A wild problem:
Danish young people are unhappy
The well-being of Danish youth is in free fall. Social media, grades, a culture of perfection, expectations, comparisons and a host of other factors contribute to stress, anxiety and depression. This has consequences not only for young people and their families, but for the entire Danish society, from healthcare to schools and educational institutions to the future labor market. What is weighing on young people and what action is needed to relieve the pressure is unclear.
In 2022, the Danish Design Center, together with a number of actors working with young people, began to find new perspectives on youth dissatisfaction. They wanted to find a new future with better well-being - the preferred future: Vorby.
A Gordian knot:
A complex web of roots
Based on existing research, the Danish Design Center and partners found a picture of a system in Denmark that reproduces the challenges it is designed to handle. For example, many well-being initiatives are so professionalized that it is difficult for young people's parents, boyfriends and friends to understand and speak the language of the authorities. They are not educated and supported. With an existing system that seems to perpetuate challenges rather than resolve them, the stakeholders felt that new thinking was needed.
Tools:
Future scenarios and mission-driven innovation
Children and young people's unhappiness is a difficult issue to tackle. There is a huge range of different interventions that can be used to find a way out of unhappiness.
The Danish Design Center developed a four-phase model for this purpose:
Decoding the existing system and rethinking the problem
Developing alternative scenarios
Determining the preferred future
Establishing a governance model
The core of the model is to move from classic innovation, where you choose one idea out of a pile of ideas, to moving from one challenge to a whole sea of possibilities to be explored. This is done by working with future scenarios and missions. Future scenarios are used to challenge existing assumptions and break with familiar perspectives, while missions serve as objectives that indicate success.
Using the method, the Danish Design Center and their partners came up with Vorby. A preferred future where well-being is a shared responsibility. You can visit Vorby here.
The policy contractors
In the above case, the key player is the Danish Design Centre, a non-profit organization that works with design thinking to promote innovation and sustainable development. But the Danish Design Center has not been alone in Vorby. The project was developed through a series of workshops in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders from companies, youth organizations, schools, municipalities and others. If you want to know more about Vorby, you can visit it herewhere you can also see the list of participating actors.