About Folkhälsan
Folkhälsan is the largest Swedish-speaking organization in Finland that works for better health and quality of life. We are both a service producer and expert organization, as well as a citizen movement.
Our operations in Finland and on the Åland Islands include daycare centers, support for young people, education, services for the elderly and people with disabilities, as well as a world-class research center.
Evidence-based knowledge is the basis of our services and we run our business sustainably and as a non-profit organization.
We have worked for over a century as initiators and forerunners. We are proud of the work we do together in various parts of society, from voluntary involvement to high-level research.
Folkhälsan supports a sustainable, safe, healthy and active everyday life and local environment for everyone.
Together - a movie about Folkhälsan - Together for a good life tomorrow aswell
Folkhälsan is a versatile, modern non-profit organization operating in the field of social and health services. Folkhälsan’s activities include assistance, support, education, and care, being present at every stage of life.
Founded in 1921, Folkhälsan employs today approximately 1,300 people. Our local associations across Swedish-speaking Finland have almost 19,000 members.
Research
Folkhälsan Research is divided into two programmes: genetics research and public health research.
The genetics research programme looks particularly into a number of rare conditions; hereditary and other risk factors of diabetes; overweight and obesity; as well as diabetes complications.
The public health research programme focuses primarily on health-promoting aspects; on health, diseases and conditions from the life cycle perspective; on cardiovascular epidemiology; as well as on social gerontology.
Education
Folkhälsan’s education activities range from sports to vocational education, adult education, public education, and workshop activities.
We endeavour to be an educator that
- Represents quality and professionalism
- Follows current trends
- Offers specialization options
Our Solvalla education centre is located in Espoo in the capital city region, and our Norrvalla centre is in the Vörå municipality in Western Finland. In addition to these, the Föregångarna centre in Vaasa organizes workshop activities. Folkhälsan is also the largest owner of the Prakticum institute of vocational studies.
Health promotion
Folkhälsan strives to encourage people to take care of their own health and that of others: we promote health, quality of life, and sense of community in the specific environment where people live and lead their lives. We offer people many opportunities to participate in various activities. We work in support of a socially sustainable society and towards decreasing health inequality.
We work in the fields of
- Strong local associations and diverse voluntary work
- Physical activity, balanced diet, and recovery
- Support for parenthood, targeted family work, and safe relationships
- Health-promoting living environments and meeting places
Service production
Folkhälsan emphasizes the individual’s right to high-quality services in their native language. Some of our services are sold directly to private individuals, while other services are provided by municipalities for their inhabitants through public tender.
We offer, run, and organize
- Early childhood education; after-school activities and summer activities; consulting for children, young people, and families; shelters and child protection
- Housing and services for the elderly; housing and short-term housing for disabled persons; rehabilitation; medical centre and occupational health services
- Lunch restaurants
Do you wish to use our services, do you wish to volunteer or are you interested in our activities? Do not hesitate to contact us!
Strategy 2025
Folkhälsan's Organization
Read more
Folkhälsan’s three core values are competence, commitment, and care. These values can be seen in the entire organisation on its every level.
Competence
Our competence inspires confidence and results in purposeful and cost-effective activities.
Creativity and empathy are part of our everyday work.
Commitment
Our commitment has an impact on society.
We all do our share to make Folkhälsan a forerunner in its field.
We take responsibility for people and have faith in the future.
Care
Care requires respect for human dignity.
We see each person as a whole, and treat every person as an individual.
We work together and encourage everyone to engage in effective interaction.
Folkhälsan – Two steps ahead
Our vision guides our future activities and highlights Folkhälsan’s significant role as a forerunner.
The vision is like a star that leads our organisation in the right direction, but it can also be seen as the yardstick by which our objectives are evaluated.
Our vision for service production is to operate in an innovative manner and to be creative.
Folkhälsan emphasizes specialized, expertise-demanding products and new care concepts, the combination of which will enable us to stay ahead of other care and health care providers.
Supported by our vision, we will also continue to invest in health promoting activities. Staying one step ahead means emphasising preventive activities, two steps ahead means that we stress the significance of wide-ranging health promotion work.
In our research, our vision encourages us to strive for international success. Staying one step ahead could mean successful research in Finland, whereas staying two steps ahead means that Folkhälsan's research is expected to be competitive in comparison to international cutting-edge research.
To evaluate well-being at work, Folkhälsan regularly participates in the Great Place to Work evaluation.
In the autumn 2015 evaluation we were among the top five in the category for large organisations in Finland.
84 percent of our employees gave us a good overall evaluation, stating that “all in all I would say that this is a very good place to work”.
Our policies contain the common guidelines for our work and outline our activities.
Our policies are:
- Human Resources and Leadership policy
- Environmental Policy
- Responsibility Policy
- Risk Management Policy
- Language Policy
- Communications Policy
- Sponsorship Policy
Contact information
The Folkhälsan communications department takes care of the general, group-level communications, and also of communications related to individual organisation units anywhere in the area of Swedish-speaking Finland.
Press contact
Director of Communications Jessica Ålgars, tel: +358 40 775 5781