Hyvärilä Youth and Holiday Centre (Finland) is one of Finland’s nine Youth Centres financed by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Hyvärilä has functioned as a national youth centre since 1982.
Hyvärilä exists through and for the young. Our special strength is our wide range of indoor and outdoor activities. As a youth centre, we develop our activities in accordance with the ideas of sustainable development and to keep a Quality Handbook.
We produce youth services for the town of Nurmes: confidential personal contact, coaches, facilities, activities. We aim to offer happiness and a sense of direction to youngsters through confidential dialogue, coaching, facilities for doing things. We act as partners in strengthening social skills, healthy habits and everyday life skills for the young. Nuotta-coaching, for example, provides opportunities to try new activities. The Nuotta-coach provides support, feedback and helps in processing experiences. Coaching is planned to meet the individual needs of each youngster through co-operation.
International Youth Work
International youth activities, exchanges and voluntary work are of major importance at Hyvärilä. Various international youth projects are coordinated, hosted and promoted by Hyvärilä Youth Centre. This includes several European youth exchanges, seminars, youth camps and workshops for participants across Europe and beyond. Hyvärilä is an active user of EU’s Youth in Action –programme. Hyvärilä is registrated at the European Youth Council. Besides European co-operation, also cross-border cooperation, Nordic cooperation and the Baltic Sea cooperation are of our interest.
One of our most important functions is to help youngsters to find their own path to multi-culturalism. We’re a member of the European Network of Youth Centres, aimed at promoting international youth travel. It’s our job to find the best way for each individual – most important is personal motivation.
The goal is to improve the internationalization of the Finnish youth, as well as to provide unforgettable non-formal learning experiences for the visiting international youth groups. The purpose of all the international youth work is to promote acceptance of difference, cultural understanding, cultural awareness and intercultural dialogue. We practise multi-culturalism also at Hyvärilä: foreign volunteers and trainees keep us on our toes even when we’re not hosting international events!
Holidays and activities
Hyvärilä Youth and Holiday Centre serves travellers, youth and event organisers on the north shore of Lake Pielinen in Nurmes, Finland. We provide accommodation and catering as well as facilities for events and celebrations. We form part of the Bomba tourist area.
The all year round resort amenities include various saunas, course centre, hiking paths and nature trails, canoes, fishing equipment, snow shoes, rowing boats and handicraft activities, to name a few. We offer a wide selection of comfortable accommodation possibilities from high standard holiday apartments to modest hostel rooms.
The Karelian nature with its tree-covered hills, the proximity of wilderness at the eastern border and the integration of the orthodox and Karelian cultures into the programmes of Hyvärilä is considered as the strengths of the centre. In addition, Lake Pielinen offers a perfect setting for water activities, such as paddling, fishing and rowing a church boat. A safety and environment auditing is carried out in Hyvärilä. Our instructors are professionals and take the safety of our guests into consideration when planning our programmes.
