Our strategy & values

As an NGO and expert organisation, we prevent and reduce the harmful effects of substance abuse, gambling and gaming. We support the well-being of communities and individuals, and strengthen socially sustainable development. We are an active social influencer.

Family with hands together.
Photo: Jukka Rapo / EHYT

Our strategy 2020 defines three main pillars of our operations:

  1. We support resources and choices that promote the well-being of communities and individuals. We account for personal life situations and different starting points in life. We prevent the harmful effects of substance abuse, gaming and gambling on individuals and support individual functional capacity and well-being. We target our actions to reach people in all stages of life: children, young people, young adults, students, people in working life and retired people.
  2. We modify people’s everyday living environment and social structures to minimise the harmful effects of substance abuse, gaming and gambling. We work in local communities, municipalities, regions and at the national level to reduce the harm caused by substance abuse and gaming and gambling. We develop operating models, information and methods and share them with various communities. We influence, for example, legislation, action plans and the social structures at large. We participate in working groups and networks to provide goals, content and perspectives that help to prevent the harm from substance abuse, gaming and gambling.
  3. Substance abuse prevention has strong structures and skilled professionals, and it is based on methods whose effectiveness have been proven. We influence municipal, regional and national substance abuse prevention. We monitor and promote the implementation of the Act on organising alcohol, tobacco, drugs and gambling prevention and the Action plan on Alcohol, Tobacco, Drugs and Gambling. We support proficiency in substance abuse prevention in various professions by training different professional groups and meeting children, young people, students and related actors at different levels of the education system. We encourage the use of evidence-based methods in substance abuse prevention.

Our values are

Joint responsibility. We promote responsibility and caring in all our work. Our work is based on dialogue that we build in cooperation with various actors. Our goal is to have a society of communities whose foundation is built on mutual care and caring.

Equality. Our operations are equal and unbiased in all areas, such as regions, languages, social groups, cultures as well as between different genders and generations. We promote and support the inclusion of citizens in all of our operations.

Expertise. We value diverse professional skills, reliable evidence-based information and expertise in civic engagement based on real-life everyday experiences. We promote the use of effective methods and continuously develop our own skills.

Read more about our strategy in Finnish (pdf, 2 Mb).