Six young volunteers live and work on the Youth Island offshore from Copenhagen, developing lifelong skills. The project aims to strengthen youth engagement and offers lessons for adults who work with youth.
By Floor Blommaart and Cathrine de Nijs Johansen
On an island off the coast of Copenhagen, a young woman stands in a room with a rounded ceiling, spreading grey putty across the aged walls. Outside the window, a small ferry docks and passengers step ashore.
The Youth Island aims to empower young Danes. Volunteer Cecillia Grankvist helps run the island and organize “Professional Disorder,” hoping to inspire more youth-led spaces. Psychologist Jesper Dammeyer sees its benefits but stresses the need for clear structure to prevent stress.
A year of growth
Youth Island is a community project for Danish youth that opened in 2019 with the aim of empowering youth between the ages of 15 and 31 to engage in society. Each year, six volunteers live and work full-time on the island.
One of them is Cecillia Grankvist, who swapped mainland life for a year of hands-on work and big ideas on this windswept island. She helps maintain the island, hosts events, and welcomes visitors.
Currently, she’s organizing the event “Professional disorder” on May 15th, where organisations that work with young people will discuss youth engagement.
“It’s powerful when adults who work with young people learn how to empower them. It would be so sad if they didn’t,” she says.
Youth engagement matters to Cecillia Grankvist, and it was what made her apply for the programme in the first place.
“Even though young people might not hold higher degrees, we still have a valuable voice in all issues,” she says.
Jesper Dammeyer, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Copenhagen University, explains how initiatives like the Youth Island can benefit participants.
“Youth is a stage of life where we’re learning to organize, collaborate and take responsibility. In that regard, the Youth Island makes sense. It gives young people experience,” he says.
Giving young people a say and responsibility in society can also be valuable.
“Young people gain valuable experience in how workplaces and society function that they can bring into their work and study life ahead,” Jesper Dammeyer says.
A struggle for structure
Jesper Dammeyer notes that there are challenges in ensuring a positive impact on youth development in communities like the island. Actively partaking in a youth community can be stressful.
“In early life, this experience of always being stressed, and having negative feelings while being in a group can have long-term consequences,” he says.
This stress can be caused by conflict. Therefore, Jesper Dammeyer states that in order to minimise the amount of conflict, there needs to be a clear structure.
“It should be clear why you’re there; it should be clear what to do if something goes wrong, there does not have to be one strong leader,” he says.
The Youth Island practices democracy, Cecillia Grankvist describes what the structure looks like on the island.
“We listen to each other – we do not have one leader for the six of us. It is more like we are all equal. I learn a lot about practicing democracy,” she says.
While on the island, she has faced challenges, with work-life balance being her biggest struggle, forcing her to learn how to manage her energy going forward:
“I’m learning a lot about balancing my time myself, because when you are engaged, it can be difficult to relax.”
A bright future
Cecillia Grankvist sees a bright future on the island’s horizon. She hopes the Youth Island will create a space that encourages more youth to engage with society.
The island can also provide new perspectives, she says:
“Being on the island makes you think differently. When you go back to the mainland you have more perspectives.”
According to Cecillia Grankvist, Youth Island can serve as an example for other initiatives around the world.
“It can be inspirational, especially for youth organisations, because a lot of times it’s grown-up people talking about how they can engage young people,” she says.
To her the island proves that young people themselves can engage other young people.
Until July, she will continue her work on the island, balancing physical tasks like spreading putty across the walls with her efforts to engage and empower visiting youth.
This story is for an audience in European countries, with an interest in engaging youth in society, and youth development. This article could be published on BBC.com