How the ‘’smart city’’ is connected to the youth and how can the youth connect to the ‘’smart city’’
Trying to answer this question we have interviewed multiple people with multiple backgrounds. This way we want to approach this subject from different points of view to get the best research result. We started with analysing the data about the youth problematics. The data showed a high rate of burglary and vandalism in the Woenselse Heide and the Tempel. But since the data was not up to date we wondered if these data are still relevant.
Therefore we interviewed a social worker from buro Cement. These people are working intensively with the (troubled) youth and know them very well on a personal level. Because of the confidential nature of their job our interviewees wanted to stay anonymous and we promised to don’t ask any questions about specific persons whom they work with. We wanted to know if the data about the youth problematics were correct in his opinion. More important is that we wanted to know how he is connected to the youth, on which level? What is his relationship with them? And finally which platforms does he use to keep in touch with them?
To start with he was connected to the youth on a very personal level. ‘’Most of the people whom I work with see me as a father figure that they can trust’’. ‘’Sometimes their parents call me and ask me to talk with their children because I am the only one that they trust and actually want to talk with’’.
He explained that there are significantly less problems in comparison with 4 to 5 years ago. One of the reasons is the way the municipality of Eindhoven treats troubled youth. Instead of putting them in jail where the people are getting more criminalized, they have to take part of projects to reengage them into the society. Buro Cement helps these troubled youth to get back on the right path by listening to them, engaging in a conversation about their problems, and connecting them to other institutions that can help them with some specific problems like drug use. Besides that, during the winter there are considerably less youth on the streets so naturally there are less nuisance. ‘’ I have to say that 9 out of 10 groups that are hanging around in these neighbourhoods are doing nothing wrong. It is just that they don’t have any place to go to’’.
Our interviewee explained that a few years ago they took the initiative to organize events and were pushing the youth to get more involved. But now a days they approach the youth and help them to organize the events themselves by assisting them through the process and giving financial support for the events they want to organize. This way the youth are more involved with their neighbourhood. ‘’We are helping them, so that they can help themselves’’.
Finally he told us that the biggest problem that they had was that the youth doesn’t feel that they are being heard. They need a way to express themselves and Buro Cement is way of doing that.
Buro Cement uses social media like WhatsApp groups to connect to the youth for the events they organize. But they are not using any social media tools for personal problems of the youth which is totally comprehensible. In our opinion there is still room for improvement for the way Buro Cement communicates with the youth. Giving the youth a social media platform (just like Facebook) that is focused on the neighbourhood they live in where they can keep in touch with each other and the authorities and where they can express their thoughts would really help. This is one way to connect the youth to the ‘’smart city’’ and vice versa.