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Making the voice of young people heard: Vaasa’s new Youth Council has begun its term
Published: 29.1.2025
Vaasa's new Youth Council began its work at the start of 2025 and has now elected its chairpersons and representatives to various city committees and the City Council. Santiago Laitinen from Merenkurkku School was elected as the chair of the new Youth Council.
In the elections held in November 2024, a total of 22 full members and 10 deputy members were elected to the Youth Council. All councillors are Vaasa residents, ranging in age from 7th graders to 20-year-olds.
At the inaugural meeting held on Wednesday, 22 January, Santiago Laitinen was elected as the chair of the Youth Council. Ruben Linna, Oskari Koskimäki and Emmi Schlöbcke were elected as vice-chairs, and Aaro Helo was chosen as the secretary. Together, they form the executive committee of the Youth Council.
– I am very grateful and happy to have been elected to this important role. I would like to thank everyone who made this possible: my parents, who raised me to be ambitious and brave enough to seek this position; and everyone who voted for me to the Youth Council, especially my classmates, with whom I’ve been since preschool and who feel like a second family to me. I would also like to thank the entire Youth Council for believing in and trusting my ability to lead, says the council’s new chair Santiago Laitinen.
The best Youth Council in Finland
The aim of the Youth Council is to represent and promote the views of young people in decision-making. The Youth Council is represented on various committees and the City Council, with the right to attend and speak. Its members’ role is to amplify the voices of young people, comment on current issues, and make proposals and statements.
In addition, the Youth Council distributes so-called activation grants to promote self-directed hobbies. In the last term, the Union of Local Youth Councils in Finland selected Vaasa’s Youth Council as the best in Finland.
– There are as many goals and ideas for this term as there are youth councillors, and I am ready to listen to others’ ideas. I hope for closer collaboration with the youth councils of neighbouring municipalities in the future, says Laitinen.
Laitinen also considers it important to strengthen collaboration with student union boards.
– In particular, I would like to maintain the enthusiasm and passion that is felt at the beginning of each Youth Council term. I hope that our Youth Council works actively until the very end and that we are remembered as a good example, says Laitinen.
The new full members of the Youth Council are:
- Alfred Grönlund, Borgaregatans skola
- Tea Grönlund, Borgaregatans skola
- Aaro Helo, Vaasan lyseon lukio
- Veera Hinkkanen, Variskan yhtenäiskoulu
- Leino Karppi, Merenkurkun koulu
- Oskari Koskimäki, Vaasan lyseon lukio
- Santiago Laitinen, Merenkurkun koulu
- Niko Lehtinen, Variskan yhtenäiskoulu
- Sanni Lehtinen, Onkilahden yhtenäiskoulu
- Ruben Linna, Borgaregatans skola
- Matilda Mattson, Vasa övningsskola
- Yara Abdul Menem Mahmoud, Vamia
- Oliver Sandås, Vasa övningsskolas gymnasium
- Emmi Schlöbcke, Vaasan lyseon lukio
- Edith Skoglund, Borgaregatans skola
- Alvar Slotte, Borgaregatans skola
- Sauli Syri, Savilahden yhtenäiskoulu
- Laura Tammenmaa, Onkilahden yhtenäiskoulu
- Ilmari Telaranta, Vasa övningsskola
- Eeli Töyli, Vaasan lyseon lukio
- Joona Vainio, Vaasan lyseon lukio
- Pihla Vikman, Variskan yhtenäiskoulu