OmaStadi funding has been used to organise events that bring people together all around Helsinki. It has helped with renovating the canopy kiosk near Arabianaukio Square into a meeting place for local residents and strengthening the emotional and interaction skills of schoolchildren, among other initiatives.
Around 7,500 people gathered in Sinebrychoff Park in South Helsinki in August. Koffari, as the park is more commonly known among locals, was the venue for the Koffarin Kinofest film festival for all ages. During the three-day free event, people watched films and jammed to music in the park.
The atmosphere was electric. A varied programme entertained people of all ages, from small babies to grandparents.
“I think this is a great example of an OmaStadi implementation. The proposal passed in the spring 2024 vote, and the very next year we were able to enjoy the festival atmosphere,” says Borough Liaison Lotta Jäättelä.
In OmaStadi, residents can provide development ideas for places or services that are important to them.
Jäättelä works as a borough liaison for the southern major district, which includes Punavuori and Sinebrychoff Park. The shared task of the borough liaisons in different areas of Helsinki is to promote opportunities for participation and influence for the residents of Helsinki. OmaStadi is an important channel to achieve this.
OmaStadi is a participatory budgeting system that has been provided by the City of Helsinki since 2018. It allows residents to come up with proposals to improve comfort, activities and services in their own neighbourhoods, for example. After the proposals have been submitted, they are put to a vote to decide which of the proposals will be implemented. The proposals are then further developed in cooperation between City specialists and residents.
“In OmaStadi, residents can provide development ideas for places or services that are important to them. Residents can also come up with something completely new and unprecedented," Jäättelä says.
Koffarin Kinofest was produced by the Savoy Theatre of the City of Helsinki's Culture and Leisure Division.
“It was wonderful to be able to implement a new free cultural event in the centre of Helsinki and inject some high-quality rhythmic Finnish music into the city's festival scene,” says Veronika Pesonen, event producer for Koffarin Kinofest.
The event was planned together with local operators: the steering group included representatives of neighbourhood organisations, and an information and brainstorming session open to all was held in the spring.
“During the event, we were posted at the information tent and we received a lot of positive feedback about the event before it had even ended," says the festival’s Senior Producer Sirpa Hynninen.
On the other side of town, on Intiankatu near Arabianaukio Square, there is a City-owned wooden canopy kiosk that was renovated a few years ago.
Local residents had hoped and longed for the old canopy kiosk to be renovated, and so they submitted an OmaStadi proposal for the restoration. At the same time, residents wanted the kiosk to offer summer jobs to local young people.
The kiosk was renovated with OmaStadi funding in spring 2023. With the help of the City's Summer Job Voucher and OmaStadi funding, young people from the area have been hired to manage the kiosk: making coffee, selling baked goods and getting to know the local people. An instructor has been working in the kiosk to support the young people. In 2024, OmaStadi funding was used to hire young people, an instructor and an event producer for the kiosk.
“There aren’t enough summer jobs to go around for young people. We wanted to ensure that young people have the best possible experience working their first job,” says Jutta Kivistö from Kylätalo Kääntöpaikka community hall, which manages the kiosk operations.
The revamped canopy kiosk has brought the whole of Arabianaukio Square to life.
“The area around the kiosk has also served as an events venue. The principle is that all events are open to all and free of charge; there is no obligation to buy anything from the kiosk.”
The community hall wants to make use of the excellent momentum of the kiosk and maintain the activities in the coming years. Kylätalo Kääntöpaikka community hall is currently renting the canopy kiosk from the City, and a patronage campaign is being considered to fund next year's summer jobs.
Jenni Kosunen believes that the foundation for community-based daily life is built in childhood.
When she introduces herself to schoolchildren, she says something along the lines of: A wonderful person has suggested that the northern area needs to strengthen its emotional and interpersonal skills. This proposal got 326 thumbs up and voted me in for two years, so here we are.
Giving children and young people the tools to learn emotional and interpersonal skills helps them to develop their own agency and ability to deal with challenges and difficult situations.
Kosunen works for the OmaStadi project and is involved in the daily life of seven schools. She works with the whole school community to strengthen the skills of both staff and learners. Kosunen gets to know the schoolchildren one group at a time at assemblies or in one-to-one conversations. She wants to determine how emotional and interpersonal skills should be reinforced in this school and for these pupils, in particular.
“During my two-year post, my aim is to strengthen competence, understanding and regional sharing of emotional skills and effective interaction," Kosunen says.
The OmaStadi project reinforces the development work already carried out in daily life at schools. It will model, test and identify good practices to support the teaching and use of emotional and interpersonal skills during the school day. Furthermore, the objective is to explore whether this kind of community-building activity has an impact on, for example, bullying and pupil wellbeing.
For Kosunen, it is important to make talking about emotional skills part of the everyday life of schoolchildren.
“Giving children and young people the tools to learn emotional and interpersonal skills helps them to develop their own agency and ability to deal with challenges and difficult situations.”
This takes time and requires examples from real life. With lower secondary school pupils, she uses the example of social media and the emotions that social media posts evoke.
Kosunen has received good feedback from schools on the cooperation that started in autumn 2024. The work will continue with OmaStadi funding until the end of July 2026.
“Genuine discussion, listening to others and really looking each other in the eye have been highlighted in the feedback. The fact that students interact more with each other has also been noted. On the whole, interaction is becoming softer and opening doors to building friendships, for example.”
The completed projects reflect OmaStadi's promise to make Helsinki even better. OmaStadi has introduced new kinds of meeting places and skills to the everyday lives of the residents of Helsinki.
