Pesäpuu ry is a national child welfare organization established in 1998. We are a non-profit organization supported by the Finnish Funding Centre for Social Welfare and Health Organisations (STEA).
Pesäpuu works to improve the situation of children who are clients of child welfare services and to strengthen the children’s involvement. Our vision is that every child placed in care is safe, participating and valuable.
This site is under construction. Please contact toimisto@pesapuu.fi for up-to-date information.
Children and young people who are clients of child welfare services are at the core of Pesäpuu’s operations. The goal is to highlight the needs for change, customer experiences and weak signals found in the child welfare sector. The customers, i.e. the children, young people and their parents, are also involved in Pesäpuu’s professional and development work as experts by experience.
How can we help, encourage and bring security to children and young people whose lives have not gone as they should have? How to meet and interact with children placed in care in foster families, family homes, agencies, receptions and schools so that the children feel that they are appreciated and listened to? How can we adults, child welfare professionals, teachers and foster parents know how to appreciate and understand the children and young people who have gone through a lot?
Pesäpuu’s dream is that every child and young person who is a client of child welfare would take an active part in their own lives and in the decisions that concern them. Pesäpuu wants to make sure that each adult that is part of the life of a child or young person is prepared for their role as a person who supports, encourages and motivates the child.
By involving children and young people in the development work, we can develop our own operating models, tools and methods that make child welfare better, more systematic and attentive to children. We train child welfare experts, foster families, support persons and other people who are important in the lives of the children and young people to meet and interact with them better.
Through our activities, we bring the experiences, wishes and dreams of children and young people placed in care into the spotlight and make the children visible and valuable. Just as they have always been. Each and every one of them.
Pesäpuu also brings together methods developed elsewhere and cooperates with developers and researchers in the field. We invite representatives from the private and organizational sectors as well as from municipalities and the state to work with us. This allows us to share and disseminate the good practices.
Establishing the results of the development work is central to Pesäpuu’s operations. The results are available for everyone to use, and our goal is that good practices are passed on to benefit the children and their families. The methods and tools produced are a promise to the children of the fact that their experiences are not ignored. That is why they bear the registered name, LUPAUS LAPSELLE® (“A promise to a child”).
Focus on children
The development of child welfare work is done together with the placed children and young people. On their terms, listening to their individual experiences and appreciating them. Every child and young person deserves to be heard, understood, appreciated and loved.
Partnership
Equal cooperation is a valuable asset. We want to develop things together, help our partners and for them to help us. In an equal way, because nobody can do it alone.
Experiences
Experiences are the road to inspiration. Instead of jumping to conclusions and rushing things, stopping to think, sharing perceptions and marveling at different things together with the children, parents and partners are needed in child welfare.
Courage
Promoting the well-being of children and young people requires courage to enter new places, to move forward and to defend our values.
Effectiveness
Making children and young people placed in child welfare visible and heard throughout the whole society.
The aim of the development work in Pesäpuu is the realisation of children’s participation and rights in child welfare. We develop concrete methods and tools for the workers who meet children and families. Children, families, workers and schools that are involved in child welfare also take part in the development work. Pesäpuu is maintaining and developing the PRIDE-program in order to meet the diverse needs of today’s foster care. Learn some more below.
We have ethical guidelines in our organization concerning children and youth participation. We also demand that organizations who work with us follow same or similar ethical principles when working with our youth.
Below are some examples of our development work. Please feel free to contact us any time regarding any of our work: toimisto@pesapuu.fi.
WHAT: Children build up a story about a Giraffe, his/her families and friends. The gallery of characters is elaborated with children.
HOW: The process with children can be organized as weekly small group meetings for a certain period or as a one-day workshop.
Storytelling is the main method of working, but photographing has also been used.
Children have been naming different situations that Giraffe goes through.
These situation namings have been made in a project against domestic violence with children aged 3–5.
Other children can recognize situations without words.
What are we doing?
Children and Adults together!
Detective Club is a functional method aimed for the children between ages 6 to 12. The goal is for children to be able to participate in developing child protection and substitute care with adults. Children investigate child protection in a focus group with Badger the Puppet, who is the most important member of the group. Children help Badger – they don’t have to talk straight about themselves and their own experiences. Detective Club isn’t a therapy group but it has elements of empowering participation and peer support.
In Detective Club children find out together how they could help Badger in different situations and with different themes, for example:
”Badger doesn’t know. Who would help him – what is home?”
”Home is a place where people live. Sometimes you can’t live with your parents and then you live in a foster family.”
”Why can’t Badger live with his own parents?”
