Description

The Åland Islands, or Åland, is an autonomous region of Finland. Comprising around 6,700 islands, this Swedish-speaking archipelago is in the Baltic Sea. Many young people live across this region and find connecting to youth services and peer groups a challenge, especially in winter.

Barry Haughey (Founder HoloGen, Dublin Ireland) and Mia Hanstrom (Director of SKUNK youth service, Aland Island) partnered in working together to pilot a wide regional youth project using VR. The idea was to demonstrate that existing support for young people can be delivered using immersive technology, bringing the service to the participant. Historically, some young people have been unable to avail of creative, educational and social activities because they were unable to get to a physical environment, we aimed to demonstrate this was no longer the case.

For this pilot, we used the VR platform, Rec Room to create a private youth club and open a weekly meetup where participants, shared stories, played multiuser games and tournaments and even tried some mindfulness. All of these sessions were hosted by experienced youth workers from the Aland region.

In this Talk, we will hear from 2 young people, Kasper Dreyer and Julia Strand, who were participants in the VR pilot and will share some of their experiences, Mia Hanstrom (Director of SKUNK youth service, Aland Island) and Barry Haughey (Founder of HoloGen) who will discuss the growing potential of immersive technology within rural youth work and education.

Speakers

Kasper Dreyer

CEO and founder , SKUNK - Youth Voices in the Archipelago

Mia Hanström

Operations Mgr. , SKUNK - Youth Voices in the Archipelago

Julia Strand

Founding Partner , SKUNK - Youth Voices in the Archipelago

Barry Haughey

Artist/Educator/Founder , Holo/Gen