ACTIVITIES
We work in the field of culture, community, health and human rights. Our activites are mainly international youth projects in the format of educational trainings and seminars. Here are some examples of our projects.
Our projects have been supported by the following funders:
In addition to the activities listed below, we sent participants and contributed with team members in several international projects yearly.
Employment & Competences 4 Success
Find more information here. Application process opened 22.09.2017.
Contact pia.nurmioperala@gmail.com to apply, 2 places available.
Working on intercultural dialogue for peace
The theme of the 2017 work plan is social inclusion, intercultural dialogue and peace-building in relation to the current refugee situation. The aim is that northern European youth organisations increase their capacity to facilitate intercultural dialogue, become more inclusive and contribute to peace-building. The method is competence building on youth work leadership, to raise the non-formal education competence of youth workers and leaders especially in direction of the theme above. The activities will be done in cooperation with youth organisations in norther Europe.
The 19th-25th of February we organised the training course LEAD (LED in Swedish) in Kemiö, Finland.
The aim of LEAD was that northern European youth organisations both (1) motivate their young members to develop inclusive approach towards other cultures and (2) develop the activities to be more easily accessible for refugee youth, as a step for them to become socially included in their new home community.
-In comparison to the original aim, this final aim shows that we more clearly initiated change on two areas: the first part is about the NGO´s current young members´ attitudes, and the second is about NGO accessibility for young refugees.
The objectives of LEAD were that experienced northern European youth workers and leaders:
-get overview of the refugee crisis´ impact on local level in northern Europe,
-reach increased understanding of the refugees´ background, their situation in the new home community and their needs and interests,
-learn about social inclusion and how an inclusive approach could be brought to youth at the organisations´ regular activities,
-gain competences to motivate and facilitate respectful intercultural dialogue between local and refugee youngsters, and
-plan inclusive follow-up activities and develop specific skills to implement them.
The flow of the training was:
- Introduction and getting to know each other
- Getting to know the aim, objectives and programme
- Sharing the participating organisations´ experience of social inclusion
- Sharing articles from participants home communities/countries about social inclusion
- Exclusion breakfast (simulation game) as a starting point for talking about inclusion/exclusion and refugee situation
- Research about who, why and how people come to northern Europe (very valuable how the Syrian participant told about his travel to Europe)
- Guest from Red Cross telling about their work with refugees and basic facts about asylum process etc.
- Exercise about the difference between hate speech and freedom of speech
- Discovering and sharing culture (especial values) together with local Syrian refugees
- Discussing exclusion/inclusion, hopes, dreams together with local Syrian refugees
- Exercise about non-violent communication and intercultural dialogue
- Introduction to action planning sessions, along with input on project management
- Skills development: Conflict management, human rights, European immigration law, gender mainstreaming in youth work, public speaking and leadership
- Action planning sessions as group work and presentation of it
-Evaluation
Click the gallery to see photos from the course.
Click the gallery to see follow-up project ideas.
Happy Ever After
Happy Ever After was a seminar held in Kobuleti, Georgia for five programme days in October 2015. The participants came from Finland, Georgia, Denmark, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, Turkey and Armenia. The project was coordinated by Saga Finland.
The aim of Happy Ever After was that the participants deepen their awareness of what young people´s wellbeing consists of and developes consepts to support it.
The objectives were to:
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understand the concept of happiness and wellbeing while exploring what it can consist of and how it can be reached,
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build trust in the group and share personal life challenges,
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discover how the elements of the society impact on young people´s mental health,
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develop method consepts in youth work to support young people´s wellbeing, and
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specify concept to beimplemented in the sending organisation.
SEEDS
Saga Finland is an active partner in the European - South American project SEEDS. As a partner Saga Finland contribute to the project both with leaders and participants, as well as host an activity in Vänö, Finland.
The project consist of a series of training courses, local workshops and meetings. The participating organisations are from Finland, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Romania, Argentina, Peru, Mexico and Brazil.
The aim of the project is to contribute to the development of the social economy and social entrepreneurship practice in the nongovernmental sector, as an instrument for achieving financial self-sustainability and organizational development.
The project has three main objectives:
● Promote the concept and practice of social economy among the local communities and the NGOs involved in the project;
● The creation of a competence development instrument in the area of social entrepreneurship and project management by creating and testing a fit-all workshop and training modules toolkit;
● The development of a framework for cross-sectorial sharing of good practices between social entrepreneurship ventures and NGOs
Youth for Rural Employment
"Youth for Rural Employment was a training course held in 13-22 September 2013 in Reunion Island, France. The course was about how youth can find or create work opportunities in rural areas even in times of recession. The project was hosted by the local youth organisation Mission Local Sud and Saga Finland coached the team from application to report stage, and contributed with two trainers and three participants.
Raising Phoenix
Raising Phoenix was an evaluation meeting that took place 24-27 of July 2013 (excluding travel days) in Kemiönsaari, Finland. 29 youth workers and leaders were present at the meeting and they came from the twelve European countries Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey. The theme of the meeting was European awareness and anti-discrimination and the objectives were to:
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evaluate what we have learned from the previous projects made in common,
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map the recourses and skills we have and what each of us could improve,
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make a plan of our future actions to work towards our vision of global sustainable development, a strong Europe and tolerance.
The methods used were non-formal and all participants assisted with planning and facilitation of the sessions.
Shadow of Saga
Saga shadow was a job-shadowing project with which we aimed to map the good practices involved in starting up a new youth NGO and increasing the active participation and citizenship of young people in a rural setting. It was a bilateral exchange with an informal youth group from Ancona in Italy and the Finnish association Saga Finland rf. The youth group in Ancona will sent two participants to Finland, to shadow our activities and help out at a local event for increasing awareness about European opportunities and recruiting new members for the organization.
Phoenix Dramatic Glass
“Phoenix -dramatic glass” was a youth exchange that took place in Oslo, Norway the 11th-24th of July for 12 program days. The objective of Phoenix was a more open, tolerant, understanding and democratic world, both right now and in the future. Together with youth from all over Europe we took real action to help preventing a tragedy like the one in Oslo and Utøya 22.7.2011 to never will repeat itself. The themes are European awareness and antidiscrimination and the working methods are mainly design and performing art. The main material is broken glass from the bomb in Oslo. The countries involved were Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey and United Kingdom. Phoenix was a project created and led by young people and made for young Europeans fighting for a more tolerant society.
The project was coordinated by Saga Finland.
Saga
The Saga project was a start for the organisation Saga. Here we developed methods of storytelling that we later used at other projects.
Saga was a youth exchange took place for six program days in Vatnsholt, Iceland the 19th – 26th of February 2012. The theme was cultural identity and European citizenship. The objectives of Saga were that young people get closer to their cultural identity and European citizenship, learn about current European issues like youth unemployment, nationalist movements, racism, mobility and migration within Europe and EU enlargement and adopt storytelling as a method of expressing themselves both during Saga and at home.
The eleven promoters involved were from Iceland, Finland, Romania, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Hungary, Denmark, Turkey, Estonia and Italy. We involved in total 54 young people mainly in the age 18-25, five from each country, and the local community.
