Expanding Your Social Circle with Luckan Integration
- May 23
- 3 min read
LUCKAN INTEGRATION is a part of LUCKAN, a prominent Finland-Swedish Information and Culture Centre that gives information about Swedish services and about the Finland-Swedish community:
As we know in Finland there are two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. Therefore it makes sense that people would be able to use both languages and also to receive information in both languages, including integration programs for foreigners as well.
Here we talk about a center whose services are free of charge and provides advice and support for people who live in Finland; Luckan Integration, a part of Luckan which is supported and funded also by the Finnish government.
Certainly this does not mean that they only use Swedish language for communication, but their service is available in various languages such as English, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Hindi, Urdu, and Nepali for offering free guidance. However one can also get some activities done in Swedish. Luckan Integration has special knowledge in Swedish speaking society and Swedish integration in Finland.
But certainly everybody is welcome to the Luckan, which is a wonderful cultural center as well.
There is a friendly and popular gathering of women called 'Woman’s cafe’ which is organized by Luckan integration on every friday at Helsinki city center; this is a place where I also met Veronica Hertzberg and some of her team members who work for Luckan.
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The Woman's cafe offers free tea, coffee, fruit, sweets and snacks while every time there is an expert talking about a useful subject.
We start our conversation about what integration means to them?
Veronica’s answer is powerful and beautiful as she explains that their approach and view is a holistic way of looking at integration for foreigners: ‘’You need a social life in order to feel at home. You might need more guidance, how society works, how to go forward, how to find a job, how to find the suitable Finnish language (Swedish or Finnish), how to make a CV, and how to find support on various needs for an overall-well being and happiness’’.
As Veronica describes the rules and regulations have lately been changing and they keep people updated about the new laws and they provide new information for foreigners about the integration.
‘’We try to understand the situation of each person, therefore we help them to work on themselves, but give them useful guides too. There are workshops, CV making, seminars, job searches, coachings, and team work weekly’’. In addition Veronica emphasises that they give guidance online as well.
After getting excited and interested in knowing more about the activities of Luckan, I asked about the success stories, for example about people who found jobs?
Veronica's answer made me even more happy and enthusiastic, wanting to know more details: ‘’Yes, we have successful stories of people who found jobs via Luckan.
People must know that there are also hidden job markets. Often the job applications are many and it is not easy to find work easily and soon. You need a network then. We have different projects and also mentors from different fields. These mentors have a good network and they get to network more and more. Coordinators and mentors work together, and therefore the network gets better and bigger. This is a very useful thing for foreigners to know about. You can apply that you look for a mentor, or become a mentor as well.’’
At this point it is good to also mention Circlen, another useful point to tell people about it. Here is what Veronica kindly describes with a good summary: ‘’ One can apply for a Circlen team group according to what everybody likes to do including fun activities, for example let’s say dancing. Then Amanda, who is responsible for Circlen, gets the applications and creates whatsapp groups so people can meet and do things together.’’
I must say that I got to know more about the Luckan which has many amazing activities and projects; some to mention are language and social events, book circles in Swedish where people meet and discuss the books. There are also activities for families such as positive birth club, family Luckan and babycafe in Swedish, motherhood talks, Brazilian friday, art workshop for Ukrainian children, Ukrainian sunday, Italian sunday, Spanish sunday, which include infant and junior club as well.
If you are interested in participating in the events and activities of Luckan or simply find out about their services, guides, and other useful information, look at the website of Luckan integration or follow them on their facebook page. https://integration.luckan.fi/
