New year, new professional exchange (FIN)
"Prepare for winter in Finland" said our Finnish partner at the previous partner meeting in October. While we gear up for a beautiful, snowy, region and temperatures below 0 degrees celsius, the region of Päijät-Häme provides their guests with an interesting agenda that will surely be of added value to the stakeholders. NEAR partners and stakeholders will be arriving on the 20th of January and enjoy the program and their stay until January 23rd.
Tuesday 21st of January, we'll be taking a look at:
1. Mente Services, Social-Psychiatric Foundation of Päijät-Häme has provided mental health and substance abuse services in Päijät-Häme for over 30 years. It is a local, non-profit service provider and a Social Enterprise. Services and competence are developed in accordance with The Recovery Approach Orientation. Recovery and taking control of your own life is always an individual and variable process. A person’s recovery from mental health issues or illness is a journey along which the person finds new meaning in life and an identity that is separate from their illness.
Have a look at the following link for more information: www.mente.fi/in-english/
2. Peer coaches and peer instructors are trained partners for social services professionals in supported employment or activity centres in the disability services in the Wellbeing services county of Päijät-Häme.
The aim the practice is to improve inclusion, participation, job opportunities and equality of disabled persons. it increases the opportunities of a peer coach and makes it easier for a client to take guidance from a peer with similar experiences and challenges. They are supporters, encouragers, and advisors for clients. They are a big support especially when clients are starting a new job or are new in activity centres.
3. The Activity Centre of Aleksanterinkatu provides day and work activities for clients with special needs. Day and work activities, supported work activities and work coaching in disability services in the wellbeing services county of Päijät-Häme form a set of services aimed at promoting the social inclusion and employment opportunities of people with disabilities through social care.
The new operating model for the day and work activities is launched in the beginning of 2025. It is called “Inclusion house”.
The activities consists of
- supported decision-making
- social inclusion
- enabling
- Team- and self-direction
Wednesday, 22nd of January, we'll be learning about:
1. The Lahti Diaconia Institute operates in the Dila Campus. It is a community and inclusion area that unites Lahti residents of different ages and life situations. It has workshops for young unemployed people, interactive work with pregnant mothers and babies, supported volunteering, rehabilitative work, circular economy: shop for recycled items and rescue food, elderly care home units, day care for children, vocational training and education, community work, youth work, housing for refugees and supported employment. LUOVA and Work & Food are two interesting projects that will be presented during our visit.
2. The role of the participation and welfare service unit in City of Lahti is to coordinate the practices of welfare, health and participation and preventive work cross-administratively with other actors. Taking care of the well-being and health of the local residents is a basic task of the municipality.
For instance, to promote well-being, health and participation the “Kids’ dialogue” -method was developed in Lahti and is based on the Timeout- dialogue method. Kids’ Dialogue is a tool for constructive dialogue that is innovated in the City of Lahti. It is based on the Timeout-method developed by The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. The goals for the Kids’ Dialogue are to give time for a genuine dialogue, to increase understanding and well-being, strengthen the sense of togetherness, improve emotional and interaction skills and to create an equal way to participate and influence.
To conclude, on Thursday 23rd of January, we'll be visiting:
Harjula Settlement Association is a multidisciplinary educational and social organization. It aims also to serve people who are disadvantaged or in a more vulnerable position in the community. Activities provided by Harjula Settlement Association include, for example, early childhood education and camp activities, folk high school activities, mediation in criminal cases and disputes, the recycling centre Patina, and varying projects aimed for example for immigrants or unemployed.
Harjula Settlement Association also offers rehabilitative work activities. The aim is to prevent the negative effects of unemployment on the client's ability to work and to prevent exclusion by providing access to work and other services. You can find more information in English by clicking here.