About us

Sjokos did not start as an app. It started with a system I developed from principles of positive reinforcement and token economies, which I used while supporting a child at a primary school.

Through the school day the child got many small chances to succeed and earn something we called “Dino Dollars”, physical banknotes I had designed myself. The system made it possible to direct attention toward what the child mastered and the positive behaviour we wanted to reinforce, while giving the child something concrete to work toward. We found that it worked well as part of supporting the child's positive development. Already then I wanted to one day digitise “Dino Dollars” and make this way of working available to more people.

Since then I have worked for several years at a child welfare institution, with children and young people with different needs and complex difficulties. Through that work I have seen how goals and subgoals can quickly become something that exists first and foremost in the office, in documents and in conversations between adults. Many young people know little about what they are expected to work toward, or how the goals connect to what actually happens in their everyday life. I have also wanted to make young people's participation more visible, so that they can feel more included in the decisions that concern their own lives.

Jonah and I eventually got to know each other through a shared hobby. On a hotel trip he told me he had long wanted to use his skills as a programmer to build an app that could have a meaningful impact on people's lives. I immediately thought of the idea I had carried since my time at the primary school. That evening we lay awake late into the night talking about how we could develop it further. My professional knowledge and hands-on experience from working with children and youth, combined with Jonah's programming skills and his wish to build something meaningful, became the starting point for Sjokos.

Sjokos quickly became a passion project for both of us. Since then we have met regularly to explore, challenge and develop our ideas about how Sjokos can become the best possible tool for children, young people and the people who support them.

We want to make good principles easier to use in practice, by giving children and youth many chances to succeed, making it clearer what they are working toward, and giving them more influence over their own everyday lives.

– Brage