Children from low-income families do not necessarily have the opportunity for paid hobbies. Turku plans to introduce a hobby card based on the Icelandic model for all 7-19-year-olds in 2025. The card, worth a few hundred euros, can be used for hobbies in a sports club.
Hobby can support the mental health of children and young people and protect against loneliness.
This is one of the reasons why Turku is interested in the so-called Icelandic model developed solutions.
In the model, more and more children and young people are included in hobby activities. The goal of the model is to provide children with the opportunity to do activities during the school day in the immediate vicinity with the help of personal financial assistance. In Iceland, young people’s participation in a guided hobby has, for example, reduced the likelihood of later substance use.
Save me Lapset ry report by 23 percent of children from low-income Finnish families had to stop their hobby due to the financial situation. The corresponding figure for middle-income families was six percent and for high-income families only one percent.
One young person who responded to the report writes: “There is no money for anything but food, and sometimes not even for that.”
The influence of the parents’ financial situation on the child’s hobbies is therefore considerable. Lack of exercise causes outsiderness and feelings of inferiority and exposes you to bullying.
Turku city’s director of sports services Markus Kalmari says that the city has decided to introduce a hobby card based on the Icelandic model in 2025.
“All children and young people between the ages of 7 and 19 are offered around 200-300 euros worth of support for exercising in a sports club,” he says.
Later, according to Kalmar, who won, the activity will be expanded to activities other than exercise.
The hobby card practice complements the current low-threshold free hobby activities implemented in schools or in their surroundings, the so-called Hobby Finland model, which is supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
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The influence of the parents’ financial situation on the child’s hobbies is considerable.
Junior and the project manager for the promotion of young people’s hobbies Aino Turtiainen says that it is already happening, so to speak Turku modelthe goal is to enable every child and young person attending elementary school in Turku to have a pleasant and free hobby during the school day.
“Most of the hobby groups are organized weekly in school premises right after the school day.”
Clubs are organized in almost every elementary school. Children can practice various sports, such as parkour, ball games, break dancing and yoga, as well as chess, reading, music and visual arts. Clubs and sports vary by school.
In addition to the clubs, Turku organizes guided hobby classes and exploratory hobby activities.
According to Turtiainen, exploratory hobby activities are intended for students who have not yet found a pleasant leisure activity. In the operation, the schools’ own contact person helps and advises the children to find a meaningful hobby for them and to find out why the child does not have a hobby yet.
“Middle school students are a challenging group, but we have succeeded in launching the School Personal Trainer and Koulu Personal Culture & Arts Coach activities in middle schools this year”, Turtiainen is happy.
In these activities, the instructor finds out the needs and wishes of young people for hobbies and guides young people in small groups, for example, in gym training and making art.
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For children and young people, the most important thing in hobbies is community and fun.
Squid reminds that hobbies have many meanings for children and young people: for example, active free time as a child and young person supports well-being and mental health even in adulthood.
In hobby activities the essential thing is that it is based on the needs of the target group and is achievable. Accessibility means much more than the price of hobbies and distances, although according to an extensive survey carried out by the city of Turku, they are significant obstacles to a child’s hobby.
“An obstacle can also be excessive competition or the compulsion to perform, in which case a pleasant activity becomes work and thus unpleasant. For children and young people, the most important thing about hobbies is community and fun,” says Kalmari.
According to him, in Finland, a “primary school-like reform” should be implemented in children’s and young people’s hobbies, where the possibility of hobbies is realized equally. The starting point should be the healthy growth and development of children and young people.
Kalmari states that it is a long-term work that requires years to be realized – Iceland has already succeeded in that.
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