By Päivi Arvonen

“We offer information and networking opportunities for international people. The idea is to make participants aware of city services with fun and interactive events,” the organisers Sören Rasmussen and Elina Nurmi sum up.

Helsinki Region Welcome Weeks is a month-long programme tailored for the needs and interests of international people in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and their families.

Organised now for the third time, the 2013 Helsinki Region Welcome Weeks will take place from 29 August to 29 September. The weeks’ programme will provide participants with information about housing, studies and living in Finnish society.

“A lot of information is available online, if you know what to look for and where to look, but many questions obvious to Finns are less obvious to people of international background,” says the Helsinki Region Welcome Weeks project co-ordinator Søren Rasmussen.

Encounters boost co-operation

Rasmussen utilises his own experience in his work. He moved from Denmark to Finland 10 years ago. In his student days in Finland, he sought to increase co-operation between student bodies across disciplines and nationalities.

“I believe that it’s easier for people to network professionally, if they also keep in touch after working hours,” Rasmussen explains.

The Helsinki Region Welcome Weeks events are fun and interactive.

Rasmussen says, “We strive to give a face to bureaucracy and the websites of various disciplines, in order that the information seeker and information provider can later meet each other with more ease.”

“Our events lower the threshold for the participants to network and to look for information,” says Elina Nurmi, a planner at the City of Helsinki Personnel Centre’s immigration division. “The event concept stems from the goal of bringing city services closer to residents in a manner that encourages thinking and active citizenship.”

New partners welcome to join

Helsinki Region Welcome Weeks was first organised in 2011. The organisers and sponsors were the Cities of Helsinki and Espoo, Uusimaa Regional Council and the Helsinki Education and Research Area (HERA) consortium of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area universities and universities of applied sciences.

“We welcome new partners,” Rasmussen says. “For example, various citizen groups could organise their own events during the weeks and reach new target groups together with us. I urge new event organisers to contact us bravely to discuss ways to work together.”

The weeks’ events are open for everybody. The core target group comprises the region’s 80,000 working international professionals and their families, 14,000 international students and 21,000 other international people in the area.

The 2012 Helsinki Region Welcome Weeks attracted 3,600 participants to the weeks’ 32 events, which were organised by 77 people.

Programme ranging from guidance for CV writing to exotic city destinations

The versatile programme of Helsinki Region Welcome Weeks offers participants opportunities to obtain hands-on guidance in a wide range of questions. For example, the Talent Factory CV Clinic teaches participants how to put together a curriculum vitae or a job application.

Hidden City Race is a popular and playful competition for teams, which tour a series of sites collecting points. The sites range from city offices to such museums that few people would normally visit.

“The idea is to make participants aware of city services with professionally organised, fun and interactive events,” Rasmussen and Nurmi sum up.

www.welcomeweeks.fi

Translated by Johanna Lemola

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