These are the different types of voluntary work placements that Maailmanvaihto – ICYE Finland coordinates:

Child Welfare Institution 

• Child welfare institutions include different kinds of organisations, but usually, ICYE volunteers work in foster homes. Foster homes are created for socially excluded children who are taken into custody from their biological parents because of drug and alcohol abuse or mental and social problems. The ages of the children vary from toddlers to teenagers. The community provides the children with care, social education, and a homelike, safe environment for growing. Most foster homes in Finland work in close cooperation with cities and municipalities that finance and monitor them. 

• The volunteers participate in the daily activities of the foster home, supporting the staff and the children. Volunteers spend time with the kids giving them a possibility to learn from their language and culture. They organise free-time activities for them and also help with household tasks like cooking and cleaning. It is also possible that the volunteer creates for the children activities such as sports, arts, and languages.

Folk High School

• Folk high schools are boarding schools for mostly young adults aged from 16 to 30+. The folk high schools provide different types of study programs and courses from arts to languages and open university studies. Folk high schools are good options for young people who want to spend their ”gap year” efficiently and to study something that will improve their possibilities for further studies. Many folk high schools also provide Finnish language studies for immigrants and refugees to support their adaptation process. Most of the folk high schools are situated in the countryside. This provides excellent opportunities for social development and learning from the Finnish culture directly from the Finnish youth. Good motivation and active initiative-taking are necessary for a successful voluntary work period in a folk high school.

• The volunteers’ work tasks vary according to their skills and interests: from assisting teachers, giving language courses, and organising free-time activities for the students to practical work like helping in the kitchen, library, or office, or gardening and maintenance work. Sometimes it may be possible to combine voluntary work and studying some subjects in the folk high school. In some folk high schools, the volunteers work with immigrant students who study the Finnish language and culture.

Kindergarten

• Kindergartens are day-care centres for children (aged between 1 and 6 years) whose both parents work during the daytime. Volunteers help the staff with the daily chores such as playing with the children, helping the kids in eating and dressing them into outdoor clothes, and cleaning the kindergarten. We have found the kindergartens to be the best places to learn the language!

• The volunteers support the staff of the kindergarten in their daily work. Some volunteers have been placed in English-language or Spanish-language kindergartens or in kindergartens using special pedagogic methods, like Montessori or Steiner. Volunteers who work in a kindergarten are accommodated in host families.

Old People’s Home

• Old people’s homes are organisations that take care of elderly people who are not able to live on their own. These homes offer accommodation, care, and daily activities for them. Usually the elderly live in the rooms of one or two people, and the houses include common rooms for all the inhabitants. The homes aim at creating a homely atmosphere.

• The volunteers help the staff in daily work tasks, such as assisting the elderly in dining and providing them with different daily activities. It is important that the volunteer is motivated to learn Finnish since the old people often do not know English.

School / Educational Institution

• In the Finnish elementary school, there are 9 grades (with the possibility for an extra 10th grade) and the children are aged from six to sixteen. Most of the schools in Finland are run by the government. Some schools wish to host volunteers in order to create for the pupils a possibility for intercultural learning and practicing a foreign language. 

• The volunteers assist the teachers in the daily school work and also help the staff in other tasks like organising international days or other happenings. Some of the volunteers are placed in other educational institutions, such as schools for students with special needs (physical or mental disabilities) and vocational schools.

Work with People with Special Needs

• Some of the work placements offer education, work, and accommodation services for people with special needs. There might be people with developmental, mental and/or physical disabilities and challenges in learning in these placements. Volunteers work, for instance, in day activity centres, schools, arts & crafts workshops, and communities. 

• The voluntary tasks with people with disabilities depend on the type of workplace in which the volunteer is working. Work can be very practical: helping people in their everyday duties, such as dining, but at the same time there are opportunities to assist in different types of therapy, art classes, handicraft workshops, agriculture, garden work, animal care, etc. Working with people with special needs can be challenging and requires some patience, especially in the beginning – but it is also very interesting and rewarding. It is important that the volunteer is motivated to learn Finnish since people with disabilities often do not know English.