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Convictus, Musketörerna i Rågsved (the Musketeers in Rågsved), Projekt Rågsved, Räddningsmissionen (the Rescue Mission), and Umeå Stadsmission (Umeå City Mission) collectively meet thousands of people every week across the country to ensure their most basic needs of a meal, a place to sleep, and a social context are met. Their work has a long tradition in Sweden, and they carry invaluable knowledge about the situation facing some of the most vulnerable people in our country. They manage to reach out, when institutions such as the social services, the social insurance agency, the public employment service, the prison service, and the primary care services have failed.
But in a rapidly changing world, where markets are created in the meeting point between the different sectors and where digitalization is shifting the context, a gap has emerged for organizations that work in traditional social fields. They are facing a generational shift, both in their leadership and among donors, an aging staff pool, the introduction of digital work processes, new target groups as a result of changes in the demography, and stricter demands on communication and reporting.
Medvind is a project run by the Inter Business Initiative and financed by Stenbecks Stiftelse where five Swedish organizations who have long experience of social sector work receive support for organizational development. The goal is to support the organizations’ work with their target groups. Medvind does this by creating space for strategic and organizational development. Medvind also conducts communication efforts to spread the knowledge developed by the organizations.
They are facing a transformation. Organizational transformation can be both painful and difficult, and it is crucial and necessary to maintain the enormous value that the organizations are creating for their target groups and, by extension, all of society.
In order to give support in this process – and to build a deeper understanding of what transformation means in the social sector – the Inter Business Initiative runs the platform Medvind, with financial support from Stenbecks Stiftelse. The purpose is to build capacity to meet the new demands that an organization faces today, to find new ways to finance social sector work, and new ways to communicate and measure the positive effects on society.
The organizations that operate in the social field often work closely with local communities and in close contact with the target groups. Despite there being local differences in their areas of operation, there are shared insights about what is needed on the local and national political agenda for Sweden to become a country for all of us who live here. The Medvind organizations want to see a political platform for:
Convictus, Musketörerna i Rågsved (the Musketeers in Rågsved), Projekt Rågsved, Räddningsmissionen (the Rescue Mission), and Umeå Stadsmission (Umeå City Mission) collectively meet thousands of people every week across the country to ensure their most basic needs of a meal, a place to sleep, and a social context are met. Their work has a long tradition in Sweden, and they carry invaluable knowledge about the situation facing some of the most vulnerable people in our country. They manage to reach out, when institutions such as the social services, the social insurance agency, the public employment service, the prison service, and the primary care services have failed.
But in a rapidly changing world, where markets are created in the meeting point between the different sectors and where digitalization is shifting the context, a gap has emerged for organizations that work in traditional social fields. They are facing a generational shift, both in their leadership and among donors, an aging staff pool, the introduction of digital work processes, new target groups as a result of changes in the demography, and stricter demands on communication and reporting.
Medvind is a project run by the Inter Business Initiative and financed by Stenbecks Stiftelse where five Swedish organizations who have long experience of social sector work receive support for organizational development. The goal is to support the organizations’ work with their target groups. Medvind does this by creating space for strategic and organizational development. Medvind also conducts communication efforts to spread the knowledge developed by the organizations.
They are facing a transformation. Organizational transformation can be both painful and difficult, and it is crucial and necessary to maintain the enormous value that the organizations are creating for their target groups and, by extension, all of society.
In order to give support in this process – and to build a deeper understanding of what transformation means in the social sector – the Inter Business Initiative runs the platform Medvind, with financial support from Stenbecks Stiftelse. The purpose is to build capacity to meet the new demands that an organization faces today, to find new ways to finance social sector work, and new ways to communicate and measure the positive effects on society.
The organizations that operate in the social field often work closely with local communities and in close contact with the target groups. Despite there being local differences in their areas of operation, there are shared insights about what is needed on the local and national political agenda for Sweden to become a country for all of us who live here. The Medvind organizations want to see a political platform for:
1. Ensuring the right of all children and young people to participate in society. According to a State Public Report 2017, there are 131,500 young people between 15 and 29 years of age in Sweden who neither work nor study. The risk of them ending up in a situation of long-term societal exclusion increases with every day that passes. 60–70% of those who did not work or study in one year, remained in the same situation the following year. More than half were still in the same situation three years later. The risk is especially significant for young people who live in socio- economically disadvantaged areas. But the whole picture is more nuanced, as these youths also include those in the care of the state, those with disabilities, those new to the country, and those who have attended special education high schools. Medvind also wants to highlight the children of vulnerable EU-migrants who are not permitted to go to school in certain municipalities in Sweden.
2. Defend the right to health for homeless people. According to the National Board of Health and Welfare, there were approximately 33,000 people living in homelessness in Sweden in 2017. The homeless in Sweden are a mixed group where just over half are men, but the number of women is increasing. Many of them are the parents of underage children, and many have been homeless for over a year. For a third of the women, a factor contributing to their homelessness was violence in a close relationship. Mental illness and problems of addiction are common, both as a consequence of a tough life where self-medication can feel like a necessity, as well as a contributing factor to homelessness. These are individuals who need a lot of care and health services. Despite the need, it often becomes more difficult for them to receive the health and wellness services that they are entitled to. The mobile health teams have reduced in number, more and more health services require digital ID verification, which this group rarely has, and stricter rules around ID-cards make it impossible for them to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy.
3. Ensure the human rights of poor people. The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs estimates that approximately 5,000 vulnerable EU-migrants live in Sweden. They are looking for a livelihood and to escape the poverty in their home country in hope of a better future. 70–100 children accompany their parents to Sweden each year. The discrimination follows them to Sweden, where the majority of the regional health authorities have told state reporters that they are restrictive in providing health care to these EU-migrants even though they are entitled to it. Poverty in and of itself creates stigmas and societal exclusion. Another reality we see in Sweden today is that we have retirees who struggle to make ends meet despite having worked hard throughout their lives. The elderly cannot afford to participate in a social community. A lonely life. A societal exclusion caused by poverty.
For the organizations that meet the individuals who live with the greatest vulnerabilities and exclusion, it is crucial to strengthen their own capacity and share their knowledge with others. The act of taking a more public role as experts in issues around exclusion was iden- tified as a success factor by the research that has accompanied Medvind. This research was published in Applied Science and Innovation Research in 2019. This is why communication activities is an important part of the support from the Medvind platform.
