Hi, I’m Aelin Amogus (50 yrs). In 2045 I'm passionate and determined social environmentalist.
Nowadays everyone can use only they/their as their pronouns.
My motto is: "Social environmentalists for sustainable arts education"
I work at the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland as the head of Social EnvironMentalists (SEMENTS) program. This new program, which I developed in collaboration with the HR and my colleagues, was founded 10 years ago. The pilot was initiated first as a 3 years project, but the results were so needed and innovative, that a stable program as part of the university was founded. By focusing on the inner good we have been able to increase the university's productability by 10%, students graduate in time, personnel sick leaves have decreased by 15 % and overall well-being at the university has increased by 40%. At the same time as the pilot was launched, so was the new sustainability policy launched on national level, through which universities can claim government funding in order to support their social sustainability.
The SEMENTS program supports both the university's own social environment and the wider societal environment by training both students and personnel in social environmental competence and with an understanding of the interrelatedness of life with the environment. In this way the program contributes widely to support social sustainability not only in the institution, but the interconnections of its’ community. The program has been applied nationally in most of the universities providing arts education. In Europe it has also been piloted in several arts universities around Europe and will be taken into their systems permanently.
The social environmentalist program is based on ecosocial approach to wellbeing (EAW - see below). We, the social artists work as social designers in communities. Social designers train all the personnel and students with artistic methods in order to support their social environmental competence, which aims at better quality in social interaction, justice and equity, and thereon social sustainability. By using arts based and artistic methods, every student and member of the personnel is allowed and supported to participate in the community at their own level.
We constantly develop and pilot new modes of social reform in order to support and understand the social environment. Therefore the program is in a constant state of flux - just as the society itself. Agility is one of the core values with equity and justice.
I'm also the head of the Social sustainability group in the alliance of United Uniarts, which is the head association of all the universities educating for arts in Finland.
My inspiration for this work grew from the moment when one of my siblings committed suicide in 2028 after several years of depression. Their situation had climaxed in university where the competitive atmosphere had severely damaged their mental health. After their devestating decision to take his own life, I started working for better social environments in all my work. And I'm still continuing. It is dedicated to all those who feel excluded, anxiety in social situations or feel that their needs have not been met.
It is not a secret, but I'm obsessed with Pepsi Max. And always will be. No matter how many new teeth I need to get.
Background information:
Finland was one of the first countries in the world (in 2031) to have embedded the ecosocial approach to wellbeing (EAW, by Salonen & Konkka 2015) as the back bone for the national legislation and societal order. This approach ingrates the hierarchy of ecological, social and economic aspects of well-being as follows:
This order of hierarchy gave birth to the acknowledgment of the importance of social sustainability as a prequisite to economic and ecological sustainability - and vice versa.
Finland has also been one of the leading countries in integrating arts, artistic methods and artists into shaping societal systems, health services, variety of institutions and organisations on national level.