Territorial Employment Pact Dissemination Conference Brussels, 8th, 9th & 10th November 1999

PARTNERSHIP Village

LAHTI TERRITORIAL EMPLOYMENT PACT – IMPROVING SERVICES AND EMPLOYABILITY OF THE THIRD SECTOR

I. Local context

Economic and social situation

! Characteristics of the pact territory : Population : 197 700 Unemployment rate : 20.6 %

! Structural Funds Objectives and Community Initiatives under which the pact territory is eligible :

" Objective 1 X Objective 2 X Objectives 3 and 4 X Objective 5b " Objective 6 " Community Initiatives :

Actors traditionally involved in local development

! Traditionally, who are the main actors involved in local development and employment policy within the pact region (please, describe briefly the respective roles of the national government, the local authorities and the social and economic partners involved) ?

The national government is responsible for Finland’s employment policy.

The Regional authority, Employment and Economic Development Centre, is responsible for regional development as well as for financing and monitoring the ESF objective 2, 3, 4 and 5b projects in the region. The Employment and Economic Development Centre also allocates the government appropriation to the Employment Offices (6 offices in the pact area).

The State’s Local Employment Offices are responsible for the employability of the unemployed (especially the long-term unemployed), for the use of the government appropriation to create jobs and for subsidies and organises training courses for the unemployed.

The 12 regional municipalities are involved in regional employment as well as in development policies. Moreover, the municipalities are responsible for providing welfare services to residents by producing services themselves (traditional way) or increasingly by co-operating with the private or third sector service producers.

The Regional Council of Paijat-Hame, financed by the municipalities of the region, is responsible for the region’s strategy plan and the supervision of the respective measures. They are also responsible for the framework for the regional as well as Objective 2 projects implemented in the area.

Directorate General Regional Policy 1 For more information : Technical Assistance Office Europe Innovation 2000 - 9/11 Rue des Ménapiens – 1040 Brussels Tél : 322 743 83 23 – Fax : 322 743 83 10 – E-mail : [email protected] Territorial Employment Pact Dissemination Conference Brussels, 8th, 9th & 10th November 1999

Directorate General Regional Policy 2 For more information : Technical Assistance Office Europe Innovation 2000 - 9/11 Rue des Ménapiens – 1040 Brussels Tél : 322 743 83 23 – Fax : 322 743 83 10 – E-mail : [email protected]

The Business Centre, owned by the local municipalities, assists municipalities and local enterprises with economic policies. Likewise, it organises and administers training and development projects to create entrepreneurship in the pact area.

! How do the partners collaborate in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of these policies (consultation, decision-making, financial contribution) ? Have specific committees been set up to identify priorities and negotiate action plans (regional committees, programming committees, mixed structures, etc.) ?

Local authorities, such as the Regional Council and other regional co-operative partners, operate as officials and/or (?? something appears to be missing) at the political level. The local officials and politicians play the main role in formulating and deciding on economic development policies.

II. The partners of the pact

Brief history of the pact Who is the initiator of the pact ? What are the elements which encouraged the partners to join in ? What were the main obstacles and how were they overcome ?

The initiator of the pact is the City of Lahti. The financial resources and the opportunities required to tackle the problems caused by the region’s high unemployment in the region and active participation in regional development were the main factors for the partners joining in.

Lahti TEP has identified the objectives of the project to create extensive co-operation and a new culture of joint responsibility in order to improve employment in the area. Traditionally, municipal authorities as well as the operators and promoters of the projects in the area have been used to doing things by themselves and not in co-operation with others. The results of the actions undertaken by Lahti TEP are now coming to light. The local operators are willing to agree with the benefits resulting from the co-operation. Especially third sector operators and women project co-ordinators have been remarkably capable of co-operation. The seminars for women entrepreneurs operating in the social and health care sector are a good example of the co-operation. These seminars were organised by the Helsinki University Lahti Research Centre, Liipola Residential Services –project, EU project Jobs from Home Care, Lahti Chamber of Commerce together with Lahti TEP. Another good example of successful co-operation was the training sessions organized for the operators of the third sector organisations. Together with the local officials, employment offices and the trade unions, Lahti TEP organised a series of training in the field of administration, taxation and public financing opportunities for the third sector organisations.

