All years are special. They contain their own impacts, events and memories. But 2024 in particular will leave a clear mark on my memory. This year, the Mary Foundation changed its name to the Mary Foundation – H.M. Queen Mary’s Foundation. But our work continued unchanged, and we are still fighting for the same purpose through our three areas of focus: Bullying & Well-being, Loneliness and Violence in the Family.At the Mary Foundation, we always strive for more knowledge, effective efforts and new ways to make a difference for those who are outside the community. In 2024, this has meant, among other things, that we have practiced even more at involving young people in our work. Every time we do so, it has given us invaluable value and perspective.Our youth panel, which we established in 2022, has gained new members, and we have already benefited greatly from their insights and points. In the autumn, we launched AFTRYK, our newest initiative. Here we let young people come up with concrete suggestions for how the framework that adults set for young people's lives can be improved. We presented the young people's ideas for how to create a better transition from school to upper secondary education at an event where young people's voices filled both the stage and the audience. An exciting follow-up awaits us to see whether adults around the young people have taken up the suggestions, so that more young people find room for diversity in open, safe communities when they start upper secondary education.The fact that AFTRYK was specifically about transitions is, among other things, because we could see in our population survey 'Loneliness in Denmark' that around three times as many young people experience severe loneliness compared to 2013. And that over half of 16-19-year-olds who experience loneliness associate it with a change of school or education. We wanted to disseminate this and many more nuances about loneliness to both professionals working with young people and the general population. For this, we - for the Mary Foundation - have used both new and traditional formats. Among other things, we have supported the publication of the book ‘Lonely Youth’ about the many faces of loneliness among young people. And to unfold the book’s content about the complexity of loneliness in a more accessible way and for a wider target group, we have launched a small podcast series. Unfortunately, we do not have any easy answers when it comes to loneliness, but greater insight into loneliness is an important step. Podcasts are new to us at the Mary Foundation, and we look forward to exploring this format more in our work.At the Mary Foundation, we work to ensure that everyone feels like they belong. But if family life is characterized by violent relationships, it can be difficult to give children the safe start in life that they deserve, and victims of violence can feel alone and cut off from both their loved ones and the outside world. That is why the fight against violence in the family is a high priority area at the Mary Foundation. And now we have results that show that we have found a way to detect more prospective and new parents with partner violence in their lives, so that they can get help. Through the Together Without Violence initiative, we have allied ourselves with skilled professionals – midwives and health visitors – who are already close to expectant and new parents. Together, we have developed a model so that their professionalism and trust-inspiring relationship can help ensure that fewer children grow up with violence in the family. I am really proud of that. And I look forward to more results in the new year, when the spread of the model is also expected, so that even more children will hopefully avoid growing up in a family with violence.Several of our other projects are also experiencing growing pains and are being expanded to new age groups and arenas. This applies to projects that are intended to strengthen young people's social skills, build inclusive communities and prevent bullying. And this is necessary. Too many children and young people are still exposed to bullying. Bullying is not only limited to physical spaces, but also takes up space in digital ones. We are also constantly trying to become smarter in this field, even though the rapid development makes it difficult to keep up. Our ambition is to better equip the adults around children and young people, so that their understanding of and insight into digital bullying gives them a better opportunity to help children and young people.Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go before healthy and trusting communities are a natural part of everyone's everyday life. So we continue to fight. But fortunately, we are not fighting alone.Because we could not have acquired the knowledge, achieved the results or developed the models without our many partners. Therefore, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who works with us to ensure that more people have a place in the community and experience belonging. It is precisely in partnerships and cooperation that we use each other best and can make the biggest difference for all those who deserve it.With wishes for a Merry Christmas and a hopeful New Year!H.M. The Queen
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H.M. The Queen.
