'There is great resistance to connection, especially among people who are largely doing well'

He learned that he needed others to get ahead in life, so now he wants to be of significance to others. Séun Steenken, born in Nigeria, is committed to the youth in his city, Almere.

'The role of the barbershop is seriously underestimated in the Netherlands, in the United States they see it much more. It is a place where young people come to chill, there is such a relaxed atmosphere that everyone talks to each other. We are friends, there is respect. You can have deep conversations with boys who would never go to a community center. 'It is a kind of men's therapy', our barber always says.'

During a haircut in the MotionFades barbershop in Almere, 23-year-old Séun Steenken gets the idea that more is possible with the informal community that the hairdresser's clients form. He is impressed by the stories of the barber, thirty-something Malcolm Power, who organizes all kinds of things for the young people: barbecues, football matches, discussions. 'He paid for it all out of his own pocket. With a few hundred euros he reached more young people than when the municipality organizes something in the community center for 10K (10 thousand euros, ed. ).'

With Power and a third partner, he started the foundation The Next Way six months ago. The goal: to offer young people 'concrete tools' for daily life, such as tips and tricks for job interviews, by helping them develop their talents.

For Steenken, The Next Way is part of his broader social engagement. In addition to his studies in public administration and organizational science, he works an estimated forty hours a week in various areas: as an employee at the interest group Cliëntenbelang Amsterdam ('for vulnerable Amsterdammers'), as a spoken word artist and now also as a director of the hairdressing foundation. 'With that, I mainly want to create something beautiful for Almere, but it will not be my future. I see that in three areas: policy, culture and practical work. I want to have a social impact in all three. Maybe I will become the first mayor who is also a spoken word artist, haha.'

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He was born in Nigeria in 2001. Three years later, a white Dutch-German couple from Almere adopted him, together with his three-year-older, mentally handicapped sister. His mother developed a serious form of arthritis, causing her to lose her job at KLM. During the credit crisis, his father also lost his job. Financial problems led to them having to leave their home and even relying on the food bank for a while.

It is precisely during this period that Séun has to take his Cito test. Due to his low score, he ends up at the bottom of the education system, vmbo-kader. Then begins an impressive advance to university, where he is now a second-year student. He also joins the National Youth Council, the umbrella organization of youth organizations, where he sits on the board for two years, and he is a member of '2100', a movement for young leaders who want to have a social impact.

What has been particularly formative for you?

'Adoption is of course a big, influential event, but I don't want to put too much emphasis on it. Before you know it, your entire identity is hung on it, while my personality has so many more sides. What I have learned through adoption is to move in different worlds.

'My family raised me in a white context, but the outside world mainly viewed me in a black context. I learned the importance of my skin color at a young age - first through implicit remarks, later through the police who just stopped me when nothing was wrong. My white family members never experienced that.'

Do you feel more at home in one of those two worlds?

'I feel like a black person first and foremost – a proud African and Nigerian, even though I've never been back to my country of birth. Under my clothes I often wear a necklace with a pendant from the African continent, which gives me a kind of stability and strength. I've always stayed close to my culture – my mother had an African corner in our house and we had a Yoruba dictionary, the Nigerian dialect I spoke in my early years.

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'My mother had set up an African corner in our house'

'From a young age I also went to a Nigerian hairdresser. Almere is a very multicultural city, most of my friends also have a bicultural background. Ultimately we are all looking for a sense of belonging , of being part of it. I also have white friends and family, but from my identity I feel more connected to people of color.'

Does the Netherlands not give you the feeling of belonging?

'Yes, I am also genuinely proud of being Dutch. I do my best for society in all sorts of ways, I want to make the Netherlands a little more beautiful. But the outside world often reminds me that I may not fully belong, for example when people talk about an integration problem. Then it's about a group that I don't belong to myself, but to which I do feel related. When such a term is used, I think: oh, apparently I don't fully belong after all.'

What do you learn from moving between a black and a white world?

