We look forward welcoming you to an insightful event June 22nd 2025 organized by the City of Aarhus, Central Region of Denmark, King Frederiks Center for Public Leadership at University of Aarhus and the nationwide ngo SocialSundhed.

The programme is facilitated by programme manager for Aarhuskompasset and Wicked Problems Ina Bøge Eskildsen | LinkedIn and specialist consultant Trine Kiil Naldal Trine Kiil Naldal | LinkedIn

Programme:

· Introduction to ‘Aarhus Compass: More Citizen. Less System: Citizens and our surrounding society have developed, and if we are to sustain our public welfare model, we must keep up with this development. To help us navigate this process, we’ve created a new framework of understanding for the City of Aarhus. We call it ‘the Aarhus Compass’. The Aarhus Compass describes the kind of municipality and community we want to be – and are on the way to becoming. For more info: aarhuskompassetlight-uk.pdf

· Insights from research-based results of what it takes to transform an organisation to work with the mindset “More citizen. Less system” by King Frederik Center for Public Leadership at University of Aarhus: The center is doing research on transformation process due to the ‘Aarhus Compass’. The objective of King Frederik Center for Public Leadership is to conduct international research at the frontier of knowledge to be applied in and by public organizations. Through research and by educating the public sector leaders of tomorrow, the center’s researchers aim to improve the public sector for the benefit of citizens and society (King Frederik Center for Public Leadership)

· Cases exploring the value of working with a relationel approach:

o YoungInFocus: YoungInFocus is a comprehensive initiative aimed at young people on educational assistance, who are ready for activity. These young individuals often face complex issues such as diagnoses and substance abuse, and many have multiple cases at the job center and interrupted educational courses behind them. YounginFocus is a social impact investment, where employees work with a relational approach to case management through significantly reduced caseloads and serve as the sole entry point to the

employment system. The project is conducted as a randomized controlled trial with 500 young people in the intervention group, and we have conducted a fresh mid-term evaluation showing very promising effects of the initiative. It appears that the young people are more engaged in education, are thriving better, are more satisfied with the initiative, and receive fewer social interventions as a result of UngiFokus. The final evaluation of the project will be conducted by the summer of 2025.

o Social Sundhed: Social Sundhed is a nationwide NGO working to create social equity in health throughout Denmark. The organization thus aims to spread its activities to all municipalities. During the first decade Social Sundhed has established activities in Greater Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, Aalborg, Fredericia, Thisted, Hjørring, as well as Randers and Norddjurs Municipalities. Social Sundhed bridges the gap for people in vulnerable and marginalized positions in their encounters with the healthcare system, and they train volunteer healthcare students, who gain skills, knowledge, and insight into the conditions and barriers that create and maintain social inequality in health. Aarhus Municipality has been a partner for Social Sundhed for a decade, supporting the development of two programmes; bridgebuilding to healthcare appointments, and bridgebuilding to physical acitivies. Social Sundhed breaks down the barrierers between healthcare and social care and works with system innovation. In 2022 Social Sundhed received the Crown Prince Couple’s Award in the category ‘Upcoming Social Innovations”. The results of their worked has been documented in international peer reviewed papers, e.g. Publikationer – DEFACTUM – Social, sundhed og arbejdsmarked

o Citizen Driven Teams: When autistic adults living in a residential facility compose their own staff teams: Starting from march 2023, a specialized residential facility under Specialist Area for Autism in the Central Denmark Region introduced citizen-composed teams, which means that residents themselves choose which staff members will be part of their team. The initiative is being monitored and evaluated by a project manager and two autistic project members with support from the Social Area’s Research and Development Fund. We will share insights from the evaluation which shows, that there is strong support for and satisfaction with the introduction of citizen-composed teams. There are indications that citizen-composed teams enhance residents’ sense of autonomy, belonging, and competence, and support development. Additionally, citizen-composed teams improve job satisfaction and motivation among staff and enhance collaboration across teams. Making the transition from three leadership-composed teams to 19 individual teams also presents som challenges. Management and employees finds that the primary challenge has been to establish a new meeting structure that can cater to 19 teams assembled in various combinations.

o Facilitated conversation on take-aways and transfer of knowledge across European delegates