Verso in english

Verso is one on 11 Centres which cover all of Finland. The Centres of Excellence are statutory operators (Government Decree on the activities of social welfare know-how centres 13.12.2001/1230) and have a cooperation agreement with the municipalities in their area

Our task is to develop new methods of working and produce information pertaining to social welfare.

At the national level we:
– provide statements regarding the development of social welfare and changes in applicable legislation
– meet experts who are preparing significant changes in the ways social services are researched, taught, delivered etc.
– update our knowledge on what is going on and bring the information to our areas + bring information from our areas to the people/instances who are preparing changes.

Our funding comes from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (about 10-20% of our budget) and municipalities in our area (about 10-20% of our budget). The rest of the funding comes from selling services like coordinating of preventive work in the area or services on two ombundsmen and from different projects. We have project funding from for example the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the EU.

In Päijät-Häme and eastern Uusimaa Verso develops social welfare services while providing a meeting place for social welfare professionals. Verso is a network organization, working closely together with the municipalities as well as with educational institutes and NGOs. The networks are built around different themes or tasks, and they enable the sharing and the development of professional know-how.

Verso was founded in 2001 and was part of the University of Helsinki until 2011 and then part of Phsotey (2017 Päijät-Hämeen hyvinvointialue).