On the Nordic Council and the Council of Ministers’ own initiative the Nordic large cities since 1996 have co-operated concerning prevention of drug-taking and criminality among young people. The co-operation starts from conferences, which has been renamed to" THE HEART AND SORROW OF THE LARGE CITY" and is addressed to politicians, officials and practitioners. The conferences are carried out every two years with about 300 participants. Next Nordic Large City conference will be held in Göteborg on 3-6 October 2009 under the theme:

“Youth are a resource! – what then is the problem?”

The conference includes a mix of contributions and workshops, in which the most actual research work in Scandinavia and concrete efforts and initiatives within the conditions of the childhood and adolescence will be presented and debated. The previous conferences have kept high-quality, and gave inspiration and ideas for new and different activities in the Nordic cities. I am hopeful that 2009 year large city conference on youthmatters will be a memorable event, with many interesting experiences for the participants, both during the conference as in other parts of the stay in our town. There are many examples of positive initiatives and activities for youth, many of them created by young people themselves. Take the opportunities to take advantage of it during the conference!

Warmly welcome to Göteborg!

Jörgen Linder, Chairman of the City Council/Lord Mayor