The value of the local partnership is now appreciated in the pact region. The municipal managers and other partners from the private sector have seen the benefits of the experience and know-how created by the projects providing social and health care services for the old and disabled. They see the opportunities of disseminating the existing experimental knowledge, which can be of benefit for new projects to be implemented in pact region. There are now new partners from municipalities and business sectors willing to participate in the work of the committee in charge of Lahti TEP.

The local financing of the project has, to date, been carried out by the official partners, i.e. the municipalities. At the moment, there is an on-going process as to how to share the financial contribution with the new partners participating in the project. Lahti TEP is now negotiating the resulting financial obligations with four local enterprises willing to participate in the future operation of Lahti’s local partnership and the consortium.

Territorial Employment Pacts Dissemination Conference - Brussels 8, 9 and 10 November 1999 3

Partnership established within the pact Who are the partners of the pact (government, local authorities, social and economic partners) ? What are their respective roles (consultation, technical expertise, decision-makers, funding) ?

The Regional Council of Paijat-Hame is the administrative organisation of the Lahti TEP. The local funding agency is the Employment and Economic Development Centre.

1) The committee in charge of Lahti TEP – decision making, monitoring

The mayor of the City of Orimattila is the president of the committee in charge. The committee members are the representatives from the City of Lahti, the City of Orimattila, the Regional Council of Paijat-Hame, the Organisation of the Unemployed, the Lahti Employment Office, the Employment and Economic Development Centre, the Lahti Business Centre, the Lahti Lutheran Congregations, the Lahti Chamber of Commerce, the Entrepreneurs of the Paijat-Hame region, the Confederation of Finnish Trade Union - SAK, the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees - STTK, the Union of Technical Employees - TL, the Confederation of Unions for Academic Professionals in Finland - Akava, the third sector entrepreneur - Manna Association.

2) The sub-projects participating in the pact – technical expertise to be used to establish new social and health care projects in the pact area, sincere partnership and functional involvement in the operation. The sub-projects are independently managed, most of them by third sector organisations (some of them manage the project together with the local authorities). Projects have their own steering groups. The pact co-ordinator is a member of the steering group.

Residential area project Laune 2010 Liipola Residential Services Project administered by Helsinki University The Residential Environment Project (prevention of social exclusion of sub-urban residents) Employment and the third system - Pahkyla (a cluster of five different social and health care projects) Innovative workshops for young people – three separate projects co-operating together Back to Work project for the benefit of the long-term unemployed Voluntary Centre for residents’ activities in the City of Orimattila Afternoon club for lower elementary school children

3) The co-operative network of the regional projects – joint seminars, training sessions, local planning, benefit of co-operation and networking

EU-project Jobs from Home Care Co-operatives project by the Lahti Business Centre The Lahti Chamber of Commerce’s project for creating entrepreneurship Federation of Municipalities in Health Care

4) Operational teams - practical operation, initiatives for the pact’s actions, ideas generated by brain storming

Telework team Development of the third sector actions Training and communications International Affairs

Territorial Employment Pacts Dissemination Conference - Brussels 8, 9 and 10 November 1999 4

Members of the teams have been selected for the interest and capability shown by each of the members representing local authorities, trade unions, organisations of the unemployed and third sector organisations.

Have specific organisational structures been set up ? If so, which ones, at which levels and for which purposes ?

A regional consortium has been established. It was seen as a necessity to have a legal organisation to look after the interests of the local micro and third sector entrepreneurs. The consortium is acting as a training and development unit, as well as an agency paying special attention to the needs of women entrepreneurs. The consortium’s operation and the necessary negotiations with local authorities, enterprises and micro and third sector operators were initiated in the Summer of 1999.

WristCare is the first health-monitoring device, which will automatically will provide information about any deterioration in a user’s health. This device has now been tested for one year in one of Lahti TEP projects, Liipola Residential Services.

The experimental testing of WristCare by the Liipola project was carried out in close co-operation with the regional EU-project ‘Jobs from Home Care’ and the Lahti Telephone Company as well as with the device’s inventors, International Security Technology and Telewatch Co. The testing of WristCare consisted in monitoring the health of the elderly living in a block of flats and the proper technical functioning of the in- house version of the device.

