The Finnish National Youth Council Allianssi is a national service and advocacy organisation for the youth sector. We are a lobbying organisation with no political or religious affiliation, and our membership consists of over 150 national youth and education sector organisations.
Our main objective is to prevent the social exclusion of young people, which we believe is the biggest problem in Finland today. Our aim is to help young people develop into responsible members of society and promote their participation in decision making and international activities. We advocate for the well-being of young people and for sufficient resources for the youth sector. We serve actors in the youth sector and youth work in organisations, municipalities and parishes.
Events for the youth sector
Annually, we organise a major annual national event for the youth sector, YOUTH National Days of Youth Work. The event brings together thousands of actors in the youth sector, from the organisational, municipal and parish sectors.
We also coordinate our own theme week for the youth sector, Youth Work Week, and Policy Week, which focuses on young people’s education in democracy. In connection with every national election, we also organise youth elections that we have coordinated since the 1990s.
Our operations are guided by rules and a strategy. The themes and objectives for the advocacy work are defined in the target programme. Familiarise yourself with the documents here.
About our organisation
We have over 20 dedicated experts in their own fields working for us. In addition to the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson, the Board elected by our members currently has nine members and nine alternate members, who represent a wide range of actors in the youth sector. Meet our personnel and Board, and contact us!
We are located in the Allianssi building in the charming surroundings of East Pasila with a few other actors in the youth sector. Our conference and sauna facilities are available for rent for both actors in the youth sector and other interested parties.
We would be happy to answer your questions about young people, the youth sector and organisations. Allianssi and our member organisations have expertise and perspectives on youth-related phenomena and themes.
The National Youth Council Allianssi was established in 1992 when three youth work organisations (Nuorisotyön Keskus NTK, Civic Education Centre KaKe and National Committee of Finnish Youth Organizations SNT) merged. Our operations are funded from the general subsidy of the Ministry of Education and Culture to youth organisations.
General information about Finnish Youth work and youth
- Finnish Youth Barometers
- Ministry of Education
- Finnish Youth Work Statistics
- Finnish youth research society
- State Youth Council
- Youth Wiki, Finland
Interesting further reading about the topic
- Forkby, T. & Kiilakoski, T. (2014) Building capacity in youth work: Perspectives and practice in youth clubs in Finland and Sweden. Youth & policy 112.
- Gretschel , A. (ed.) (2016) Studying the Impact of International Youth Work.
- Höylä, S. (2012) Youth Work in Finland.
- Kiilakoski, T. (2014) Entrepreneurial Learning and Ethos of Youth Work: reflections on a difficult relationship. in Pantea, M. (ed.) Young People, Entrepreuship & Non-formal learning.
- Kiilakoski, T. (2017) Saying, doing, relating – thinking about youth work practice in Finland. in Thinking seriously about youth work. And how to prepare people to do it.
- Kiviniemi, J. & Tuominen, S. (eds. (2017) Digital Youth Work – A Finnish Perspective.
- Nieminen, J. (2013) A Finnish perspective: features of the history of modern youth work and youth organisations. In History of Youth Work, Vol. 3.
- Nieminen, J. (2014) History of youth work as a profession in Finland. In History of Youth Work in Europe, vol. 4.
- Nieminen, Juha & Gretschel, A. (2018) The “Social” in Youth Work: Snapshots of Finnish Youth Work Policy and History. In History of Youth Work, Vol. 6.
- Nöjd, T. & Siurala, L. (2015) Youth Work Quality Assessment. The Self and Peer Assessment Model.
- Peltola, M. (2010) Youth Work in Finland – Finding Ways for intercultural Opening.
- Siurala, Lasse & Sinisalo, Juha (2018) Impact of Youth Work in Finland. In The Impact of Youth Work in Europe: A Study of Five European Countries.
- Wrede-Jäntti, Matilda & Wester, Cecilia (2018) CSYP in Finland –Essential elements, strategies and functionality within the youth guidance and service networks. In Needles in Haystacks.