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Kanavat Auki!
Start date: Feb 1, 2016, End date: Jan 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The Kanavat Auki! -project wants to open new channels for communication between the young and the decision-makers. We want to enable bringing the opinions and worries of the young and especially the young immigrants to the attention of the decision-makers and also offer an opportunity for the young to get politically active in a project that they control themselves. The theme of the project is security but it's understood very widely, seen from the human security perspective. Therefore, the young can reflect their own security experiences and bring them to the agenda of the decision-makers. In order to understand reasons behind frustration young people experience and prevent it, different channels for influencing need to be created and maintained. When these channels are created by the young themselves, they become real tools for making a difference. The project also aims to promote interaction between the young. Young people arriving from different backgrounds and from different parts of Finland can get connected not only to decision-makers but also to each other. The project is completely managed by the young: the project has been planned and excecuted by seven STETE interns since 2013. We're planning to hire a young project coordinator for this project, but STETE intends to act only as a facilitator in the background of the project. The young need to possess the ownership of the project so that the project really answers to their needs. The task of the organizer is to bring the young and the decision-makers together and enable communication, not define the content of it.For the first two meetings of the project, 30 young persons will be recruited from different parts of Finland with the help of the collaborating organizations. The first two meetings will be seminars, which the organizer will put together and recruite inspiring speakers for. In the latter seminar the young will choose 8 persons amongst them to form a youth board which will carry on to more intimate dialogue with the decision-makers in the project. The four meetings between the youth board and the decision-makers will be excecuted as a round table or panel in order to create as open, honest and direct dialgoue as possible. It is crucial to create circumstances where true trust is formed between the young and the decision-makers in order to enable deep interaction.The young are responsible for the content of the meetings. The programme of the seminars will be based on the feedback collected from the young. The young will control the meetings between them and the decisions-makers and they themselves plan the content of the meetings with the help of the project coordinator. Because the project is strongly web-based, the young will update content to the blog and Facebook site built for the project as well as create new channels for spreading information and results of the project in their own networks and to outside as well, by medias most suited for the young. The message needs to travel first and foremost from the young to the young so that information is being brought and emancipation made possible also for those young people not physically attending the meetings of the project. Through local and personal networks of the young the message will spread widely. The young will also produce the final report of the project with the technical assistance of the project coordinator, and the report can be formed any way the young wish. Through the project the young will not only gain a direct connection to the decision-makers but also skills of project management and an outlet for their creativity in delivering a societal message.Because we want the project to serve the young as well as possible, feedback will be collected throughout the project. Since the young will be planning the project themselves, it can be developed while it's being excecuted to be most optimal for the young. The results of the project will be measured by using quantitative and qualitative measures in analyzing electronical forms and by cross-studying them as well as using social media indicators (Hootsuite, Wordpress). Critical and multifaceted analysis is vital so that comprehensive picture of the success of the project can be obtained.The aim of the project is to show that the young and the young immigrants are willing to participate in societal conversation and influencing if the means to do it are explicit and the channels are open. It's important that the young realize that the existing system can be changed and decisions can be affected. The project also gives the decision-makers an opportunity to connect in depth with the young in a manner that would otherwise be impossible. The young are a crucial part of the society and it's important to hear and note their voice. Through the project the young will grow as societal actors who actively participate in influencing and decision-making.
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