United Sisters Background

United Sisters is a social project at “Fryshuset” - a large youth center in Sweden. Fryshuset is a non-governmental organization (NGO) and besides  a number of social projects Fryshuset runs schools and programs for vocational training, seminars and conferences, courses in theatre, music, and sport as well as hosting events, concerts, parties and discotheques. Fryshuset even has its own church, the Fryshus-church.

Formally Fryshuset is a foundation headed by the YMCA of Stockholm. However, Fryshuset is a non-religious organization. Public funding covers around 5 % of the activities, the rest is financed by a mixture of grants, endowments and fees for services such as educational and social programs (fees that are not paid by young people or individual clients but by our co-operational partners and government agencies).

Some of our activities are also run in Gothenburg and Malmö – Sweden’s second and third largest cities. Altogether Fryshuset employs around 500 people and has around 40,000 visitors every month.

United Sisters was founded in 1996 upon the initiative of two young girls who lacked an activity that was aimed at young girls and their needs. They wanted to start a group where girls could make their voices heard and develop their interests. The first girl group was started at Fryshuset in Stockholm and called itself United Sisters, a name that has followed the organization thereafter.

United Sisters have activities in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö and is open to all girls aged 12-20. Our work is conducted mostly by volunteers, supervised by employees. The girls can take part of coaching activities, night walks and participate in a girl group. United Sisters also develops methods, materials and trainings around these activities.

One of the main goals of United Sisters is to actually be ‘united sisters', where we enjoy quality time together and embrace the fact that everyone should have the right to be seen and heard.