Guest blog by Tarja Silventoinen, Terhi Tuominiemi-Lilja, Mirjam Malik, Katri Kairimo, Katriina Aaltio
12 weeks ago, we met each other as a team at Helsinki City Hall. We joined the team to represent the urban environment, education and training, culture and leisure, and social, health and rescue sectors. The unifying theme of our PDIA training was the East Helsinki region and the children and young people living there. Our more specific task was to consider the problems and challenges related to their safety and to find ways to improve the current situation through the training program.
Eastern Helsinki is the most diverse and international major district in our capital. When we started to think about the safety situation of children and young people, we very soon found a headline that had a key impact on it in the big picture: racism faced by children and young people in their everyday lives. Racism has an impact on the lives of children and young people with an immigrant background, but as a phenomenon it affects all residents of the area. From this broader definition of the problem, we set out to build our team’s fishbone diagram. By breaking down the problem into smaller parts, we were able to get to more detailed and concrete sub-problems, of which the title of our task was the lower academic learning outcomes of young people with an immigrant background.
We set out to solve this more limited problem. As in our duties, we often encounter extensive problems in our everyday work, which are challenging to solve. In our team, we noticed that breaking down the problem into smaller parts helped us to understand different root causes and at the same time it was also possible to start working, even if solving the whole problem would take a lot of time. It is important that the actors in these projects are given enough time to work on things. Speed often leads to unworkable solutions. Finding and naming the right actors for each project is also of paramount importance. Teamwork, and above all good and productive teamwork, is something that our training focused on. We became more aware of what factors promote strong teaming and what factors weaken it. Transferring these lessons to your own work is beneficial. When assembling a core group, careful consideration must be given to who genuinely has the potential to act on the problem.
As the work progresses, it is possible to invite people from other organizations to the subgroups if the core group’s authority for the work is strong enough. The training period helped us better understand the problems that those working with children and young people solve. During these weeks, we also consider together how the Urban Environment Division could more strongly involve young people with an immigrant background and their parents in the development of public areas. It is often thought that only those who work with children and young people daily are relevant to them. However, on whose terms the city is being built and how the new needs and ways of using the urban environment are considered in the planning of different kinds of children, young people and families, is also important.
Solutions related to the environment and construction create an environment for everyday encounters and are central to the experience of safety. They also carry us very far into the future. During the training, all our team members recognized the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration. Combining the right competences and expertise will allow for more effective interventions. We also considered how networks work in our city could be further strengthened. Projects play an important role in enabling new pilots and experiments. However, existing networks should be harnessed more strongly to promote development work. There are special networks and groups in all areas of Helsinki, as well as in eastern Helsinki, that aim to strengthen the well-being of children and young people. Regional LANU groups (regional wellbeing management network) and regional networks are such groups.
One of the most important lessons we have learned during the PDIA training has been that we can use the methods we have learned in the future in the activities of the East – Southeast well-being group (LANU group) in the fall of 2024. We will start working on the PDIA model in a multidisciplinary manner using the common theme of the LANU groups in all regions, i.e. intervening in violent behavior among young people. We plan the process together with the chairs of the Lanu Group and make use of the up-to-date knowledge base.
PDIA as a method is concrete and easy to use in many ways. However, to get the most out of the method, you need to have enough time to work on the problem you’re trying to solve. It is also practical to work with your own team so that you can best develop the services in which you have expertise and where you can develop and make a difference. In addition, users should be involved as early as possible to create a democratic process. The aspects of the PDIA methodology are well suited for developing the operations of the City of Helsinki. The idea of networking between different industries is important. For everyone who participated in the training, PDIA teaching has certainly strengthened collaboration by creating new connections between previously unknown actors.
This blog was written by participants who completed a 12-week PDIA for Child and Youth Safety in Helsinki online action-learning program from March – June 2024. 24 participants successfully completed this program.