Their mission is to be present in the places where young people spend time, to make contact and to be safe adults when needed. This can mean evenings in town, larger events, high-risk evenings or contact through social media.

“We are out in town and try to be where the young people are,” says Johanna Schmidt Hedberg.

The team moves around places where young people usually gather, talks to them and checks in to see how things are going. The work is not about control, but about building relationships and making it easier to contact social services.

“We are there to be safe adults. We reach out to them, but we also want them to know that they can reach out to us if they need to,” says Johanna.

The response from young people has been positive. Many become curious, asking who the outreach workers are and what they do.

“Incredibly good. I don’t think anyone has been negative towards us,” says Joachim Lundmark.

Johanna explains that they sometimes need to make it clear that they are not there in the same role as the police.

“We are just here to make sure that everything is going well and that everyone is okay,” she says.

Different experiences in the same team

Johanna and Joachim work a lot with problematic school absence and meet children and young people who find it difficult to attend school. Robbin works more with substance abuse and crime, mainly with young people and young adults. In the outreach work, their different experiences come together.

“We basically do the same things, but Robbin works more with substance abuse and we work more with problematic school absence. The outreach part is the same for all of us,” says Johanna.

Robbin works, among other things, with motivational conversations and treatment interventions. He sees it as a strength to be able to meet young people in places other than a meeting room.

“The best conversations usually don’t happen in a meeting room at the town hall. They might happen when you’re standing by the water casting for perch,” says Robbin Marklund.

For the team, it is important that the meetings can take place in a way that works for the young person.

“Sometimes you might not be able to sit still and have a conversation. Then you might just go for a walk,” says Johanna.

Present both outdoors and digitally

To reach young people, Fältkraft also needs to be present digitally. The team has the Instagram account Fältkraft Boden and also uses Snapchat.

“We try to promote ourselves as much as we can on social media. We try to be where the young people are,” says Johanna.

Young people can contact Fältkraft by phone, email, Instagram or Snapchat. At the same time, the team is clear that they are bound by confidentiality but also have a duty to report if there is concern that a child or young person is at risk of harm.

Cooperation during high-risk evenings

During high-risk evenings, for example in connection with school graduations and larger events, Fältkraft works together with the police, ambulance services and Boden Carents, among others. Before such evenings, the different actors meet to plan which areas need to be covered and how they can support one another.

“We have very good cooperation with the community police. On high-risk evenings, we have start-up meetings where ambulance staff, the police, Boden Carents and we from social services gather,” says Joachim.

Ahead of the summer, the team also wants to encourage more adults to be visible in the places where young people are. This is especially important during school graduations, Boden Alive and other occasions when many young people gather.

“More adults is better. More eyes,” says Joachim.

Johanna encourages parents to dare to ask where their young people are going, who they will be with, and to make contact with other parents.

“Stay in contact with your child. Dare to ask where they are going and who they are with. Feel free to contact other parents and build a small network,” she says.

Robbin also wants to encourage adults to trust their gut feeling if something feels wrong. He also highlights the importance of daring to make contact.

At the same time, Johanna wants to remind people that social services are there to help.

“Some people may see Social Services as something bad or shameful, but it is exactly the opposite. We are here to help, as support for children, young people and adults. Don’t see contact with social services as a failure,” she says.