ESC: Long-term ESC Volunteering at Youth Cultural Center Monde

Rovaniemi is a small city of approx 60 000 inhabitants, situated in the Arctic Circle in Finland. It is quite lively and active for its size, thanks to its status as Lapland’s capital, good opportunities to study and growing tourism. Nature is always close here and we’re happy to enjoy four seasons. Rovaniemi City Youth Services is a department in the municipal public organization. The municipal youth services consist of a variety of activities which all share the common aim to offer the youngsters equal and high quality possibilities of participation and sense of belonging to the community. We want to offer an interesting and educational programme for the children and young people under the age of 29 years. The guiding values of our work are safety, equality, participation and creativity. All our activities comply with the Youth Act and the ethical code for youth work drawn by the national umbrella organisations for youth work and youth workers. Some methods we use: Open activities at the youth houses - Group activities - Cultural Youth Work - International Youth work - Digital Gaming house Montendo - Workshops - Events - Courses - Trainings - Youth work in primary and secondary schools - Summer holiday activities for children and youngsters - Subsidies to local youth associations. All our employees are trained professionals with at least a vocational upper secondary qualification and some have Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees. The organisation's staff consists of: the head of youth services, youth services’ coordinators, outreach youth workers and youth workers who work in the Cultural Center Monde, in the Youth Information Center Poppari, in regional municipal youth houses and in flexible basic training classes at local comprehensive schools. We also offer possibilities of work practice on a regular basis to students and volunteers as well as subvented jobs for the unemployed. One of our responsibilities as a public operator is to support the youth activities of the local 3rd sector organisations and NGO’s. We take part in professional networks of youth work on local, national and European levels.