Nea Uustalo, Katarina Dence, Marius Slabu, Catalina Campillo
Introduction:
During this autumn, we Laurea students embarked on a project in collaboration with the SMILE project and Lehtikuusi school to organize an event for their new Parental Corner. The objectives of this project highlighted our community’s diverse interests while offering support to parents and families navigating family life in Finland. From hobbies to parental support, we aimed to create an experience that resonated with our community and provided valuable resources and information to them.
Join us in this blog post as we explore the details of our project goals, event design, the warm interactions during Implementation Day, and the reflective sense of accomplishment that followed our project. Our journey was marked by thoughtful considerations, aiming to create a space where people of all ages could find comfort, useful information, and inspiration.
Discover the highlights, challenges, and success of our project. From parents and young children to spontaneous participants invited on the spot, our event drew a diverse group, reflecting the diversity of our community. This is the story of how our groups and the people in Lehtikuusi school and the SMILE project united to create a positive impact, paving the way for upcoming opportunities in the Parental Corner. Welcome to our exciting journey!
Planning:
For our event, we decided to focus on hobbies and parental support. We thought this would be the most beneficial to our client group and be something they would remember. For the content of our implementation, we went through a lot of different city and private hobby websites, trying to pick out the ones with their application dates open or ongoing, so that if our clients at the event wanted to apply for one, they could. Since our implementation was in late October, most of the application windows had already closed.
When planning this event, it was important to consider the possibility of people wanting more hobby options than we had provided and be prepared to jump in and help the clients find more options.
When planning the parental support, we considered the nature of what we were offering the parent’s, for many it can be hard to admit they need help with their children or their own mental health, this is why we tried to make our flyers as calm and considering as possible, so that the clients would want to take the help in.
Implementation
During the implementation day most of the planned aspects of the projects were executed as prepared. Parents and children started to arrive at the event some with clear ideas of what they were looking for and some others looking for more guidance. It is important to mention that we had people that were just passing by and were invited on site to the event, and teenagers that came without adults to find information about activities to do during their free time.
During the event, the interaction with clients were fluent despite language barriers, and the conversations hold between clients and staff were enriching and effortless.
The atmosphere of the event was relaxed and allowed clients to ask and seek information without holdbacks.
Many of them left the experience with concrete information about what steps to take to be part of leisure activities, because of the information provided and of the guidance of key actors in the community as the ”sporttikaveri” from the Vantaa municipality.
Conclusion
In wrapping up our project, I want to share just how heartwarming the implementation day turned out to be. The event attracted a diverse group of participants, including parents and children who came with a variety of needs and expectations. Additionally, we welcomed passersby who were spontaneously invited to join, and teenagers who came seeking information about activities for their free time.
This project was a wonderful example of how people can come together and make a positive impact. We’re proud of what we accomplished, and we’re eager to continue helping our community find exciting opportunities for leisure and personal growth. Thank you to everyone who made this day so special!
Tämä opiskelijaprojekti on osa Vantaan kaupungin ja Laurean totetuttamaa SMILE-hanketta. Lue lisää hankkeesta https://www.vantaa.fi/fi/hankkeet/hanke/smile-hanke. SMILE-hanke rahoitetaan osana Euroopan neuvoston kehityspankin (CEB) ja Euroopan komission välistä sopimusta, jonka tavoitteena on edistää maahanmuuttaneiden inkluusioita EU jäsenvaltioissa kehittämällä uusia yhteistyön ja rahoituksen muotoja. SMILE-hanke on suunnattu erityisesti EU:n ulkopuolelta tulleille vantaalaisille.
Suurin osa Showcasen blogeista on toteutettu osana Laurean opintojaksoja. Koko koulutustarjontaamme voi tutustua nettisivuillamme. Tarjoamme kymmenien tutkintoon johtavien koulutuksien lisäksi myös paljon täydennys- ja erikoistumiskoulutuksia sekä yksittäisiä opintojaksoja avoimen AMK:n kautta!