Family Centre Meeting Points – You Are Always Welcome

The Family Centre Meeting points are open, welcoming spaces where families can spend time together.

Here, adults can connect with other adults, and children can play with their peers. Feel free to drop by, learn about services available for families, and participate in various guided activities.

A Perfect Spot

Liis Alter, a mother from Espoo, has found immense value in the Keidas Meeting Point, located at Espoon keskus. As a regular visitor, she warmly encourages others to drop by.

“What I appreciate most is the opportunity to talk about my feelings with professionals who genuinely care about our family. At the Family Café, I learned about support families, something I hadn’t heard of elsewhere,” Alter shares.

Meeting Points and the activities are free of charge. Feedback and suggestions from visitors are always welcome.

“They always ask us what activities we’d like to see – and we’ve had some wonderful ones, like music sessions and baby food painting for the little ones,” Alter reminisces.

Dedicated and Heartfelt Staff

Niko Varjola, a father from Kirkkonummi, is also a regular visitor to these meeting points. His family frequents the Fyyr Resident Park in Kirkkonummi, known for its open early childhood education programs.

“The park offers fantastic open early childhood education, including weekly music and exercise sessions, environmental education, and sometimes even guided forest trips. The staff is exceptional – they always notice new visitors and come over to chat,” Varjola describes.

The park, which remains open throughout the summer, also provides meals for children under 16, earning high praise for this service.

“Meeting points are a great way to network and find peer support. I don’t think I would have been as active during my parental leave without these meeting points. I warmly encourage everyone to use these services!” Varjola recommends.

Effective Collaboration

“We’re thrilled that our services are being discovered and that community activities are becoming familiar!” exclaims Elina Wetterstrand, the Meeting Point Coordinator for the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County.

Meeting points are available in all municipalities of Western Uusimaa. They are located either in family centres or in premises of collaborative partners, such as municipal resident parks, the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare’s family cafés, or church family clubs.

A key part of this collaboration are the co-development days, where visitors, organization representatives, and family centre staff come together to develop and plan activities. This co-development also involves effective cooperation between the public and third sectors.

Across Western Uusimaa, there’s a tremendous amount of valuable collaboration between municipalities and organizations. Meeting points are crucial for supporting families’ daily lives and sharing information,” Wetterstrand summarizes.

You can find all Western Uusimaa meeting points listed here.

Löydät kaikki Länsi-Uudenmaan kohtaamispaikat täältä.