Description of organisation

Hyvärilä Youth and Holiday Centre is operating within network of 9 Finnish youth Centres under the auspices of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. The work is determined by the Finnish Youth Law and the Youth Act. As a Finnish youth centre Hyvärilä is using Youth centre pedagogical approaches. The main tasks of the Centre is to provide youth services to ensure empowerment, personal development, and internationalization of the target group - young people of Finland.
Our core values are reflected in our development strategy and correspond with the values of the Finnish youth centres network. These are the strategic goals:
1. We work to ensure that young people can learn, develop, and live a balanced life. Our motto is “Because the value of an experience is immeasurable”. We aim for high quality youth programs which contribute to personal and professional development of young people, ensuring safety and paying attention to physical and mental health the youth. We offer a wide range of opportunities which young people can pick from, and tailor activities to their needs and goals. International opportunities contribute to harmonious development of the youth, so we put effort into creating more opportunities together with youth people and for them.
2. We build bridges with community on regional level and work with local actors. We work together with local and regional actors, create synergies and foster involvement of the community in our activities. After all, we all want to create a better life for our youth. As a member of Finnish Youth Centre network, we cooperate and share knowledge with other Finnish youth centres.
3. We value nature and commit to sustainable development. Hyvärilä is Green Key-certified youth and holiday centre. This means that we are developing sustainable tourism by reducing environmental impact of tourism and preserving the nature. We promote our values when working with our visitors and engage all groups into learning more about sustainability and nature.
Internationality in itself is not listed since it is already an integral part of our activities working along camp schools to reach these goals.
Target groups of our work are young people aged 13-30, including young people facing social challenges, NEET youth, and professionals working in the youth field. We have a policy of zero tolerance to any kind of discrimination. Our guiding principle is that our youth services are available to all, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, religion, race, or nationality. We are constantly developing to make our services more accessible and inclusive for all categories of visitors, from all backgrounds, and with regards to special physical needs or special learning needs.
Regular activities include school camps, camps and events, outreach youth work, social youth work, youth services and youth workshop activities. Annually Hyvärilä provides services for over 9000 young people and youth leaders, mainly from all over Finland, and including youth from other countries. Youth work in the Youth House includes both online and offline activities in Nurmes, Valtimo and Juuka municipalities. Youth house is working with the local youth, vulnerable groups, and youth who have difficulties in school due to bullying, organizing personal study sessions for them and visits by school teachers. Cooperation with international partners from EU and cross-border cooperation with Russia is a big part of regular work and field of expertise of the centre. Youth work of the centre is aimed at engagement of young people, improvement of their employability, facilitating mobility of vulnerable groups, as well as preventive youth work for risk groups. Hyvärilä is active in running international volunteering projects, strategic partnerships, development projects, youth exchanges, and youth worker mobility projects aimed at developing skills and competences of youth workers from Finland.
Hyvärilä youth centre has 40 years of experience in youth field. We specialize in environmental and adventure education. Our programs are implemented year-round, indoors and outdoors, and all programs of the centre include active learning in the nature: forest hikes, lake tours, outdoor games. Hyvärilä was the first headquarters of Outward Bound Finland, which established a solid base of outdoors programs in pedagogical approaches of youth workers.
Hyvärilä Centre staff has broad experience of running youth exchange and volunteering projects, project management and working with grant funding. For over 15 years we have been working with international cooperation programs, supporting youth workers and young people in intercultural learning and mobilities.
As a Finnish Youth Centre, Hyvärilä is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland, and by the Nurmes Municipality to run regular activities. Nuotta camps, investment and development, and international cooperation projects are funded from grant programs