Digital tools in outreach youth work
I work as a outreach youth worker in municipal youth work. The goal of outreach youth work is to help young people in need of support access the necessary services, school or working life, and to support the young person’s growth and development, inclusion, life management and independence (Nuorisolaki 1285/2016, 10§). Outreach youth work is mainly individual work, but in many municipalities the work also includes teamwork. Multidisciplinary cooperation is a significant part of the work.
In my work, I use email and Teams, which are generally familiar in working life, applications for strong login and identification, and electronic time tracking. Youth services use many different applications for advertising activities, reaching and keeping in touch with young people, and for communication. I use Instagram, Whatsapp, Canva and Facebook the most in my work. The purpose of using Whatsapp is to communicate with customers. It is easier to reach young people via Whatsapp than by calling or texting. Email is also an ineffective way to contact young people, but it is the main channel with partners. There is also some contact with young people and reaching young people via Instagram, but it is mainly used to advertise activities and share information. Facebook is fully used for advertising and sharing information, and the target group of communication there is mainly parents and various stakeholders. Canva is used to create advertisements and other social media content. In addition, I sometimes use games at work. The goal of playing games can be to connect with young people or to increase physical activity, for example using Nintendo Wii games.
Youth work has always been done where young people are, and today digital platforms are one of the significant operating environments for young people. Digital youth work is a growing part of youth work. However, it is not a separate youth work method but is included in all youth work and its goals are the same as other youth work (Verke n.d). Digital platforms can be used to reach young people who do not yet dare to come to physical spaces (Kuntaliitto 2021). In youth work, digital tools are also used to learn digital skills together, such as practicing using email or supporting one’s own well-being in digital environments (Into ry 2025).
Five new digital tools
In addition to the current digital tools, I could use ChatGPT, Blogger, X, SnapChat and TikTok in my work. I could use ChatGPT, Blogger and X in my work for advocacy and highlighting the circumstances of young people. SnapChat and TikTok are good platforms for reaching young people.
One of the tasks of outreach youth work is to be involved in promoting the living conditions of young people and opportunities for participation in society, also at a structural level. Outreach youth work provides local and national bodies with information about the life situations and circumstances of young people, so that decisions can consider the perspective of young people outside of work, school and services. (Into ry 2022, 70.)
In Blogger, you can create your own blog, through which you can share your own thoughts. With Blogger, you can create a visually appealing page and Blogger’s analysis function helps you find the right target audience. (Blogger n.d.) Another channel for sharing thoughts and perspectives is the messaging service X. It is a social media channel where social and public discussion takes place (Lampinen 2025). On X, you can write short texts that are quick to write and read, and the discussion is continued in the comments. On a blog, on the other hand, you can write longer and more reasoned texts. On a blog, the discussion is not as smooth as on X, but these can also be combined and a blog post can be shared on X. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence application that can be used to search for information, create text or images, summarize information and have a discussion (Koulutus.fi 2026). It can be used when writing a blog post to help generate ideas or to finalize the text. With ChatGPT, it is possible to create an entire article, but often you can see from the text that it was created by artificial intelligence or there may even be errors in the text. Social media uses a lot of AI-generated material, but it would not be ethical in professional advocacy work. However, AI applications can speed up writing, help produce a finished text, and thus lower the threshold for writing a blog post or other text suitable for advocacy work. Many workplaces have guidelines on what can be discussed with AI about work and organization, and what applications are allowed to be used.
SnapChat and TikTok are popular social media applications among young people. TikTok allows users to share short videos or pictures and browse content produced by others. In TikTok, the algorithm has a lot of influence on what content the user sees there, meaning that the user is shown a lot more than the content of the users they follow. Sending messages is also possible on TikTok. SnapChat is an application where you can send quickly disappearing pictures or stories to your friends or also write messages. (MLL 2025.) TikTok is a good application for producing diverse content and you could potentially reach a lot of young people through it. However, TikTok is banned in many municipalities for data security reasons. SnapChat has been used in my work for bilateral communication, but recently no one has contacted you through it. SnapChat allows for very anonymous contact if a young person wants to do things anonymously in youth work that seeks to find people.
Using and learning multiple applications is tedious. Few people have time to master multiple channels in their work, which is why I think it makes sense to carefully choose a few digital tools and use them effectively. A good digital tool is one that is clear and easy to use, has support when needed, and is secure. Information security has always been an important factor in digital tools used at work, but the global situation in recent years has made it even more important.
Self-evaluation
In the assignment, I got to know many different digital tools and learned new things about their purpose and backgrounds. I reflected extensively on how many digital tools are used in work today. In outreach youth work, digital tools are used in a variety of ways for different things, and it is interesting to get to know new working methods and applications. In today’s work, some kind of interest in digital tools is needed so that learning and working can be done efficiently. Digitality is strongly present in working life and it will grow in the future.
Sources:
Blogger n.d. Blogger. Verkkojulkaisu. https://www.blogger.com/about/?bpli=1. Viitattu 2.4.2026
Into ry 2022. Etsivän nuorisotyön käsikirja. Verkkojulkaisu. https://www.intory.fi/app/uploads/2022/03/Etsivan-nuorisotyon-kasikirja-Into-2022.pdf. Viitattu 2.4.2026
Into ry 2025. Digihyvinvointi on digitaito. Miten ammatillaisena tukea nuorta sen kehittämisessä. Verkkojulkaisu. https://www.intory.fi/ajankohtaista/uutiset/digihyvinvointi-on-digitaito-miten-ammattilaisena-tukea-nuorta-sen-kehittamisessa/. Viitattu 2.4.2026
Koulutus.fi 2026. Mikä on ChatGPT ja mitä siitä pitäisi tietää. Verkkojulkaisu. https://www.koulutus.fi/artikkelit/mika-on-chatgpt-ja-mita-siita-pitaisi-tietaa-23286. Viitattu 2.4.2026
Kuntaliitto 2021. Nuorisotyössä kohdataan nyt digisti. Verkkojulkaisu. https://www.kuntaliitto.fi/kehittaminen-ja-digitalisaatio/digitalisaation-johtaminen/digia-kuntatyossa/nuorisotyossa-kohdataan-nyt-digisti. Viitattu 2.4.2026
Lampinen 2025. Moni kaupunki on jättänyt viestipalvelu X:n taakseen, Kuntaliitto teko oman päätöksen. Kuntalehti 10.1.2025. https://www.kuntalehti.fi/uutiset/moni-kaupunki-on-jaettaenyt-viestipalvelu-xn-taakseen-kuntaliitto-teki-oman-paeaetoeksen/255482. Viitattu 2.4.2026
MLL 2025. Sosiaalisen median palveluita ja sovelluksia. Verkkojulkaisu. https://www.mll.fi/vanhemmille/tietoa-lapsiperheen-elamasta/lapset-ja-media/lapsi-sosiaalisessa-mediassa/sosiaalisen-median-palveluita-ja-sovelluksia/. Viitattu 2.4.2026
Nuorisolaki 1285/2016. https://www.finlex.fi/fi/lainsaadanto/2016/1285. Viitattu 31.3.2026
Verke n.d. Digitaalinen nuorisotyö. Verkkojulkaisu. https://verke.hel.fi/verke/digitaalinen-nuorisotyo/. Viitattu 31.3.2026An orientation assignment will appear here soon.