NCJ Number
215525
Journal
Journal of Comparative Social Work Issue: 1 Dated: 2006 Pages: 1-10
Date Published
2004
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This paper reports on the effects of the development of a facility for organized youth programs in the town center of a mid-sized Norwegian city for the purpose of providing constructive activities for youth who come to the town center for unorganized socializing.
Abstract
Local authorities bought an industrial building (an old, shot-down slaughterhouse) which was nicknamed Samsen House. The building was renovated into a culture center where volunteer youth organizations could conduct their activities for youth who came to the town center. The intent of this effort was to provide a facility for various existing organized youth groups to conduct their activities while providing opportunities for youth coming to the town center to be diverted from unorganized activities that often involved problem behaviors. As the activities began to take shape in Samsen House, a pattern developed. It became primarily a place for the organized activities of established youth groups who had regular members or participants. There was no central or active meeting place for youth to interact informally and participate in unorganized activities such as dancing and eating. Even though the cafe at Samsen House was successful in a number of ways, it did not succeed in becoming a gathering place for youth interested in "hanging out" in the town center. These were the youth targeted for diversion from problem behaviors in the town center. These marginal groups of youth became alienated from the organized activities of structured groups, thus creating conditions that fueled an increase in problem behaviors in the town center. The author's research, which was conducted from the summer of 1994 until the summer of 1995, identified and described 13 youth groups in the town center, each with a distinctive culture based on rural/urban origins and class. 9 references