Lahti TEP and the regional consortium are now extending the testing of WristCare to out-of-house conditions with the elderly living in their own houses in rural villages. Lahti Consortium will provide the necessary amount of WristCare for the test period. The Liipola Residential Services’project will act as a regional control centre for any alarm signals emitted by WristCare. The consortium is of benefit to the existing network of third sector social and health care projects already operating in the municipalities. They will provide the necessary health services to the elderly in time of need. Thanks to the expertise provided by the existing projects, Lahti TEP and the consortium are assisting municipalities in implementing similar measures which employ unemployed health care people.

Lahti TEP has also started co-operation with the Irish TEP-project, together with discussions on the possibility of introducing WristCare to Ireland via Dundalk Employment Partnership.

The regional consortium will continue the co-operation embarked on by Lahti TEP with Eastern Estonia. The governor of the province visited Lahti TEP. He was willing to implement a similar territorial employment pact in the province of Eastern Estonia and was asking for help. Lahti TEP has assisted the province of Eastern Estonia with material and information. The aim of the co-operation is to exchange knowledge and experience but also to implement common development projects.

- Diagnosis (local needs and potentials)

- Due to the reduction on public-sector expenses in the Paijat-Hame area, we need practical partnership, networking and living projects based on competitive prices to solve the social problems. The process which has been started up needs more time to establish the rules of co-operation between municipal authorities and the third sector social and health care service producers.

- There is a need to create a common method of payment for the services produced by the third sector, a system of monitoring the quality of the services and of controlling the balance between quality and cost of services.

Furthermore, there is a need for international co-operation so that the third sector operator can change and disseminate experiences. Territorial Employment Pacts Dissemination Conference - Brussels 8, 9 and 10 November 1999 5

- Identification of pact priorities and measures

The committee in charge has decided to focus on the operation of Lahti TEP, - to search for and strengthen employment opportunities in the third sector - to assist the operators in the municipalities (12 in the pact region) to create development projects by taking advantage of the knowledge and know-how created in the sub-projects. The promoters of the sub- projects of Lahti TEP are used as experts. - co-operation with the international TEP-network but also with the network created in the former EU- project ‘Pilot measures for the benefit of the long-term unemployed, those over 40 years of age, B2-605’. The aim of the co-operation has been to exchange experience and know-how but also to implement joint development projects

- Implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the pact

- Reports submitted by the present project co-ordinator to the local and regional authorities, to the local funding agency, to the monitoring committee of Labour Ministry, to the monitoring committee of Objective 2, to the Finnish Technical Assistant of Europe Innovation 2000, to the committee in charge of Lahti TEP as well as to the European Union Commission DG XVI - Self-evaluation has been made by producing a video concerning the operation of the sub-projects. - Lahti TEP has also carried out comprehensive research on the needs, will and opportunities of the third sector organisations to employ long-term unemployed people in the city of Lahti. According to this research, there are 111 vacancies in third sector organisations in the Lahti area. As a result of this research, Lahti TEP is organising a training course for the long-term unemployed in conjunction with the local Employment Office to up-date their knowledge and skills as well as to familiarise them with work in third sector associations. After this training, the third sector organisations employ these unemployed to work for the association for at least one year.

>From Spring 1999 onwards, the pact has two evaluators interviewing the operators of the sub projects and gathering experimental knowledge and preliminary results on the operation.

Please, list the main projects developed by the pact (explicit titles)

1) Residential area projects Laune 2010 – reorganisation of municipalities’ services for the disabled Liipola Residential Services – home care and basic health care for the elderly to ensure they can continuing living in their own homes Residential Environment project – to prevent social exclusion by supporting functional opportunities and activities for people living in the suburbs of the city of Lahti 2) Clustering of Social Services and Quality of Life – a cluster of five projects Manna Association – producing social and health care services to people (young and old) in a group-based service for people living in a farm-like open care unit. Leader of the cluster Startti-Center – services for the unemployed in the city of Orimattila, training, working opportunities (sub contracts with local enterprises involved in wood and metal works) Co-operative Sateenkaari (Rainbow) – different kinds of neighbourhood services, basic health care for the elderly

