ICDP Finland website: https://icdp.fi/sv/hem/
2025: update by Petra Zilliacus
From 2025, we would especially like to highlight an international training, where twenty-seven youth workers and teachers from seventeen different European countries participated in a three-day ICDP course in Pargas. The event was organized by Pargas City Youth Department in a successful collaboration with the ICDP Finland association and the EU SALTO Erasmus+ programme.
Another highlight comes from the end of September, when 21 ICDP facilitators met in Helsinki to dive into the subject of Empathy in action. We learned about the different meanings and nuances of the words empathy, sympathy, compassion, and empathetic identification. To the delight of the participants, we also got to practice empathy in workshops and role play.
At the end of the year, on Dec 9, we had a networking day together with our ICDP-trainer colleagues from the Nordic countries. The virual event was hosted by ICDP Sweden and started with a philosophy lecture by Jonna Bornemark on the different ways of knowing things. In the afternoon, the countries each had a chance to present their current projects.
A challenge that we see in the health and social field in Finland at the moment is decreased funding for long term strategic planning and operative activity. Resources to public social welfare is shrinking at the same time as NGO funding is being cut substantially. This leads to people changing work place and not always being able to implement ICDP in a structured way in a new work setting. Much effort in different settings is focused on dealing with problems that are already quite difficult – while at the same time strategic guidelines are emphasizing early intervention and preventive measures. In the midst of these forces pulling in different directions, it still seems the interest for ICDP is growing. Also, for those of us who started working with ICDP many years ago, it is always reassuring to acknowledge how much of the ICDP framework is still alive in our thinking – even though we might not on a daily basis be able to do outspoken ICDP work.
International workshop in Helsinki, 2024
2021: ICDP report 2021: News from the Finnish Federation of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters
2021: Update from Pargas
2020: Report of activities
ICDP with people with intellectual disabilities
2019: News from Pargas
2018: Report of activities
2017: Short update
EARLY DEVELOPMENTS:
In 2010, Klara Shauman Alhberg was working as a psychologist at the Anchor House Family Centre in Pargas, near Åbo, situated on the archipelago in the south east of Finland, when she discovered and read about ICDP.
She became determined to bring ICDP to Finland. The training of a first group of her colleagues including, psychologists, teachers, pedagogues and family workers was carried out in cooperation with ICDP Sweden, whereas the subsequent developments in Kotka were initiated in cooperation with ICDP international.
The newly trained local team started to use ICDP at the Anchor House family centre as a framework for guiding cooperation in multi-professional work. The ICDP programme was soon also applied for working with families and professionals who work with children.
“Deeply rooted in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ICDP helps to clarify and challenge our different views on children and childhood. We think ICDP provides a great tool to enhance our interaction and communication with children.” – Klara Shauman Alhberg.
In 2011, there were new developments in another part of the country; a three year ICDP project started to develop in Kotka, in the west of Finland. A team of twenty four professionals was selected to receive training and they came from three organizations: the Association of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters, A-Clinic Foundation and the Finnish Blue Ribbon.
During 2012, the newly trained team started to apply the ICDP program in Kotka and its surroundings. This work is part of a joint initiative by the above mentioned three organzations that aims to develop a child centred rehabilitation model for working with parents with problems related to substance abuse. The new model will be used to strengthen the work of the local health and social care networks. The project is coordinated by the Association of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters and it is funded by Finland´s Slot Machine Association. By implementing ICDP, the project aims “to develop the caregivers’ ability to face children with respect and also to expand their ability to respond with sensitivity, to hear and receive the child’s thoughts, feelings and intentions.”
Webpage: http://www.ensijaturvakotienliitto.fi/tyomuodot/lapsikeskeinen-paihdetyon-kehitt/
ICDP has been growing steadily and as a result, it was decided to register ICDP Finland as an association. This was accomplished in January 2012, with 22 members.