Taking part in leisure activities together with others of the same age is important for making new friends and being included when moving to Norway. MiR has long been engaged in work for such inclusion, including through our project “Step by Step”. MiR has joined NDFU – National Joint Effort Against Poverty and Social Exclusion, and the ALLEMED network.
Leisure activities have become increasingly organized in Norway, so it can be difficult for children and young people who are new to the country to get to know people and make friends if they don’t participate in organized leisure activities. It also requires more from parents who must register their children for different activities, pay membership fees and follow up on training, practice sessions and matches. This specialization of children’s leisure time can lead to many falling outside the community. Finances, knowledge and resources to follow up children in activities are all factors that raise the threshold to this social community, and it hits those with a short residence time in Norway particularly hard.
In 2021, MiR therefore started the project “My First Leisure Activity” in collaboration with Atlas Competence. Inclusion work is trending and there is already a lot of movement in this field. But even though a lot has improved in terms of both support schemes and measures to lower the threshold into activities, there is still a way to go. Both among those who are outside activities and in volunteering, there are many who experience not knowing how to get in contact. Therefore, more must be done to make visible the apparatus that exists and make these measures more accessible.
This is what we want to address in our project together with Atlas Competence. We want to reach out as early as possible to be able to use leisure activities as a positive inclusion force for new families in Norway. Therefore, we enter into cooperation with municipal refugee services, and in 2021 started this work in Nordre Follo. The refugee service in the municipality has put us in contact with newly settled families with children who want to get started with activities. Atlas Competence has a team of skilled community workers with broad linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and together we have assembled a team of activity contacts who can meet families in their native language. The activity contacts guide and assist families in navigating the landscape of different leisure activities and help meet the expectations that come with having children in activities.
Our ambition is that over a short period, we manage to follow up with families so that children get into activities and parents become equipped to follow them up in the activity after we withdraw. We actively work to create contact with volunteers and various resource persons in the different activities while guiding parents with a focus on communication and expectations. In this way, we hope to make very important social networks in Norway accessible to our families, both for parents and children. Leisure activity is an invaluable resource when it comes to building friendships, community, and a sense of mastery, and is an arena we want to be accessible to everyone in Norway.
During the period 2021 – spring 2022, the project received support from Bufdir. In the period fall 2022-2023, it received support from the Norwegian Gaming and Foundation Authority. In the period 2024-2026, the project receives support from Bufdir and the Anthon Foundation. The children participating in the project have received support for equipment from the Zuccarello Foundation and the Coop Joint Effort.
