City of Espoo Youth Services

Description of host organization

Espoo's Youth Services provide valuable services to young people aged 9 to 17 years old at several different youth centers around Espoo city. Leisure time activities are implemented after formal school time, mainly evening and weekend time. In the summer we organize summer camps and various courses. In addition to this, we organize events for young people, mobile youthwork, youthwork at schools and streets (outreach youth work) and support their study and employment opportunities. All our activities are based on the needs and wishes of young people, supported by professional youth workers.

Throughout all of our programs and initiatives, we place a strong emphasis on listening to young people and encouraging their participation. Our values of being youth-oriented, innovative, and fair are reflected in everything we do. Ultimately, our goal is to enable every young person in Espoo to influence topics that are important to them.

This work is made possible thanks to the dedication of our educated professionals, who work closely with young people and their families. Variety is seen as a strength, and Youth Services strive to give every young person the chance to be themselves and have fun with their peers.

Volunteers' tasks

We are looking for 4-5 long-term volunteers for the period of 1st of January 2025 until 30th of June 2025. The main tasks of the volunteers include for example:

• To implement activities at the youthcenter mainly in the evenings and weekends, except for Sundays and national holidays, always with professional youthworker.
• Activities with young people such as conversations, playing games, directing activities for young people such as cooking, arts and crafts, game tournaments, sports, etc. based on the needs and wishes of young people.
• Other tasks of Espoo city youth services for example arranging events and youth participation processes and summer camps.
• Office work when needed, like assisting our staff in various tasks, meetings, advertising our activities in Social media channels etc.
• More detailed tasks are planned and agreed upon with the support youthworker, at the start of the volunteer period
• At the end of the project we give a change to make some production with the whole volunteering group

The work primarily takes place during the leisure time of local youth (mostly afternoons and evenings), and the main task is to interact with young people. The volunteer will work about 7 hours per day, 5 days per week. 2 days of holiday per month, for the duration of the project. 

Volunteer's profile

The most important aspect of being a volunteer is having a positive and open attitude towards learning new things. We require initiative and activity at work as well as basic skills of working life.

Working with young people provides you with a constantly changing environment where no day is alike.  We are looking for volunteers with conversational communication skills in English. We appreciate some experience of acting with young people aged 9 to 18.

We wish applicants from diverse backgrounds, including representatives of different genders, as well as people belonging to linguistic, cultural and other minorities.