The Youth Shelter provides assistance in summer – limited availability of crisis accommodation
The Red Cross Youth Shelters which provide assistance to young people, families and their loved ones will be operating with limited resources 21 June–31 July. During this period, discussion support will be available through the national Nettiturvis service.
There will be changes in the assistance provided by the Youth Shelters in summer 2024: as of Midsummer this summer season, crisis and temporary accommodation for young people as well as on-call crisis assistance will only be available at one shelter. During this period, discussion support will also be provided through the national Nettiturvis service. Crisis accommodation and on-call assistance will once again be available at all shelters as of the week starting on 29 July.
The operational restrictions stem from changes in funding and the general increase in costs. The funding received by the Youth Shelters from the wellbeing services county has decreased, and the grants from the Funding Centre for Social Welfare and Health Organisations STEA are insufficient to cover the increased costs. The operation of the shelters is also financed by the Finnish Red Cross, which has been forced to cover a larger share of the funding as the public funding has dwindled.
Swift assistance helps to keep a young person’s bad situation from escalating
Normally, the crisis and temporary accommodation provided by the Youth Shelters has been available through the summer. Crisis assistance has also been provided over the phone. In addition to overnight accommodation, young people have had access to food and discussion support from crisis and family workers as well as volunteers.
In summer, people have sought help from the Youth Shelters due to sudden crisis situations, for example. Help has been readily available throughout the year, and it has been possible to provide crisis assistance practically at a moment’s notice. The assistance provided by the Youth Shelters is free of charge to the recipients.
During the holiday season, crisis accommodation and on-call crisis assistance is available from Youth Shelter Southwest Finland. The funding received from local foundations enables the shelter to remain open. In July, all calls to the telephone numbers of the Youth Shelters will be directed to Youth Shelter Southwest Finland.
Help is available online
In July, the Youth Shelters provide discussion support to young people, families and loved ones online through the national Nettiturvis services. Starting from Midsummer Nettiturvis will be open every weekday 10 am–10 pm, and appointments can be booked even for the same day. The people providing assistance to young people and their loved ones through Nettiturvis are trained crisis and family workers of the Youth Shelters. You can make an appointment with Nettiturvis through the website of the service.
In addition to this, the anonymous Sekasin chat coordinated by the Sekasin Kollektiivi provides assistance to Young People. The service can be found at sekasin.fi.
