Case Study: Junior Rangers and Youth+ as team leaders for young summer workers

Youth summer workers in Kullaberg

Published on: 23/12/21

EUROPARC’s Youth+ Programme is all about empowering young people and providing them with opportunities to work on their conservation, communication, advocacy and leadership skills. Check out how Kullaberg Nature Reserve did just that!

Youth summer workers project

Förslag JR 2017

Kullaberg Nature Reserve is Sweden’s most visited nature reserve, with more than 500.000 visitors annually in a very small area. Because of that, every year summer season with its influx of visitors brings a lot of pressure to the management of the Park. To manage this, the Reserve employs young summer workers, to assist with repairs, cleaning litter, information, parking coordination, etc. This is a coordinated effort with the municipality and brings benefits to both youngsters still in school, who are being offered a summer job, and to the Kullaberg Nature Reserve, which is in need of extra pair of hands to help out wherever needed.

Employing Junior Rangers and Youth+ as team leaders for young summer workers

Summer workers usually have little or no experience of the nature reserve, therefore, a lot of time and effort from the staff of the nature reserve was needed to coordinate their work and instruct them. There was a clear need for guidance for these youngsters. The quality and coordination of their tasks could be improved and the ordinary staff needed to be relieved of the added burden of managing them as well.

Recently, older Junior Rangers and Youth+ were introduced as team leaders for the summer workers and demonstrated to be extremely helpful to channel knowledge of the area as well as know-how to the group.

Solutions and Actions taken

Using one of the certified guide companies of the area, Kullabergsguiderna, to supervise and coordinate the summer workers, the ordinary staff was relieved from some work. Kullabergsguiderna was contacted early in the spring, to ensure enough time to coordinate the project.
Older Junior Rangers and Youth+ were employed as team leaders for the group. They have been involved with the Park for a longer period of time already, and this allowed them to share their extensive knowledge of the area.

Challenges encountered

Since summer is the high season for the guide company, their time was extremely limited during the duration of the project and the main planning had to be done well in advance. Moreover, establishing functional communication between ordinary nature reserve staff, team leaders and the supervising guide company required a lot of organizational effort.

Outcomes

With the help of the Junior Rangers and Youth+, the summer workers job has been much more efficient and by speeding up the communication with existing staff, action could be taken quickly to tackle any unforeseen issues.

Using youngsters from the Junior Rangers and Youth+ programme not only as ambassadors for the nature reserve but also as spokespersons for empowering youth, proved to be the perfect fit for leading the young summer workers.