The fundamental values of the work

The objective of the work with children and young people in the Nordic region is to create good living conditions and improve their opportunity for influence. The efforts are based on shared fundamental values such as justice, equality, democracy, openness and commitment.

Children and young people as active participants

Nordic co-operation aims to create a basis for children and young people to meet across country borders, in schools and in associations. The co-operation is based on the children and young people being actively involved.

An important element in this is also to strengthen the ability of Nordic children and young people to understand each other's language.

The Nordic Children's and Youth Committee (NORDBUK) has the primary responsibility for putting children and young people on the Nordic agenda. NORDBUK does this, for example, by providing grants for Nordic projects where children and young people are active participants.

NORDBUK has two grant schemes: Project grants and organisation grants.

Areas of Priority

Diversity and equality are the key starting points for work with children and young people in the Nordic countries, and projects that contribute to these goals are given priority.

Human rights make up the foundation for this work and several initiatives have been taken to translate this into very practical initiatives.

Living Library

The "Living Library" is a good example. This is where a group of young people working together got a really good idea.

The human library works exactly like a normal library - the users borrow a "book" for a limited period. There is only one difference: the "books" in the Living Library are human beings, and the books and readers enter into a personal dialogue.

The books in the Living Library are people representing groups frequently confronted with prejudices and stereotypes, and who are often victims of discrimination or social exclusion.

NORDBUK and the Council of Europe have worked together on the publication of an organiser's guide for this unique methodology which has now spread throughout the world.

There is now also a Nordic funded website set up by the young people themselves where you can read more about Living Libraries all over the world.

The UN Children's Convention

In conjunction with the 20th anniversary for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in November 2009, a publication on how to actively involve children in community development will be released. There are examples from across the Nordic region. The publication has been prepared in close co-operation with the Nordic children's ombudsmen.

Language Comprehension

"Norden før og nu"("The Nordic Region Past and Present") is a website for children and young people developed in collaboration between NORDBUK and DR with funding from the Nordic Culture Fund.

Here you will find footage from the Nordic public service stations. The website, which is under constant development, aims to provide information about the Nordic region for children and young people to use in schools and in their leisure time.

It will also help to improve language comprehension. The idea is that it can be used as teaching material for neighbouring languages.

All film clips are in the Scandinavian languages with explanatory texts in Finnish and Icelandic.