Ashoka
Hello from Kukkolaforsen!
In this blog, I want to share my exciting experiences during the Nordic Youth Summit as I was one of the 18 participants and would love to introduce you to what we have done and prove that Summits like this are needed and useful.
So, let’s begin!
On Thursday 21st of October, after a long day of traveling, we finally arrived to Kukkolaforsen. Haparanda welcomed us warmly, despite of the cold weather here up in Northern Sweden. The nature around was also wonderful!
From the first moment, meeting the other participants was very nice. During the arrival day, I had the opportunity to meet some of them already at the airport, and travel on with them. We could feel the good vibe immediately when we met. All of them were so full of energy and positivity. The conversations went on as if we had known each other for a long time.
“And I think the reason was the Changemaker spirit inside of each of us that made us come close together”.
In the evening, we ate a delicious dinner together, and then presented ourselves and the work we do as changemakers during a Storytelling workshop. Hearing all the inspiring stories from the other participants was quite motivating.
We got a really nice start to the Summit but hold on, the rest was even more fantastic!
Day 1: When we dived deep on the importance of feedback, self-leadership and active listening
The first day’s topic was “Leading others and your organization”. We had several lectures about what is important when leading others, an organization, and yourself. And we also had the pleasure to hear the inspiring story and advice from Jimmy Westerheim, the Founder of The Human Aspect.
Furthermore, we learned some important tools and methods about how we can develop our own leadership skills. That included leading others, but also ourselves.
It was especially interesting to try the Peer Support Session, where we focused on active listening. In this activity, we tried out both to be the active listeners of others’ challenges and to participate in debates about finding out solution methods for those challenges presented.
After a day full of instructive and useful lessons, we had time to get to know each other more by spending time together. We also had the opportunity to have dinner together, use the relaxing saunas, and sit in the common room, where we shared pleasant conversations. That night we had a lot of fun being together!
Day 2: How we did understand different layers of social challenges
During the last day, we learned about how lobbying can be used to increase our impact on the work we do. Andrea Boccuni, from The Good Lobby, presented to us those important topics and we then had to sum these up and conclude the session together. During the last session, everyone shared their experiences from the Summit. I was happy to hear all the positive insights from the group and how good they felt after joining.
The NYC summit was a fantastic experience for me. We learned tools, methods and lessons that are absolutely relevant for us to know as changemakers. The people I met were so motivating and inspiring. I really enjoyed being with them, learning those useful lessons, in that beautiful Northern nature.
The outcome from the NYC Summit was definitely big!
Written by Yoana Adriyanova
Learn more about the Nordic Young Change Leaders (NYC) initiative here, and follow SOS Save Oslo’s Seas:
https://www.instagram.com/sos.ub/?hl=nb