Finnish Centre Youth - Suomen Keskustanuoret

The Finnish Centre Youth is a political organisation for young people which influences on society with political means according to its values and programmes and brings up young people for an active citizenship.

The Finnish Centre Youth is an important channel of influencing, a social agent and an organisation for young people bringing them up for active citizenship.

By participating in the activity of the Finnish Centre Youth you will learn skills of participating and influencing and you will have an opportunity to use them in your own immediate surroundings and society.

Politics

The fact that what kind of school, commune, Finland and world we live in is not self-evident. It is very important that young people are involved with matters affecting their immediate surroundings and whole society.

Members of the Finnish Centre Youth influence on society with political means. With politics the Finnish Centre Youth means contributing to development of your own living environment and whole society by means of representative democracy and acting in a civil society by the means of choices and concrete acts.

Among the Finnish Centre Youth young people themselves influence on things that are important for young people. By this way policy for young people of the Finnish Centre Youth is both made by young people and it affects directly on the living circumstances of young people. The direction of influence of the Finnish Centre Youth originates from values of the Finnish Centre Youth, programmes of the Finnish Centre Youth and statements made by the Finnish Centre Youth.
 
All these are made by the members of the Finnish Centre Youth themselves.

Action

Action of the Finnish Centre Youth is social influencing and bringing up young people into an active citizenship in other words politics and education.

Finnish Center Youth is a political youth organization, which acts in politics according to its values and trains young people for active citizenship.

Young and active

Young and active citizen participates and acts in his own environment, educates himself, cultivates own ideology, encourages tolerance and multiculturality, keeps up healty ways of living and also acts globally.

Things change when you can affect them yourself

Everyone has right and will to act for those issues that are important for oneself and for others.

Willingness

Has your oppion been rejected or hasn’t anyone listened to it? No wonder that sometimes it feels like there’s no point of saying your own oppinion out loud because you are afraid that no one will take it seriously. But ultimately everyone wants to act for things that are important for oneself and for others.

In the Center Youth young people themself act for issues that are important for the young.

Ability

When you face something that would really need a change, you realize that you’re not sure how to act to make diffrence. There are certain skills and information that is needed when acting.

Acting within Center Youth enables to learn those skills.

Possibility

Although you would have a burning desire and all the skills and infromation needed, it’s not possible to act if you’re not given the possibilities.

Center youth already has those ways and means of acting.

The values of Finnish Center Youth are based on humanity.

Equality, welfare of nature, education and communality are values of Center youth.

Why aren’t all people equal?

For Center youth everyone is equal in spite of one’s origin. For Center youth equality means that everybody has the same possibilities to live and to educate themselves in spite of their backgroung. Place of residence, gender, culture, age, genes, stage of health or the position of one’s parents should not be restraining aspects. 

I act the way that next generations can live in a pure nature.

Center youth emphasises the connection of human and the nature: we are a part of nature and nature is a part of us. This vision is based on a thought that well-being of nature means the well-being of people Economical, social and environmental aspects should be noticed in decision-making.

Are you ready to take responsibility of other people and your own living environment?

For Center youth civilization means that person wants to affect and participate in the development of oneself, environment and society. Person is able and willing to take responsibility of other people and the whole world and also affect environment and society. Civilization and education are preconditions for ethical way of thinking and also for abilities and desires to observe the acts of oneself and the others in a critical way. Education enables anylizing people in the account of humanity, not just in the account ofthoughts and origins.

Family and good friends

Ideal community is able to support and to encourage its every member in his own emotional growth and development.

How we operate

We want to be heard and therefore we encourage young people to take an active role in the society. We encourage young people to candidate in different elections – local, parliamentary and European Parliament. We also influence at different levels of our party structure. We have representation at all levels of party structure. The former Party Leader and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and Commissioner Olli Rehn are both also former Presidents of Finnish Center Youth.

Aside from the “traditional” ways, we also like to use other ways to influence in the society. We organise events, campaigns and demonstrations. We also organise seminars, training events or just ask interesting people to come and discuss with us.

For us international affairs is more than EU and Europe – we cannot shut our eyes and not to think the wars, famine, violations of human rights. International politics must be based into cooperation, because the problems that threaten humanity and globe’s ecological equilibrium don’t know the boarders of nation states.

On the international level we belong to the liberal family

Finnish Center Youth is a full member of European Liberal Youth (LYMEC), International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) and Nordiska Centerungdomens Förbund (NCF, Nordic Centre Youth). We are also member of Liberal Youth of the Baltic Sea region (LYBS).

At the national level, we are members in many internationally-minded NGOs, such as Finnish National Youth Council (Allianssi), Finnish UN-Association, Service Centre for Development Cooperation and Youth Organisation of the Finnish Norden Association.

Structure

Finnish Center Youth is the biggest political youth organisation in Finland, in total we have about 11 000 members all around in Finland. We have 18 regional organisations, and above them in our organisational structure there is approximately 400 local associations. All the regions have either full- or part-time employee.

The highest decision-making bodies are Congress, which meets every year in late October and Executive Committee, which meets every year in March-April. The day to day-work is led by President and Secretary General. National board meets about 5-8 times a year, and consists of President, 2 Vice Presidents and 10 Board members. Regional organisation’s employees choose one representative to the National Board and Board also invites representatives from the Center Party and Union of Center Students (KOL) to the meetings. We also have different committees and working groups that assist the National Board.

Our head office is situated in Helsinki, where five people work: Secretary General, Communications Officer, Education Officer, Political Advisor and Office Assistant. President of the organization also works from the head office at times and from time to time, we also take volunteers.

For more information, contact our head office at info(at)keskustanuoret.fi.