Feel the Forest 2026
Nuorisokeskus Metsäkartano
Rautavaara, Finland
Description
We are an outdoor education youth center and we offer for July-August, a three week long volunteering opportunity for those who don't currently work or study. For example if you didn't manage to get into the studies for this autumn, no problem, this is a perfect opportunity to start with ESC volunteering, maybe you will later on find a longer project as well! In this project the volunteers work daily with tasks related to preserving and creating new outdoor spaces in the forest which are used in our educational programs. Some tasks can be indoors as well, especially when rainy weather. More detailed tasks will be shared day by day. Best is to join the project with a curious mind and a good attitude, and flexibility to work together. Volunteers work never alone, always with a work leader and each other. The idea is to develop group working skills, communication skills, all kind of useful skills for future working life and studies! No previous experience needed!
Accommodation, food and transport arrangements
Volunteers will live in a shared log cabin called METSÄPIRTTI. Metsäpirtti is 400m away from the main building and it has 6 rooms and a common living room, kitchen and showers and a sauna. Volunteers will be sharing rooms, it is very likely that each volunteer will share the room with one more person. Breakfast and lunch are often served in our youth center restaurant. Evenings and weekends volunteers either eat in the restaurant buffet, or they get ingredients to prepare their own meals in their own house. Transport from house to work is by foot, it's very close.
Training during the activity
There will be training to all the work tasks and to live and work together. Also knowledge about the surrounding nature and nature survival will be provided for the volunteers. We also have extra staff resources for this project to help all the group to live together, and to make all daily life work nicely so everyone can feel good and participate as equally as possible.
Participant profile
We invite participants 18-30 years old to join this activity. Any profile who fit to this age group can apply, but we give priority to those who are not in school, not in education and who have no previous experience in volunteering. We are also committed to make adjustments on this volunteering to be as accessible as possible, taking into account on top of physical accessibility also social accessibility. We can organize extra support for volunteers should they need it and we can adjust the working tasks. But profile of the volunteer and possible special needs must be described already in the application. :) We are also lgbtiq+ friendly location. At this stage, our call is closed for everyone else BUT WE HAVE 1-2 SPOTS FOR VOLUNTEERS COMING FROM FINLAND. So the call is for now open only for those coming from Finland. Follow us in Instagram for more projects @ metsakartanointernational
Activity dates
From 27/07/2026 to 14/08/2026
Activity location
Metsäkartanontie 700, Rautavaara, Finland
Activity type
Volunteering teams
Looking for participants from
Finland
Activity topics
Health and wellbeing
Creativity and culture
Deadline for applications
No application deadline
Project code
2025-1-FI01-ESC51-VTJ-000349169