Culture House is a safe place to learn and experiment with new things – in good company! This place has done wonders to my self-esteem.’
Thanks to the project Volunteer and Go! The European audience had the opportunity to find out about the Cultural Houses of Finland. The Project Coordinator Sosped introduced both partners, stakeholders, and trainees to the exciting concept of Culture houses.
What is a Culture House?
Culture House is a low-threshold, no-cost day centre and community place for young adults (18 to 35 years of age) with mental health issues or otherwise challenging life situations, and is based on positive mental health and volunteering and peer activities. It provides a safe environment in which to explore a variety of cultural activities in a relaxed and encouraging setting.
The emphasis is on creative and functional peer group activities through which participants build social skills, self-esteem, learn new skills, receive support, and acquire tools for life management. The groups are organized and directed by trained peers.
The primary goal of all Culture Houses is to foster an environment that is welcoming and conducive to creativity. Every week, numerous different groups meet at culture houses. Participants may take part in one or more groups of their choosing. Each group is led by a peer leader, a participant who has completed the culture house’s peer leader training based on inclusive volunteering, while staff members serve as backups for the peer tutors and group members.
Culture house offers possibilities to learn new things, give natural tools for life management, support the development of social skills and improves the ability to work and function
How can someone learn more about the Culture Houses?
Over the last two years people associated with the Volunteer&GO! -project from Cyprus and partner countries from the rest of the Europe are asking more and more about the Culture house model used by the Finnish coordinating partner Sosped foundation, and about the opportunity to introduce this new concept in our countries.
For getting those answers someone must go back to the basic source, the Finnish youth workers. Mr. Lassi Rajamaki, CEO of Sosped, and Mrs. Anna Purola, community coordinator of Tampere’s culture house Virta, were more than happy to share their experience with that very interesting concept.
The first part of the interview included questions that both experts had the opportunity to answer and express their opinion:
Q 1.1 What are the Culture houses for you?
Mr. Rajamaki:
”Sosped has seven Culture houses around Finland. We have also established two others, which we gave to partners to manage. Culture house offers young people to do meaningful things and find people around them, i.e. reduce loneliness. As an organization, our task is to offer people, in the spirit of social pedagogy, e.g. the opportunity to develop their own interaction and other community skills. To me, Culture house represents a place where the target group is offered the opportunity to become empowered and get tools so that dreams of social and community participation can come true”.
Mrs. Purola:
”For me Culture houses are peer communities, where young people living with mental health challenges or in an otherwise vulnerable and challenging life situation, can recover in a safe and culture-oriented environment. Every member of the community is accepted as they are, and they are encouraged to detect their skills and potential through the voluntary and inclusive group activities. The participants of the culture house get to define the amount and level of their participation themselves, which helps them to recognize their individual limits and resources and learn social skills and sensitivity towards others”.
Q 1.2 What qualification you should have to be staff member at a culture house?
Mr. Rajamaki:
”Culture houses have employed people with really diverse educational backgrounds. There have been masters, artists, youth workers, social workers, psychologists, and theater directors, with a really wide variety of backgrounds. In addition, many of our employees have received further education along with their work over the years.”
Mrs. Purola:
”As Lassi said, people working in culture houses have very diverse educational backgrounds. Most of the culture house workers also manage various artistic and/or musical skills, that they can use in the creative and art based culture house community work. I think the most important skills for culture house workers regardless of their education, are 1. the ability to be present, 2. the ability to listen and to adjust their actions to the information received from the young participants, 3. the ability to encourage and 4. the ability to create participation possibilities for everyone.”
Q 1.3 Why do you think the rest of Europe should introduce Culture houses in a local level?
Mr. Rajamaki:
”In addition to continuous development, we also believe in impact assessment and results targeting. Culture houses help young people get ahead in their lives. Many start their studies (or get extra strength to complete their studies), move into working life or otherwise clarify their lives and gain hope for the future. We do not focus on problems or solving problems, but on existing resources and interests. The results speak for themselves.”
Mrs. Purola:
”In the culture house the focus is on the positive mental health. When a youngster is asked what they are good at instead of what difficulties they have, their thoughts inevitably turn to positive sectors of their life. When we offer the opportunity for low threshold participation in volunteering activities and a safe community, and some individual support is added to the process, young people can discover their abilities to act and influence their environment, even if they are in an otherwise challenging or even difficult life situation.”
During the second face, we wanted to learn more from Mr. Rajamaki, about Sosped organization and the cultural houses from the perspective of its CEO:
Q 2.1 What is Sosped and why it decided to introduce Culture houses to the world?
Mr. Rajamaki:
” We are the Foundation for Social Pedagogy. We develop new know-how in niches where no one else necessarily works yet, or after receiving a good model from another party, we develop it further. Our foundation is a platform where a person can write a project for himself and get a job in it. This has happened many times in practice. Our partner Niemikoti Foundation developed the Culture house model. It got its idea in the administration of that foundation and after applying for funding enough times, it got it. The original idea was built according to the needs of young adults at the time. In addition, peer support was strongly included in the project. Sosped received the Culture house model to spread and further develop it. And so we have done.’’
