​Background

Together for Youth Life is a national health promotion programme with a vision that young people in Denmark should have a positive youth life in which alcohol and other substances do not play a prominent role. Inspired by the Icelandic prevention model, the programme is based on three principles: a data-driven approach, the strengthening of protective factors, and local involvement and mobilisation.

The approach recognises that young people's health and substance use are shaped by the communities, relationships and settings in which they participate. Municipalities therefore work to strengthen the role of parents, organised leisure environments and other positive communities surrounding young people.

During the pilot phase, the approach was developed and tested in the municipalities of Aalborg, Gentofte, Odder, Silkeborg and Sorø.​

Aim and evaluation design

The evaluation aimed to support the development and testing of Together for Youth Life at both the local and national levels. It had learning and documentation purposes and examined municipal organisation, activities, collaborative relationships, the involvement of local stakeholders, and the development of organisational capacity for health promotion.

The evaluation adopted a formative approach inspired by action research, through which knowledge was continuously fed back to the pilot municipalities and programme secretariat. In dialogue with these stakeholders, SDCC developed an evaluation framework comprising tools for describing and following up on activities, mapping collaborative relationships, assessing capacity for health promotion, and monitoring local objectives. The evaluation also included interviews, workshops and cross-municipality learning activities.

The evaluation did not examine effects on young people's substance use. Instead, it focused on the organisational processes, collaborations and capacities intended to create the conditions required for the desired changes.​

Contributions of the evaluation

The evaluation provided the pilot municipalities and programme secretariat with a systematic understanding of the development of the local projects. This supported the continuous identification of challenges, effective approaches and capacity-building needs. It also facilitated reflection on organisation, collaboration, stakeholder involvement, resources and leadership support, as well as learning across municipalities.

The combined knowledge generated through the evaluation and the work of the pilot municipalities contributed to refining the programme theory and developing the national concept for scaling up Together for Youth Life. The concept describes how municipalities can work with local data, protective factors, the mobilisation of parents and local stakeholders, organisation and capacity building. Following the pilot phase, the concept was made available to all Danish municipalities.​

Target group and municipal settings

The primary target group is young people aged 12–18 years. Parents and local stakeholders are important intermediary target groups because they help shape the environments surrounding young people. The programme involves municipal administrations, primary and lower-secondary schools, upper-secondary and vocational education institutions, and organised leisure and civil society settings.​

Partners

The evaluation was conducted by Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen in collaboration with the Danish Health Authority and the municipalities of Aalborg, Gentofte, Odder, Silkeborg and Sorø.​

Project period

Pilot and development phase: 2020–2024.

The evaluation has been completed. Together for Youth Life is currently in its programme phase, running from 2024 to 2027, during which the concept is being disseminated and further developed in additional municipalities.

Funding

Together for Youth Life is funded by the Danish Health Authority and TrygFonden.

Read more about Fælles om Ungelivet on the Danish Health Authority's website (in Danish).