I am part of CFV - and have been since 2021 - because all the theory and method we apply in the organization intuitively makes very good sense in relation to my lived life. 

We say that violence is a social problem, which to me is completely logical, but I experience how that view can provoke many people. I am curious about this and at the same time I think it is because we lack a common language for violence – for violence in all its forms. And this is exactly where I see huge potential for all CFV's initiatives!

I am a trained social and health worker, and became one when I was very young. When I was 19, I finished that education and found out very quickly that I think it was really exciting to work with people, but I could also feel that there were some frameworks that I found difficult to keep me inside. In work as a social and health worker.

So I quickly knew during that period that this was not what I was supposed to do for the rest of my life. But I had a hard time figuring out what to do next and went through several different things.

I started at university, on the sociology course, because I just thought it was really exciting. Again the idea with people, but more why they do what they do in the society they are in.

I thought it was very interesting how we were towards each other. In one-to-one relationships, and there were a lot of theories that could give me some answers. But I also started to get curious about the larger context, because it wasn't just one-to-one that actually affected us. It was also the social situations and the historical structures that somehow help to influence us as people.

I started on the candidate for social work and met a lot of resistance because there were just some really rigid frameworks, both for how we had to study, but also for what we had to produce. There was no opportunity to question why is society the way it is? I did not think it was neutral, as many of my fellow students actually thought, because there is precisely a lot of legislation inside. And law must be neutral, were their thoughts. But I just couldn't reconcile myself to that at all.

During a period when I was on maternity leave, I came across what was then called the Center for Power Analysis on social media. Today Center for Violence Prevention. And there were just so many things that made perfect sense to me. And because I had delved a lot into it with power analyzes via my studies. Then it just made so much sense to me. I reached out to Ditte and then things went really well and together with other volunteers I opened a local branch in Aalborg.

I would really like, that is, on such a personal level, I would like to further develop the understanding of how we humans can live more harmoniously and in community with each other. In other words, how we can all move forward and live side by side. Here, CFV is a bit of a mess. In this world, where you otherwise have no luck at all, in the various systems we are often forced to be a part of. But also on a large scale, that is what this idea is about, it is actually quite possible to live without violence, without discrimination, without coercion and without a hierarchy of power. It is possible to live in a world where we sort of look at each other and the potentials we have and cultivate that, instead of pushing each other into inhuman and unnatural things.

I have been part of Viden om Vold for the past year, and we have been out to primary schools, after-schools and to teachers and talk about all these things that affect our well-being. And I am proud to be part of giving especially young people the opportunity to put into words what they experience. To experience them learn that what you feel is okay, and that a stone is lifted from their shoulders when they learn that there is actually a world where it is okay to say yes and no.

But I also think it's important to pick up on the adults, where they haven't had that opportunity since they were very young. It is important to me to give them the opportunity to learn about the experiences they have and violence prevention.

Yes, we were out at a school where there were quite a few problems both in the classes internally, but also that the teachers had problems reaching some of the students. There was a lot of unrest in the class in general. Here there was one young guy in particular who had to make fun and disturb in general, and when we were actually quite far into the lesson, he opened up. But what if I tell my father that I don't want to do what he asks of me? And he says you should. I can't tell my father, because he'll just get really, really mad. And there we had a one-to-one dialogue where the rest of the class actually disappeared a bit.

We had a moment there that I would have loved to go into more because he had the need. He had the need for the talks that we were just about to hold a workshop on in that class. Even if he was one of those people who made fun of some of the things I said and disturbed. But he also took it in. Just that story tells me that the work we do is important. But also that it is difficult because society and the institutions are not always prepared.

Then it is that the Center for Violence Prevention closes down. Because if it shuts down, then there is no need for us to be here, then our work is unnecessary. Yes. That is my highest wish!

Over a long period of time, we have investigated how we should actually be here. In North Jutland. What role we should play, and the longer time goes by, and the more we talk to other players here in North Jutland, we find out just as quietly what we can actually contribute. Because violence looks different in North Jutland, in Jutland perhaps in general, than what we have experienced in Copenhagen. We have experienced this through our education in knowledge about violence. Both the evaluations that have been made, but also how our teachers have been met.

In North Jutland, the idea that violence primarily takes place physically is still prevalent. The understanding that the bigger picture around discrimination, gender and acceptance of difference. It is not as big in North Jutland as we have learned it is in Copenhagen. There is not much talk about violence in general in North Jutland. It is actually perhaps even unconscious. Because we are not aware of the consequences. And that is why it is important that we are here as actors. So that we can have those conversations. So that young people and adults do not feel alone.

Violence is unique and at the same time structural – discrimination would not have so much power and meaning if it did not lead back and reactivate a trauma. In this way, we experience a duality in our society, where everyone who is exposed to violence experiences it uniquely, but that the violence is at the same time rooted in structures that produce and reproduce violence.

When we get a common language, we help break down many of the barriers that exist between us people, in our various institutions and on a societal level. I believe in community and I know that we as people have different prerequisites. When space is created for our different voices and contributions, something truly beautiful emerges.

In my leadership, both as a mother and at CFV Nord, trust is an important factor. Trust gives life to our motivation. The value set is clear and we work together towards the same goal; a Denmark without violence. In this community, it is meaningful for me to spend my time and energy, both together and away from my family. Personally, it means the world that I have support for this - as well as 'doing' work and family in a different way than the norm. Of course, this also applies the other way around – that CFV's management supports me.