Safe streets – Preventing youth street violence and strengthening everyday safety

Safe streets is a programme funded through health promotion appropriations and its aim is to prevent youth street violence and strengthen everyday safety.

The programme brings together development work, regional projects and—cutting across all of this—a strong research contribution. The measures delivered under Safe Streets seek to reduce violence and related risks at multiple levels (primary, secondary and tertiary prevention).

Goals

The objective of the Safe Streets programme is to ensure that children and parents who need support are increasingly able to access effective help before problems escalate.

At the same time, the programme aims to ensure that the challenges faced by young people in difficult circumstances do not become long-term.

Safe Streets is built around five measures:

1. Strengthen the knowledge base on preventing violence and violent radicalisation, and improve professionals’ capability to engage with and support young people.
2. Increase children’s and young people’s participation, strengthen social cohesion in everyday environments, and enhance the support available there.
3. Develop operating models that enable a rapid response to local challenges.
4. Support young people to break cycles of offending, thereby reducing opportunities for criminal gangs to recruit new young members.
5. Support the wellbeing and future plans of young people living in reform schools and in child welfare institutions providing intensive support.

Implementation

Implementation includes:

• An online training course on preventing youth violence, along with seminar days for professionals working with young people
  Preventing youth violence online course
• The RADI2025 study, which examines health and social care and education-sector professionals’ perceptions of violent radicalisation and honour-based violence, and the related competence needs

Regional projects' implementation partners include municipalities, wellbeing services counties and NGOs. Descriptions of the projects' operating models are available on Innokylä in Finnish. The aim is to identify ways to make children's and young people's growth environments safer and more community-oriented and strengthening the ability of professionals and communities to respond rapidly to local problems.
Projects' operating models (in Finnish, Innokylä)

Interventions to help young people break cycles of offending:

• The NURIN project: developing a brief intervention for use by different actors, in cooperation with the Criminal Sanctions Agency (Rikosseuraamuslaitos)
• The Mun mentori (“My Mentor”) project: developing “walking alongside” support into a research-based intervention, in cooperation with the reform schools (Valtion koulukodit) and Aseman lapset ry.

Throughout the programme period, evidence will be produced on project processes and effectiveness, as well as individual-level data on youth offending and its underlying causes.

In addition, as part of Measure 1, Tampere University will carry out the next national Child Victim Survey (Lapsiuhritutkimus) in 2025–2026.

Privacy notices for the project:

• Privacy notice for the Asporto/Gettogym project

Funding

Health Promotion Appropriations (Terveyden edistämisen määräraha, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, STM)

Partners

Reform schools (Valtion koulukodit), Tampere University, The Criminal Sanctions Agency (Rikosseuraamuslaitos), The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM)

Updated: 24.4.2026