P4 Skilled and socially inclusive region
4.1. More people benefiting from stronger Central Baltic communities
Southern Finland - Estonia
01.04.2016 - 31.03.2018
€210 145
€166 205
This project identifies the main challenges Estonian women who have immigrated to Finland have to face; compared to local residents they are socially and economically more vulnerable and face more problems often difficult to foresee. So far the issue has not been dealt with a systematic approach.
The project will set up peer group sessions in Finland and Estonia using the Peer Counselling technique. The aim is to strengthen the sense of community in the target group and to enable the members to communicate and share their experiences. A future framework will also be established to enable a discussion on common issues and problems.
Project activities include a collection of data, the establishment of three peer groups of Estonian female immigrants in Turku, Helsinki and Tallinn, the organisation of peer group events throughout the project period, the establishment of walk-in info points in Turku and Helsinki, communication activities including a Facebook community and a project webpage. The Turku and Helsinki regions were selected due to the density of Estonian population and because they host operational partner organisations working with Estonians.
Euroopa Eesti Seltside Koda MTÜ
Country: EE
the lead partner does not have a home page
Partner budget: 85.960 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 73.066 EUR ERDF
Varsinais-Suomen Viro-keskus ry
Country: FI
Partner budget: 70.360 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 52.770 EUR ERDF
Suomen Viro-yhdistysten liitto ry
Country: FI
Partner budget: 53.825 EUR
Amount of ERDF funding: 40.369 EUR ERDF
Achieved results
FEM - providing information to Estonian women living in Finland
Compared to local residents, foreigners encounter bigger challenges to enter the labour market. FEM project focused on offering support to Estonian women moving to Finland.
To enable smoother access into the Finnish labour market, both for the Estonian women planning to move to Finland and for those already living in the country, the project established info points ”infotuba” in Turku and Helsinki and peer support groups as well as several information events both in Finland and Estonia. The events covered issues such as:
• economic coping
• children and education
• language, language barriers, and culture
• local people's attitudes, stereotypes
• labour market
Altogether 165 people visited or contacted the info points and 260 people participated in information activities.