork is tested in various challenges. There are 40 different rooms with 4 types of tasks in the categories: brains, precision, physical and team against team. We were split into three teams and then had to try to collect as many points as possible in 2.5 hours in the various rooms. It was very interesting and fun to try.

The leader at “Utmaningarnas Hus” explains how to proceed. The others are, from left, Gutti, Ronja (D), Ole Christian (N), Lillemor (S) and Sofie (S). (Photo: Daniel Bergin)

From left, Martin (D), Sofie (S), Maria (D), Louise (D) and Hallur listen carefully to what awaits them at “Utmaningarnas Hus”. (Photo: Daniel Bergin)