Safe City Tour: Together for a better Sarpsborg
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City stories
Udgivet: 09 Mar - 2021
The Safe City Tour travels to Sarpsborg
Getting through Corona with inclusion, tolerance and creativity, taking action against hate, building safer meeting places on-and offline, supporting democratic debate, empowering and amplifying youth voices, and standing together for a better and safer Sarpsborg.
The ninth week of the Safe City Tour took us to the Norwegian city of Sarpsborg. During the safe city tour week, Sarpsborg invited the local and global public on a virtual visit and provided insights into how they work to create a safe city for all, support the youth to take the lead, stand together against corona with tolerance and inclusion, and how the youth council tackles important issues such as hate speech, radicalisation and extremism.

Images: City of Sarpsborg
Within the Nordic Safe Cities Alliance, Sarpsborg’s ‘Safe City Action‘ focuses on developing a new action plan against hate speech and violent extremism with input from the local youth.
More broadly, Sarpsborg municipality uses the Norwegian SLT model (coordination of substance abuse and crime prevention measures), and have since 2001 had a formal collaboration with the police. Sarpsborg started working specifically with the prevention of radicalisation and violent extremism in 2011 after the terrorist attacks in the Government Quarter in Oslo and on Utøya. Already in 2012, Sarpsborg municipality prepared focused efforts in a collaboration with the police and the Church of Norway that would strengthen knowledge, cooperation and dialogue, coordination, and follow-up of vulnerable people.
The municipality’s action plan ‘Diversity, inclusion and equality 2016-2028’, has secured that active work must be done to prevent extremism and radicalisation.
On the first stop of the Safe City Tour, Mayor Sindre Martinsen-Evje welcomed us to Sarpsborg – A city built on collaboration. In Sarpsborg, they want everyone to be able to live without fear of being exposed to hatred, violence and extremism. To do so, the city mobilises all good forces to work together for a safe Sarpsborg, says Mayor Martinsen-Evje.
Sarpsborg has a particular focus on activating and empowering young people. The youth are the future of the city and play a central role in its development. The city prioritises safe meeting places that include and give young people decision making power. One such place is the Youth Culture House, which is at the forefront of creating safe digital meeting places and activities for and with young people.
The mayor and the leader of the Youth Culture House, Ole Martin Gjestad, are proud to show you the town hall made in Minecraft by the young people themselves. Ole Martin, emphasises that the city must be where the youth are, and in 2021 that is increasingly online.
“Together we create safety and we must stand together across national borders to safeguard our Nordic values”, says Mayor Sindre Martinsen-Evje. He is therefore pleased that Sarpsborg is an active member of the Nordic Safe Cities Alliance.
In Sarpsborg, youth participation makes a difference. The youth council has discussed the theme of radicalisation and extremism annually since 2014 and has provided input to the local action plan against hate crime and violent extremism. The Youth Council has decided on the wording of several of the focus areas in the plan, and provided input for many good preventive measures.
To prevent hate, the Youth Council further believes that it is important for young people to learn more about tolerance, and that there is space to disagree, share opinions and safely debate conflicting ideas. They believe that they do not need agreement, but they need good debates to learn more about each other’s point of view.
“We must ensure that everyone is seen and heard, so that no one falls outside, and feels the need to seek extreme groups to be heard.”
The youth power in Sarpsborg was also presented to an international audience at the Together for Safety Talk in February. Here youth council member and former Youth Mayor, Paktaw Hajipouri, highlighted that Sarpsborg does not presume to know what the youth wants, but actively brings them into the conversation and incorporates young people’s needs and interests.
The youth council is strongly involved in creating a safer city and provides inputs on policy decisions, strategies and actions plans. Here are some of their inputs:
- More knowledge about hate crimes, free speech & extremism in
schools - Parent training
- Room for safe debate
- Dialogue day where schools visit different religious communities
- Hate speech campaigns in sports clubs for all ages, including
adults - Politicians, youth and media meeting and discussing hate speech
These inputs have all been suggested in the new action plan against hate crime and violent extremism, because as Paktaw says:
“We youth have power. We have youth power, and we were heard. And together we can make a safe city.”
In Sarpsborg, participation and input from all citizens is important, not just the youth. As the corona virus has made many people scared, sick, tired and angry, Sarpsborg has initiated the project, Together against corona.
The municipality has worked closely with the inhabitants and emphasises that no one is to blame and there is no stigma in getting tested or shame in getting infected. In Sarpsborg, standing together against corona means that no one is excluded, and everyone takes part in preventing the spread of corona.
The municipality knows that this time is very hard on children and the Norwegian Minister of Health and Care Services has given the children of Sarpsborg a special greeting with the message that they should take of each other during this difficult time.

Images: City of Sarpsborg
The city also hosts a popular competition, where inhabitants of Sarpsborg are invited to draw, take pictures and write poems about corona and how it affects them. Which has resulted in great inputs from local communities.
In Sarpsborg, they stand together in all fights that may lead to hate, fear and exclusion. Together for a better and safer Sarpsborg.