The Department of Leisure and Public Health offers services to approximately 110,000 residents in…

The Department of Leisure and Public Health offers services to approximately 110,000 residents in the municipality of Borås. We provide the inhabitants of Borås with community centres, leisure activities and green areas, and offer support to sports associations. We also work on a preventive level in areas of violence, drugs and health. Some examples of the services offered by our department are: public baths, open-air centres, an indoor skateboarding park, 16 youth centres and 5 activity houses located in different areas around the city as well as several meeting places for people aged 65 years or older. Much of the work focuses on the youth sector, having a youth centre located in almost every district of the city. Borås Stad is also part of KEKS, a network for municipalities running open youth work, and follows its principles of promoting the personal growth of youth through activities built on their active participation and sense of responsibility. Our youth centres also aim to be inclusive and accessible and keep up an ongoing work on issues such as gender, LGBT, children’s rights, racism and other grounds of discrimination. Besides this we work on a preventive level where our violence prevention approach impregnates all our work. We work with training young leaders in things such as leadership, norm-critical approach, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, gender perspective, CPR etc. The international work has been an integrated part of the organisation for a couple of years now, working mostly with ESC and youth exchanges with youth centres being the centre for this work. At the end of 2016 the department decided to implement a new job position, the international coordinator, to further highlight the focus on international youth work and the possibility to develop this work with a long-term perspective. The organisation views international projects as an important method for working with non-formal learning and leadership with young people.