Lemmilä Children's Home

Care at Lemmilä is based on fruitful interaction and connecting with each child on a personal level. Day-to-day communality is built on cooperation between the wards and the school. The atmosphere at Lemmilä is warm, and everyone is on the same side.  

Lemmilä is substance-free and safe. The children and young people living at Lemmilä can engage in many hobbies. We have a gym, fields for ball games, an ice hockey rink, a motocross track, boats, a pool room and a wood shop. We also work with the school to organise sports events. 

Food, cleanliness, personal space, sufficient rest, outdoor recreation and creating regular daily routines are the pillars of our care and treatment. School days set the weekly rhythm. At the ward, children practice group situations and doing chores. 

Every child has a personal carer who helps them set their personal goals. The personal carer is the child’s trusted adult, with whom they can talk about everyday experiences, their feelings and emotions and any worries they might have. Personal carers are also responsible for cooperating with the child’s parents. In addition, they support the child’s schoolwork and leisure activities and help prepare plans. 

Children are involved in handling their own affairs and participate in drawing up their care and upbringing plan. They also take part in meetings where their matters are discussed. 

The children’s home organises events, such as spring and Christmas celebrations. Former residents are welcome to join and meet the adults and children of Lemmilä. 

Cooperation with the parents is important to ensure the children’s balanced development and the success of foster care. We help maintain and strengthen the contact and continuity of relationships between children and their parents or others close to them. 

Lemmilä is located 65 kilometres from Helsinki, so parents and close family members must be well-informed about the daily life and procedures at Lemmilä. We keep all parents and guardians updated about their child’s life and situation. 

Family members, friends and other people important to the children living at Lemmilä are welcome to visit. 

Both wards employ six instructors and a senior instructor. 

Lemmilä has its own cook. A caretaker and two ward domestics handle the cleaning and maintenance of the wards and outdoor areas. A part-time office secretary is in charge of the office. 

Lemmilä has a part-time psychologist who meets with the children and their parents and the personal instructors. The psychologist also participates in preparing care and upbringing plans and the admission, school, therapy and hospital negotiations. The children are entitled to confidential meetings with the psychologist. 

The director of the children’s home is in charge of Lemmilä’s operations. 

The Lemmilä Children’s Home features a school, which is a branch of Puolimatka School and operates under Hyvinkää’s education department. The principal of Puolimatka School is also the principal of Lemmilä School.  

In addition to our own school, we cooperate with the local village school, neighbours, youth employment and education services, health and dental care services, the HUS children’s psychiatry and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic, the HUS adolescent addiction psychiatry outpatient clinic and Youth Station.