Super hero name?
The Diversity Guy
What is your superpower?
In Foreningen Nydansker we have a strong focus on diversity and social responsibility, our goal is to integrate everyone in the Danish society and continuously secure diversity. We seek to reach our goal by focusing on breaking down barriers for unemployed citizens in Danish society. By including advanced technology, we can implement and professionalize our mentorship programs that, among others, helps vulnerable women, young people and newly arrived refugees to be an active part of the Danish society. By matching the mentees with knowledgeable mentors that possess know-hows about the Danish labour market and educational possibilities.
What SDG is your organization integrating into its core competency?
We especially focus on SDG 8 through our mentorship programs; ’Bryd unges ledighed NU’, ’PIFT – et mentortilbud til sårbare unge kvinder’ and ’Erhvervsvenner’. Our solutions focus on increasing the number of young people who take an education or an equal sort of employment. In collaboration with the municipalities, we get in touch with marginalized groups that seek to become an active part of the Danish society.
By motivating the young people, listening to their dreams and needs we link them to a qualified mentor that has knowledge about the (local) job market and educational opportunities. We also implement SDG 1, 3, 4 and 10 throughout our agenda that encourages good mental health, general well-being, employment and the fight against poverty, discrimination and inequality.
Every hero has a villain – what challenges do you or your targeted group face?
We experience that structural discrimination, legislation, politics and a lack of economic investments can be in the way to reach our goals. Even though it can be frustrating to stay resistant, it motivates us even more to conquer the obstacles and be social responsible. We monitor the mentees and mentors and assist and encourage them to not give up and to keep looking for better opportunities. Luckily, the mentors are experienced and have a large network to ensure success and finally employment of the mentee.
What are you doing to overcome your villain?
Our main villains are inequality and structural discrimination. We overcome them collaboration with professional and qualified mentors who volunteer to do their very best to support the fight against these challenges. In Foreningen Nydansker we hire experienced and well-educated employees that take the social situation seriously and use their skills to create the best match between the mentor and the mentee. Foreningen Nydansker’s work focuses in engaging in the public debate about minorities in Denmark through articles, publications, activities on social media, national TV and Radio. We collaborate with both the ones we agree and disagree with and thereby, we are constantly reminded of our own viewpoints and development of our strategies.
Who is your hero and why?
The super heroes in Foreningen Nydansker are all the Danish citizens who volunteer to engage as mentors and thereby do an extraordinary effort to include everyone in the Danish community. We currently have more than 1.700 volunteers registered in our database who are involved in our different mentorship programs. The mentors are from all over Denmark and by meeting up with a mentee once or twice a month they are all promoting diversity throughout the country. We highly admire the mentors who typically dedicate 4-6 hours each month to work voluntarily in the name of integration and diversity.
Fact Box
- Company name: Foreningen Nydansker
- Company type: Non-Profit
- SDG Focus: 8 and 1, 3, 4, 10
- Technology used: Sugar; a digital platform where we safely collect a detailed database of our mentorships
- Impact: It allows us to document the mentorship programs and secure a personalized and successful progress for both the mentor and the mentee.
- Number of employees: 44
- Country: Denmark
- Website: http://foreningen-nydansker.dk