Centre of Expertise on Social Welfare in Northern Finland

Functions in the Administrative Districts of Oulu and Lapland. Area is consisted of 51 municipalities (Lapland 21) and population includes 591 000 people (Lapland 180 000).

Functions in three Units:

• Northern Ostrobothnia, in connection with Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Oulu)
• Lapland, in connection with the Wellbeing Services County of Lapland (Rovaniemi)
• Sami area, in connection with the Sami Parliament (Inari)

Tasks by law (2002)

The task of the Centre of Expertise on Social Welfare is to promote both basic and specialised know-how in the social field with co-operation of other actors

• Development, research and experimental activities in cooperation with the practical field
• Special services and consultations that requires expertise
• Evaluation and prediction of social impacts
• Development of social services in the Sami language and culture

Network organization: a meeting point for professionals, service users, researchers and students

Long term general focus

• Welfare strategy work.
• Knowledge production of well-being.
• Research and studies.
• Empowering social work
• Regional co-operation and developing with municipalities and wellbeing services counties
• Client participation
• Utilisating technology
• Development of working methods in social work and social field

We want Poske to be a place

• Which offers permanent networks for development instead of short projects
• Where we learn from practice and share practical solutions
• Where we experiment new ways to develop social services with the service users
• Where we gather and analyze information about ongoing phenomenona that affects social field