Q 2.2 The culture houses of Sosped are based on any Finland’s tradition or are inspired by something else?
Mr. Rajamaki:
”Culture houses, like Sospeds, utilize elements of social pedagogy such as socio-cultural enthusiasm, focus on resources, peer principles of scouting, fostering community, and in general Sosped’s basic values (reliability, renewal, community). Although our foundation was once established as a counterforce to the academic world with the idea that experience knowledge is at least as valuable as research knowledge, today we operate smoothly in cooperation with the academic field.’’
Q 2.3 Can Youth Workers from EU visit Sosped and trained in any of the cultural houses?
Mr. Rajamaki:
”It’s a good idea and if you are interested in it, you can contact me directly (lassi.rajamaki@sosped.fi).”
Mr. Rajamaki insisted that his email is always available for those who want to be part of the Culture house experience.
For the last part of the interview we wanted the experience of an expert from the front lines. Mrs. Purola gave us very clear and fulfilling answers about all our questions:
Q 3.1 Can you describe a usual day in a Culture house?
Mrs. Purola:
”Every day is different and usually very active and diverse. In culture house Virta in Tampere we had almost 300 young people participating in our activities in year 2023. Culture house Virta is open four days a week. The opening hours are 11-18 and on Fridays 11-16.
During the week, up to thirty different cultural groups (painting, drawing, writing, music, art journal, movies, games etc.) gather at the culture house. One group activity period always lasts five weeks, after which the young inclusive volunteers (peer instructors) plan the next five-week period with the support of us employees.
In addition to mentoring and supporting the young peers in the planning and leading of their groups, we also help in the acquisition of group materials requested by them and in external communication. Depending on the day there are 25-45 youngsters visiting the culture house. We offer coffee and tea and a colourful and cosy environment where to recover. There are youngsters who just come for a coffee and to meet other youngsters, some come to participate a certain culture group led by a peer, some participate in every possible activity, and some want to discuss something with us professionals.
We visit culture and nature sites, band group has concerts and makes records of their own songs, we organize art exhibitions. We also present our activities almost daily to new potential participants and partners. The structure of the day is different depending on the day’s program and participants.”
Q 3.2 How does it feel to be staff member in a Culture house?
Mrs. Purola:
”I feel very privileged to be part of this network that focuses on helping young people find new participation opportunities and coping skills and achieving their goals. It is wonderful and empowering to see how young people in challenging life situations are capable of great deeds when they are trusted, and are reminded that there is always hope, for everyone.”
Do you feel that your experience as a project manager /coordinator for EU project helped you to become better Youth worker? Explain.
Mrs. Purola:
”For sure it has. Meeting youth workers and youngsters from different partner countries, discussing ideas and learning from different cultures, best practices and operating models has made me think about things from new perspectives and expanded my understanding and my professionalism even further. Cooperation networks have now also expanded from within the borders of one’s own country to the international level.”
Conclusion
The conversation with Mr. Rajamaki and Mrs. Purola was beautiful, interesting, and challenging at the same time. We had the opportunity to learn a lot of interesting things about the Culture Houses, the Sosped organization, and the situation prevailing in Finland around the field.
We leave the discussion excited about what we learned, concerned about where our country can reach similar levels as the case of culture houses but at the same time inspired to try something innovative through the example of Finland. We are sure that those who follow the VolGo! Project and its partners have a lot to learn about Culture Houses and inclusive volunteering.
Great thanks to both Mr. Lassi Rajamaki and Mrs. Anna Purola for their time and efforts.
Thrasos Tilemachou
General Manager / Interviewer
Annexes
MR. LASSI RAJAMÄKI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Experienced leader for processes and managemental structures, with the educational background of Occupational therapist, Professional supervisor & about 40 targeted skill trainings, shorter degrees and study trips.
References:
- Member of the Board of Advisors (STEA; a standalone state-aid authority Funding Centre for Social Welfare and Health Organisations (STEA) operating in connection with Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM).
- Member of Ethics Board of Advisors (Veikkaus; Finnish state-owned gambling monopoly)
- Member of the board of The European Gambling Harm Prevention Network (EGHPN).
- A few board memberships in different roles (chair, member, mentor).
MRS. ANNA PUROLA
Community coordinator of Culture House Virta (2015 – now) and project manager of Volunteer&GO! -Erasmus+ KA2 project (2022-2024):
- Academic degree in education theory and volunteering management. Also wide university studies in the field of translating and interpreting (German-Finnish) and in intercultural communications. In addition to the academic studies, she is also trained e.g. to utilize methods of applied art in peer training.
- Co-author of the Culture House Model and the book My Culture House – stories about hope, coping, and mental health. She has
- Writer of mere articles related to inclusive and accessible voluntary work and the Processes of young people in society, and what leads to their exclusion and falling out of the service network.
- The author and designer of the mental health sensitive approach created in the Volunteer&GO! -project.
- Member of the organizers of Achievable Volunteering Network in Finland, an experienced trainer of volunteers and creator of different training contents for volunteers.
- Experience in project management, event and seminar arrangements, network and co-operation skills at local and international level, communications, volunteer management, organizing and leading empowering community activities and practical work with people in challenging and vulnerable life situations.
