In Finland, youth work holds a strong statutory position, which is quite a rarity when compared to other European nations. In addition to offering targeted forms of youth work such as outreach youth work, youth workshops or peer support groups (see Youth Wiki/Finland 4.7 Youth work to foster social inclusion), it also offers general and inclusive youth work services to the entire age group of young people, aiming to support their wellbeing and quality of life. As in formal education, the responsibility of how to organise the services within non-formal learning processes is given to local-level municipalities. The civic society — the non-governmental youth and youth work organisations both at the national and local levels — plays a very active role as well.

General youth work operates in various environments: As open access services in free-time facilities (such as youth centres/houses), in mobile spaces (such as youth work vans), on online spaces (self-service use of databases or receiving support from youth workers or/and peers), as a part of multi-sectoral services (one-stop guidance centres) as well as outdoors situated outside a school area, or on school premises after school hours or during the school day, in which case it is considered as ’school youth work’ (read more in Youth Wiki/Finland 10.1 General context).

Most of the youth work activities are organised during the leisure time of young people: in the evenings, on the weekends and during the school holidays. They are arranged by municipalities, non-governmental youth and youth work associations, national youth centres and parishes. The activities are based on the funding regulations stated in the Youth Act, while young people themselves need to have an active role in planning, realising and evaluating these activities. Recently, there has been more and more attention given to making youth work services more accessible. One reason for that is the Non-Discrimination Act, which obliges municipalities to organise, for example, an equality mapping to develop the accessibility of services. (see more about participative youth work and quality assurance in Youth Wiki/Finland 10.4 Quality and innovation in youth work).