”I think it’s because the social worker thinks that he’s not safe at home. I agree with it.”
When the children were describing a good home, the most important thing was taking care of the basic needs:
”Social worker thinks, for example, that mom and dad behave badly.”
Read Detective News (published 2/2021)
Detective Club is organized by Pesäpuu ry with local and national partners.
According to research children taken into foster care tend to be low achievers at school. Social exclusion later in life can be prevented by supporting these children at an early phase. SISUKAS model has been developed to prevent the marginalization on of children in foster care by testing foster children’s strenghts and needs. One of the main goals is to develop dialog. A closer cooperation and better communication between the foster family, school and social services will be created and further enhanced. The other goal is to create more positive attitude towards education among the children included the project and also to meet the needs of the children. The suitability of the SISUKAS model and its effectiveness has been assessed by research.
At the start a psychologist and a special education teacher test each child with standardised tests. The results of the cognitive test (WISC – IV) done by psychologist are compared with results of standardised tests for reading, spelling and numeracy done by special education teacher, and also to achievements at school, as perceived and reported by the teachers. Standardised tests are also used to assess baseline psychological well-being and behavior (SDQ, CBCL), as well as child-teacher relations (VAS-scale, STRS).
The results of the tests are communicated to the children, their foster parents, teachers and social workers by the psychologist and the special education teacher at meetings where all the parties are present. This approach is chosen in order to create good working relationships among child´s network, and also to demonstrate that the child is not a person with problems but rather a member of the team.
Potential for school achievement, strengths and obstacles are identified in co-operation with children, teachers, carers and social workers. As a result a written individualised plan for each child will be created, indicating his or her needs for educational support and other types of interventions. During the 24 months’ interventions, the psychologist and the special education teacher are key players, as one fundamental principle is that they should constantly motivate and tutor the teachers (and foster parents) on how to assist each child to attain the set goals. The psychologist and the special education teacher do less work on a one to one basis with the children and work mostly with and through the teachers. Also, they closely monitor the individual progress and difficulties of each child, as perceived by foster parents and teachers. This information is used in planned meetings every three months with all parties present. This model makes it possible to evaluate continuously the interventions and support provided.
Foster and build on hope – views on school from the perspective of a foster child
We have youth focus groups in different projects. Groups offer safety, support, peer experiences and work as a platform to learn new skills and participate in development work with professionals.
At the moment we have 5 active groups with youth around Finland:
We also organize youth forums and workshops for other young people. From young people to young people mentality and peer development work are essentials in all our work with young people.
Collecting voices of young people and taking them to decision-makers and professionals play a key role in Pesäpuu’s work.
The purpose of youth focus groups is to improve the participation amongst young people in child protection systems on three levels:
We all have our own stories that have made us the way we are. Those stories have power to create change and help others.
None of us need to feel alone – ever again. Uniting voices gives us more strength.
We promote the skills and knowledge youth gain through our work. You don’t have to know it all, when you participate, you are allowed to learn!
Youth are taken seriously, heard, and able to change the system. They can be part of this society and it’s structures and are able to influence them.
Youth can participate in project and work on different levels with different amount of responsibility.
Low level: does not require commitment or responsibility.
Active participation: Commitment, e.g. group activities, not necessarily responsibilities.
Responsible activities: Planning events and leading small groups, acting as a peer for others, presenting speeches prepared together, acting as a voice for others.
Employee level: A diverse role, a lot of responsibility, the activities require more than just mirroring one’s own experience to the matter at hand, taking into account different educational backgrounds.
Different roles:
Peer assessor | Educator and public speaker | Expert in different groups with professionals | One-day workshops and forums | Interpreter between staff and youth | Member or leader of a youth group | Employee alongside other professionals
The idea is to include young people in child welfare development. The forum offers space for peer experiences, feelings and thoughts and sharing life and everyday events.
“Everybody has the right to dream!”
Youth forums are both local and nationwide. The basic elements are permanent, but the themes and working methods differ depending on the people attending. The forums are well documented. The messages from young people are conveyed to adults and decision makers.
A peer review model in child protection services is currently piloted in counties in Finland. The aim is to strengthen young peoples’ participation in their own living environment, to create new ways to develop substitute care and to prevent maltreatment.
Read an article on peer review on Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health’s web site from this link.
The peer review activities are coordinated by a Finnish national child protection organisation, Pesäpuu – Centre of Expertise in Child Welfare.
A co-creation group consisting of child protection professionals and young adults with a background in substitute care was established in 2017 in Jyväskylä and 2020 in Tampere.