Since 2007 the Nordic Cooperation has been involved in the European Volunteer System in order to have a volunteer that can work for the cooperation. This system works to provide work exchange between all the European countries and it requires that the volunteer is working in another country than hers/his homeland. So far the Nordic Cooperation has only had exchange between Norway and Sweden. The system is financed by the European Union, and an EVS gets all living expenses covered by the EVS system, but does not have a formal salary. The Nordic Cooperation has used this system to provide an International Youth Coordinator.
The first EVS working for Nordic Cooperation was Sara Johnson from Sweden. She worked as an EVS at PRESS- Save the Children Youth in Norway's offices in Oslo for one year.
Sara had already been involved in Save the Children Youth Sweden for many years, and had good precognition about the organizations. At this time the rationale for having an EVS was to improving the cooperation and communication between the member countries. It was also an aim to get more knowledge about youth actives in other countries than the Nordic. Sara therefore made a mapping of the youth involvement in all the Save the Children Alliance member countries. This mapping showed that there was some youth activity in most of the SC organizations, but still a majority of the organizations wanted to increase their youth involvement. To do this better knowledge sharing on how to work with children and youth was seen as important. The member countries also whished for the SC Alliance to focus more on youth involved.
In the beginning of 2008 Frida Mörlund succeeded Sara as a volunteer. She is also Swedish and also worked at PRESS' office in Oslo. Like Sara, she had been active in Save the Children Youth in Sweden for some time. Frida also worked provide knowledge sharing between the member countries of NC and other youth initiatives, but during her time as an EVS the focus on the Alliance was intensified. The Nordic Cooperation agreed upon that lobbying towards the Alliance would be the most efficient way to strengthen children and youth initiatives within Save the Children. During the 2008 the Alliance worked to develop a strategy for 2010-2015. Frida tried to influence the board members of the Alliances to include children and youth involvement as key focus in the new strategy. An important part of the advocacy work, was to attend the Alliance's Member Meeting. Frida arranged the participation of youth actives from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Swaziland and Honduras that held a workshop at this meeting.
In August 2008, Eldrid Siem started working as an EVS, after first having a consistent overlap with Frida. The EVS still works actively to strengthen children and youth's position within the Alliance. We do not want SC to involve children and youth only in campaigns or projects that are already designed and implemented by adults. SC should be an organisation where children and youth themselves are allowed to decide how they want to get involved. Children and youth should not always be simply the target group or consumers of SCA activities, but they should be allowed to produce their own ways of participation. The currents EVS is working to raise awareness of the difference between these two ways of involving children and youth. One of the means in order to accomplish this is to write a report to the Alliance about children and youth involvement. We hope this will help to increase youth participation and raising further engagement in the organisation.
The Nordic Cooperation has also had an EVS who did not work as an International Youth Coordinator. From January 2008 till June the same year, Tirill Sjövoll worked as a project coordinator to plan the Nordic Summer Festival. The Nordic Summer Festival was arranged 4th -9th of August 2008. The event took place in idyllic Kärsögården on the coast of Stockholm, Sweden. The week was filled with meetings, music, workshops, swimming, volleyball and discussions - all with focus on the rights of the child. When the festival was over, Tirill ended her time as an EVS and went back to Norway to work as the vide president of PRESS.