Artjarvi Municipality – reorganising the municipal care of the elderly in co-operation with the private and third sector Liipola Residential Services- basic health care for the elderly

Territorial Employment Pacts Dissemination Conference - Brussels 8, 9 and 10 November 1999 6

3) Innovative workshops for the young From Streets to Paths - Project to find new paths, opportunities for the young with a criminal background and alcohol and drug abuse (substance abuse) Multi-service Centre - New opportunities for young people with limited skills by means of rehabilitative treatment, practical training and apprenticeship contracts Training Centre for young people in the municipality of – to prevent the exclusion of unemployed young people by finding them paths to training, apprenticeship or employment

4) Back to Work - training project for the benefit of the long-term unemployed (better control of life, up-date of their skills and reinforced ability to get back to working life)

5) Afternoon club for lower elementary school children – run by two unemployed women. From Autumn 1999 onwards, supervision by municipal officers covers the full need for such action in the municipality of .

6) Voluntary Centre - activities for people living in the suburbs of the city of Orimattila.

III. Preliminary results of the partnership

Added value and innovative aspects of the partnership What kind of added value has the partnership produced ?

The Lahti TEP has implemented and generated discussion about inter-administrative operations as well as co-operation between the public, private and third sector with regard to the provision of welfare services. As a result, a change in the operational and managerial culture has been seen as a necessity. This process has also been backed by the recommendations put forward by Finland’s Ministry for Public Health which call for co-operation by the municipalities with the private and third sector service producers.

While implementing and innovating new procedures in the area, the scope of the above-mentioned co- operation’s strategy, the needs of the municipalities and the skills of the unemployed have been seen as the most essential aspects.

The process has also influenced the training of the unemployed organised by the State Employment Agencies by focusing on the content of the training in order first of all to serve the needs of the unemployed.

The value of tacit knowledge has been observed, as well as that or integrating the results from earlier projects in the area.

Due to the positive experience gained from co-operation, women operators especially in the third sector have been found to benefit from collaboration and have to an ever-increasing degree been encouraged to operate as independent actors.

A completely new kind of safety network has been created in the area in order to prevent the exclusion of the residents who do not enjoy a variety of services provided by the local authorities.

- Changes in the components of partnership, in the management of local development initiatives, …

- The partners, who have not been able to be actively involved in the process of the partnership, have dropped out. When implementing the pact in the Lahti region there were some partners looking for the administration of the project. The importance of the practical operators was seen to have grown during the Lahti TEP.

Territorial Employment Pacts Dissemination Conference - Brussels 8, 9 and 10 November 1999 7

A better understanding of the role of the third sector can be seen in the pact area. Not that long ago, third sector operators were only seen as voluntary workers. Today the importance of the third sector as a competitive producer of welfare services working in co-operation with the public and private sector is recognised.

The third sector also plays a significant role as an employer of the unemployed. Thanks to employment subsidies from the Employment Offices, the third sector projects have been able to create job opportunities for the unemployed.

Lahti TEP has produced research on the need, will and possibilities of third sector organisations to employ the long-term unemployed. According to the research, there are 111 open vacancies in third sector organisations in the Lahti area. Lahti TEP has helped the officers at the Employment Agency in finding third sector associations and organisations willing to employ long-term unemployed people. By the end of August 1999, nearly 90 unemployed had managed to find a subsidised job of at least one year in duration.

- Knowledge of the field, quality of the actions

As a result of the project, the Lahti TEP can be seen small scale but real and effective co-operation between actors from the public, private and third sectors. Instead of qualitative results, we can talk of the quantitative results of real success reached by the projects.

! Is the pact partnership complete ? Could it be reinforced ? How ?

Absolutely not. At the moment, the main focus is the reorganisation of the Lahti TEP as a local consortium. The final structure of the partnership will consist of members and partners actively involved in the objectives and the basic idea of the projects.

Contact : Eva Riihikorpi # Lahti Territorial Employment Pact Vapaudenkatu 9 C 3 15110 Lahti - Fi $ +358-3-7520 530 Fax +358-3-7520 602 E-mail : [email protected]

Territorial Employment Pacts Dissemination Conference - Brussels 8, 9 and 10 November 1999 8