'That has made me a richer person. I think my empathy has increased in particular. I know what it is like for someone to be confronted with prejudices about your background or your skin colour. But I also think I know what it feels like for a white Dutch person to have to deal with an ever-changing society in which you recognise yourself less.

'What I always try to do is to engage in dialogue with as many people as possible. I really enjoy my birthdays, where you see white and black people talking to each other. People with very good jobs at large companies, MBO students who work full-time, civil servants, really everything. In the beginning it is a bit awkward and a bit rough, but at the end of the evening it is really nice. That is exactly how it should be on a large scale. If you have the right intentions and genuinely get to know each other, it can only get nicer at the end of the day in the Netherlands.'

How would you describe your ideal?

'Everything I do has to do with connection, getting to know each other better, more understanding for each other. That's how we get the furthest in society. It seems like something that no one can be against, but in practice you encounter great resistance. Especially with people who are mostly doing well. That surprised me at first: how can you have resistance to coming into contact with people?

'But the attitude is often: why should I make an effort for that, why is it useful to talk to someone who sees the world very differently than I do? I think that is mainly due to fear of the unknown, it is experienced as exciting. Fortunately, you also have people who say: that's great, we should do that.'

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Living together is hard anyway - no one has ever really learned how to deal with people who look and think differently

'What also makes my message difficult is the algorithms that people get lost in. If you only watch things online that you agree with or only surround yourself with like-minded people to have conversations as easily as possible, your resistance to connect with people who belong to a different world increases. That makes living together even more difficult.

'Living together is hard anyway - no one has ever really learned how to deal with people who look and think differently. Staying in your own bubble offers you a lot of comfort. But it is also blinding.'

What do you mean?

'I notice within my group of friends alone that we have prejudices about each other - between different groups it only gets worse. With people who come from a higher socio-economic class, I come across assumptions about people from other classes. If they have benefits, it is quickly said that this is due to laziness.

'Conversely, I notice a lack of understanding about the climate problem among people who are struggling to make ends meet and people who participate in the A12 demonstrations. This is also because there is too little understandable information about the climate problem - you almost need a university education to understand it. I try to explain the urgency that demonstrators feel to my friends or in the barbershop. If such groups of young people would seek connections with each other, I am convinced that they would be able to understand each other's perspective.'

What do you see as the source of your social commitment?

'When I was young, I was told that I was lucky to be adopted. That made me feel like I had to give something back for the opportunities that were offered to me. Nowadays, I see adoption mainly as something that happened to me, I no longer feel responsible for it. But my commitment has remained. My experience in life is that I have needed help from others to get where I am now. So I also try to be of significance to others.'

Source Ivo van der BentWho have been of great help to you?

'First of all, to my mother. She could only partially prepare me for what I would experience in life as a black man. She told me that there would be obstacles on my path, but that she would always fight for me. For example, she did that when the education system underestimated me by advising vmbo-kader. When I did end up there, I owed a lot to my teacher, Joop Soetekouw. He was the first teacher who made me feel seen, he saw that I could do more. He was good at dealing with different cultures, which is why I partly saw myself in him.

'Later I met people who I came to experience as role models. At the National Youth Council I met Kim Putters (SER chairman, ed. ). How he treats everyone the same, whether it's the king or a young person like me, that's what I like about him.

'Defano Holwijn, a rapper and influencer, is also someone I admire. He discusses major social issues with young people and does not let himself be pigeonholed. I can really appreciate that.'

With your social engagement you also have to deal with politics. How do you view that?

'In the beginning I followed everything about the government, now I'm more zoomed out. Every week there's a new little commotion, meanwhile the big problems remain unsolved. What I find bad is the harsh language that causes a division: the 'us' thinking of 'the Netherlands for the Dutch'. Many young people in my environment zoom out because of this, while you actually want them to have more confidence in the government. In that respect we are now doing the opposite - the cuts in youth work do not contribute to connection either.

'With The Next Way we are doing a form of prevention. You can't prove the value with hard figures, but it helps when we offer young people who are normally not reached opportunities for cool internships, talk about sustainability or can help them when they encounter problems in their work or studies. These are small actions, but they still change something.'