These important points emerged at the conference "Will everything be fine? The consequences of the pandemic for children and young people in the Nordic region". The main points from the conference are collected in the report "Young. Strong. Vulnerable." The report is written in Norwegian, Danish and Swedish.
The conference was organised by the Research Council of Norway and NordForsk, with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and was part of the programme for Norway's Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers.
“ Everything changed in a fraction of a second, but a big problem was that we young people were never involved in the process. On the contrary, it was expected that we would adapt quickly.”
Maja Sjögren, Elevernas riksförbund in Sweden
“ As young people, we have given up more than leisure pleasures and parties. We've lost our internships, we've dropped out of our educations, and we've missed out on the social experiences we'd be building for the rest of our lives.”
Rasmus Emborg, President of the Nordic Youth Council
“ Many young people are vulnerable, but young people are also robust (...). If we only look for vulnerability, we overlook the fact that there is plenty of power and energy in the young .”
Anders Bakken, Forsker ved OsloMet og leder av Ungdatasenteret
At the conference, representatives of children and young people, authorities and researchers met in conversations about how the pandemic has affected children and young people's mental health, living conditions as well as school and education.
An important objective was to elicit young people's views on how the pandemic affected them and their peers: What did they themselves think about the consequences of the pandemic, and what is needed to help young people after the pandemic?
The report contains short summaries of all talks, and links to video of the talks.
