Become a volunteer
Get involved in Save the Children’s work
Our volunteers can be involved in the daily lives of children and young people as a support families, support persons, holiday homes or sports sponsors. As an online volunteer you will work with children and young people on various online platforms. You can also support foster families and in that way provide empowering inputs for children and young people, or you can help support children and families amidst the refugee crisis.
We continually need volunteers. For example, over a thousand children have support families or holiday homes through Save the Children. Our online volunteers are in contact via the Internet with hundreds of children and young people every month. We provide our volunteers with professional support and training. Most of our voluntary work requires Finnish language skills.
You can also join us as a member and do voluntary work in the local Save the Children association in your area. As a member you can also have a say in the work of the organisation and in the welfare of children and young people in your municipality. Save the Children’s members are at the highest level of decision-making on the board of Save the Children.
Safety for children
Save the Children aims to make sure that all activities involving voluntary work are in every respect safe for children. We oblige that those training to work with children on a voluntary basis provide a criminal records extract from the Legal Register Centre in line with the 2014 law on criminal background checks of volunteers working with children.
Our voluntary activities:
Familyhouse activities in Joensuu
The Familyhouse in Joensuu is a meeting place for families with children, where children’s families can come and hang out and have fun. There are many sorts of work that need doing in Familyhouse that you can become involved with as you wish.
Holiday home activities
For over 60 years, Save the Children has organised holiday home activities so that children have an opportunity to enjoy holidays. Our holiday homes are those of safe families living in rural and urban areas who have a genuine affection for children and want to be of help to them when they need it.
Online volunteers
Our volunteers are an important resource in our various online services. As an online volunteer, you will provide support, counselling and company to children and young people on different one-on-one and group platforms.
Support family activities
Support family activities help families with children manage better at time when parents’ resources are depleted. This is one form of support activity provided by save the Children that helps children and their families cope during difficulties.
Sports mentors
Sports mentors get children involved in physical exercise on a free-form basis or in line with the children’s interests, encourage and support them – and share fun experiences.
Support person activities
Save the Children’s support person activities use volunteers to provide support for families with children. The support is provided free of charge.