Bring the young man back to Hafnar’s home

The Knowledge Centre Nýheimar á Höfn in Hornafjörður has launched a new project called HeimaHofn in cooperation with the Municipality of Hornafjörður.

The project aims to empower the city’s young people and prevent the so-called brain drain. This fall, the center plans to launch a website to inform young people about employment, entrepreneurship and social work opportunities.

Hugrún Harpa Reynisdóttir, director of the Nýheima Knowledge Centre, and Kristín Vala Þrastardóttir, project manager of HeimaHafnar, told Morgunblaðinn journalists about the project and the situation of young people in rural areas.

The Knowledge Hub is a collaborative platform for diverse organisations in the fields of education, culture, innovation and research in the South East.

Not a unique problem for Iceland

“Soon after the centre was founded, we decided to focus on young people, and the first European project the centre carried out was to tackle the brain drain of young people from sparsely populated areas,” Hugrún said, adding that the centre therefore contacted a Swedish researcher and later the Norwegian project Nordfjordakademiet, which was the model for HeimaHafnar.

Through the collaboration, it quickly became apparent that the phenomenon of young people fleeing the countryside in search of education and employment opportunities was neither a Norwegian nor an Icelandic phenomenon, but their interviews with young people in Hofn mirrored the project’s findings in Norway and Iceland, as well as in Sweden.

One of the things HeimaHofn deals with is strengthening and maintaining the connection between young people and the community of Hornafjörður, i.e. Yumi. Young people studying elsewhere in the country can be their link to society and the business life of the municipality if they intend to return after completing their studies.

Christine and Huglen said young people generally felt that employment and social work opportunities were limited.

“Our communities need to try to connect with them well before they leave and show them the opportunities back home so they might want to come back,” Heugren said.

Dentists are not forever

They said it was important to empower young people to care for their communities and that they had the power to shape the city’s future and create opportunities for themselves.

“We use the example of the dentist a lot here. Hepburn only had a dentist, and the kids just think: I can’t study to be a dentist because Hepburn had a dentist. But of course he wasn’t eternal and probably couldn’t take care of everyone here,” Kristen said.

Many children feel that their interests do not necessarily align with being able to live in Hornafjörður. A crisis of choice then arises as to whether they should study something they are interested in and then not be able to live in Hornafjörður, or live in Hornafjörður and continue with an education that is less interesting but offers more opportunities back home.

“But the labor market we see today is not necessarily going to be the same as it will be in five or 10 years, and then you’ll be able to create jobs for yourself,” Kristen said.

The project aims to expose young people to the opportunities in Hepburn so that they will want to return home after they finish their studies.
mbl.is/Eyþór

Reykjavik isn’t always better

Hugren and Christine said attitude issues were also one of the reasons why young people moved from rural areas to Reykjavík.

Many people think that it is enough to “just” go to FAS or to never leave Hornafjörður for a while. It is important to dispel this way of thinking and let young people know that it is okay to stay in their hometown if they want to.

Their education often benefits, to the surprise of many, Kristín, who was born and raised in Hafnarfjörður and moved to Hafnar when she was only 22. Hugrún also moved back home midway through his studies and completed his studies from Höfn, although it was not designed as a distance learning program.

“We show them you have to find something you like. Reykjavik is not just better,” Christine said.

Promoting active community involvement

However, the project is not only about preventing the brain drain of young people, but also about mobilizing young people of high school age in society.

“We are empowering them and giving them the confidence to participate in life and be active members of society,” Christine said.

The knowledge centre already runs many courses for young people in Höfn and works closely with the student association FAS and the Hornafjörður Youth Council.

Among other things, the courses focus on promoting so-called “soft skills” such as presentation, active listening and communication, as well as issues related to social responsibility such as global goals, sustainability and proactivity.

The courses are free for young people, because it is not natural for young people from rural areas to be able to attend courses in Reykjavík, many courses are expensive, and then you have to add the travel expenses and accommodation costs.

Hold a working meeting

One of the motivations behind the sessions, Heugren said, is that the same common topics have come up over and over in interviews and focus groups with young people since she began working at the center nine years ago.

“It tells us that society really hasn’t responded. There are still people talking about prejudice, gossip, saying they don’t know how to behave as participants in adult society.”

To counter this idea, they decided to hold a job fair and a freelance showcase, the latter of which saw more than 40 social organisations present their work. This is an important point to counter the idea, many young people have, that there is “nothing to do” in Hornafjörður.

They also try to impress upon young people the importance of taking initiative in small communities and creating opportunities for themselves and their communities.

“You have to train them to be able to do things, and in such a small community, that’s usually easier,” Heugren said.

The news was originally published in the July 22 issue of Morgunblaðin magazine.