Roll up your sleeves: volunteering in Helsinki during your stay
Would you like to travel and do something meaningful? Helsinki metropolitan area has many volunteering opportunities for travellers too!
By volunteering during your trip, you can get to know local Helsinkian life and leave a positive mark in the city.
You can, for example, help protect nature or support local organisations whilst enjoying more meaningful experiences. Not to mention making new friends – even for life!
Volunteering – a form of pampering?
If a traditional city break or pampering holiday doesn’t excite you, you can always lend a helping hand and become a volunteer traveller. Volunteer tourism allows you to help local communities and nature, and at the same time dive deeper into local life or the natural environment.
Hard at the grind on your precious time off? Not at all. Volunteering does not have to mean toiling from morning to night (though there are options for that too); it can also mean just a few hours of effort towards a good cause. Responsible travel is attracting more and more interest, and volunteer tourism is a growing trend. While voluntary work was once mostly organised by NGOs, it is now also offered by businesses and travel agencies.
In the Helsinki metropolitan area there are plenty of opportunities for volunteering. You can, for example, help restore nature, go jogging or canoeing while collecting litter from the shores, or care for parks.
Here are some of the most interesting volunteering opportunities in Helsinki and nearby. In each case, you will cover your own accommodation, meals and transport.
Nature conservation holiday in Nuuksio National Park
Did you know that a third of Finland’s land area was once covered by wetlands? Today, they cover only one-fifth of the country. Wetlands are important carbon sinks and diverse habitats for countless species.
At Haltia Lake Lodge inside the national park, you can stay close to nature in a hotel decorated with recycled materials and take part in local nature restoration work, such as restoring peatlands.
“We have created the nature conservation holiday concept in cooperation with Metsähallitus, which manages state-owned lands and waters. A holiday at the lodge combines leisure with meaningful activities,” says Teemu Tuomarla, CEO and co-founder of Haltia Lake Lodge.
“In this type of regenerative travel, the idea is to leave the holiday destination in better condition than when you arrived.”
During a nature conservation holiday at Haltia Lake Lodge, guests stay for 3–4 nights in the nature hotel and spend one afternoon mowing meadows, removing harmful invasive species or restoring peatlands. The paid package includes accommodation, meals, transport to the work site and guided instruction. Other activities can be combined, such as a morning sauna, a trip into the national park or renting a canoe.
“It’s wonderful to see native species gradually return to meadows and wetlands, and to share this important story with visitors. I hope travellers will gain an understanding of why pollinators and biodiversity matter,” says Tuomarla.
The Haltia Lake Lodge team also spends six days a year on different restoration projects.
“We’ve dammed drainage ditches, collected sackfuls of invasive lupins that reduce biodiversity, and done fish stock management in an eutrophic lake,” Tuomarla explains.
“We operate in a sensitive environment within the national park, which thousands of people visit each year. We want to have a positive impact on the state of our park’s environment. On the mark that both we and our visitors leave behind.”
“Before launching the company, I wandered the Nuuksio trails doing some sensory observation of my own. I researched and analysed the numbers – Nuuksio is one of Finland’s most visited national parks, yet there wasn’t a single hotel in the Haltia area.”
In 2019, tourism was booming. There were even early plans with Finnair to offer stopover packages, letting visitors step straight into nature in Nuuksio.
Paddle for free and collect litter from the shores
The Baltic Sea is one of the world’s most polluted seas, and littering is a problem we can all help to tackle.
Baltic Sea Plogging is a Finland-wide charity initiative where kayakers can rent a kayak for free in exchange for collecting litter.
“So far, 10,062 volunteers have taken part, collecting nearly 10,000 kilos of rubbish,” says Juuso Tilaeus, CEO of water sports centre Laguuni, which launched the project.
According to Tilaeus, hundreds of pieces of feedback show how strong the public’s desire is to do something concrete for the Baltic Sea.
Find out more about the Baltic Sea protection: John Nurmisen Säätiö
“This activity is all about people. Anyone can get out on the water to think about their actions for the environment – and as a side benefit, we get cleaner shores,” he says.
Baltic Sea Plogging runs from early June until the end of August, finishing on Baltic Sea Day. When you book a Baltic Sea kayak, you commit to weighing, sorting and recording the litter you collect.
Find out more about the Baltic Sea plogging here.
If paddling isn’t your thing, you can also pick up litter from the shores while walking or running. Plogging – litter-picking while jogging – combines exercise with caring for the environment. You can do it alone or together with locals. You can find a plogging buddy too!
Young people – help nature and meet new friends
The Finnish Nature Association (Luontoliitto) organises all kinds of nature-related activities for children and young people in the Helsinki area and across the country. You can join in collecting litter from shores, restoring meadows in the archipelago or even campaigning to protect a valuable local forest.
You can also simply join a nature excursion and meet like-minded young people. For members of sexual minorities, the Nature Association organises popular queer birdwatching trips, among other events.
Participation is often free or very affordable. Some activities are in Finnish and some in English. Find the best way for you to get involved here (website in Finnish).
Park and bee lover? Become a park volunteer!
Would you like to tidy up public spaces by picking up litter or removing invasive plant species? If you’re staying in Helsinki for a longer time, you can become an official park volunteer, a “Park Pal” with the City of Helsinki. If you’re just visiting, you can still join a one-off volunteer event.
“Park volunteering is an ongoing activity that requires registration,” explains Armi Koskela, the city’s volunteer work coordinator.
As a Park Pal you get physical exercise and meet new people. Anyone is welcome to join a volunteer event. Themes may include removing invasive species or planting summer flowers. You can also organise your own clean-up event with your own group.
“The city supports this by lending equipment and picking up the rubbish afterwards,” says Koskela.
Volunteer activities are listed here!
You can sign up as a park volunteer at the City of Helsinki Urban Environment Division customer service at Työpajankatu 8. When you register, you will receive litter tongs, a Hyvällä asialla (“For a Good Cause”) high-visibility vest, a park volunteer calendar for recording your hours, and a Park Pal volunteer card that proves your participation.
Registration is possible at any time during customer service opening hours. You can find the opening hours on the Urban Environment Division website.
Read more about Helsinki Park Pals here.
We hope you enjoy your stay in Helsinki in a whole new way!