The Federation of Special Welfare Organisations (EHJÄ ry) is a national child protection organisation that was founded in 1983. The work in EHJÄ is emphasized on aftercare and support person services in child protection and supported housing services for young immigrants. The aim of the organisation is to create new functional models for the use of child protection in co-operation with municipalities and member organisations. EHJÄ ry looks after the interests of its member organisations in questions concerning their fields of action.

We aim to improve the situation of the young people in child protection aftercare. In our work we emphasize the improvement of contents in aftercare to better meet the individual needs of the youngsters.

For young immigrants we organise supported housing services that aim to advance their integration into Finnish society and to support their independent survival skills that are needed in every day life. 

We educate voluntary support persons and support families for the needs of child protection. We provide work counselling services to people who work with child protection and immigration services.
 

Support services for the young people in aftercare

EHJÄ ry organises support activities for the young people in aftercare who are living or moving in to the capital region or in the region of the Southwest Finland.  Our organisation makes agreements with municipalities to implement tailor-made aftercare services for individual persons. Also, when needed, the agreements are made concerning young people who do not have a legal right for the aftercare.

For more information please contact:

Executive Director

Kai Laitinen
tel: 050-511 6714
kai.laitinen@ehja.fi


Supported Housing Services for Young Immigrants

EHJÄ ry has been providing supported housing services for young immigrants since 1996. The aim of the supported housing is to help the young person to integrate in to the Finnish society and to improve the surviving skills needed in everyday life. The service is targeted to 17-22 years old young people who have got an immigrant background. The support includes support for school, taking care of official matters, finding a job, everyday surviving skills and psychosocial support. There is also a possibility for the clients to reach help daily by phone and to participate to camps and journey. 

At the moment, the support service is provided in the capital region, in the Southwest Finland and in Vaasa.

The Immigrant Service Unit of the city of Espoo works as a partner in the capital region. Supported housing unit of EHJÄ is located in Kilo, in Espoo. The office in the Southwest Finland is located in Raisio, where the partners are the cities of Raisio and Naantali.  

For more information please contact:

Capital region:

Maarit Tuovinen
tel: 050-527 6410
maarit.tuovinen@ehja.fi

Southwest Finland:

Aino Levanto
tel: 050-4012934
aino.levanto@ehja.fi

Ostrobothnia:

Hanna Borisov                                                                                  tel:050 596 6625                                                            hanna.borisov@ehja.fi

Support Person Services for the Clients of the Child Protection

Support person service of the child protection is a voluntary service organised by an organisation or social services of a municipality for the children in need of support. Children and young people who get support are clients of child protection. A support person is an ordinary, trustworthy adult, whose own life is in balance. A support person is an important model for a child, and he/she acts as a listener and as a safe adult with whom the child can go to hobbies and spend free time.

EHJÄ ry educates support persons nationwide for the needs of children who are clients of child protection in municipalities. The education is done in co-operation with a municipality or an organisation that orders the education. We have been organising support person courses since 1989 and in 2005 we published a Support Person Handbook. For support persons and support families we organise further education, work counselling and refreshing activities.

For more information please contact:

Organization Secretary
Petra Kohonen
tel. 045-132 9321
petra.kohonen@ehja.fi

The VATUKE -Project

EHJÄ ry carries out a national project that aims to improve support person services nationwide. The project is funded by Raha-automaattiyhdistys (Finland’s Slot Machine Association).

The aim of the project is to support and improve support person services of the child protection and to make the practices more common. The target group in the project is social service units of the municipalities, volunteers who work as support persons and other actors who are interested in support person services. The project ended in 2009.
 

International co-operation

EHJÄ ry is a member in an international youth care alliance Euromet. The alliance has member organisations in France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Belgium, Romania and Slovenia. The member organisations work with children and young people with special needs. The alliance aims to share resources through contributing to an exchange of knowledge, experiences and information. It also aims to influence policies and legislation that has an influence on the care, education and treatment of youth. Euromet aims, for instance, to co-operate in the promotion of educational opportunities for youth and staff members and to seek additional funding and grants to set up research programmes.

For more information see  

www.euromet.nu