The Nordic Youth Peers project aimed to contribute to the mental and social wellbeing of young people, with a particular focus on those in vulnerable situations in Iceland and Finland. The overall objective was to strengthen youth work responses to mental health challenges by combining digital tools with structured peer support. A key objective was to transfer knowledge and good practices between Traustur Kjarni and Sekasin Gaming, enabling mutual learning between organisations active in youth work and mental health. Through this exchange, the project sought to improve the quality, innovation, and effectiveness of youth work in both countries. Another objective was to increase the organisational capacity of the partners to support young people through digital means and Intentional Peer Support. This included equipping youth workers, moderators, and peers with the skills, understanding, and confidence needed to offer safe, supportive, and youth-centred support online. Finally, the project aimed to explore and develop safe online communities that could foster wellbeing, social connection, and inclusion among young people, while generating practical learning that could inform future digital youth work initiatives and be replicated.
We applied for the Nordic Youth Peers project to respond to the increasing mental health challenges and social isolation experienced by young people in Iceland and Finland, especially those in vulnerable situations. In both countries there is youth who spend a significant part of their lives online and who may face loneliness, anxiety, or limited access to low-threshold mental health support, particularly outside larger urban areas. The project addressed a clear need to strengthen digital youth work and peer support. While digital platforms offer strong potential to reach young people, organisations need appropriate skills, methods, and structures to use them safely and meaningfully. At the same time, peer support has proven to be an effective way to promote wellbeing, reduce isolation, and empower young people through shared experience, yet it is still not widely embedded in digital youth work. By combining Traustur Kjarni’s expertise in Intentional Peer Support with Sekasin Gaming’s experience in managing large-scale online youth communities, the project aimed to build organisational capacity, exchange good practices, and develop more inclusive and sustainable digital approaches to supporting youth mental and social wellbeing.