Collaboration between the Finnish Red Cross and the Guides and Scouts of Finland

Red Cross volunteers are building a tent.

Photo: Joonas Brandt / Suomen Punainen Risti

The Finnish Red Cross and the Guides and Scouts of Finland will begin cooperation in preparedness activities in spring 2026. On this page, you will find information about what the cooperation means for local branches.

The Red Cross and the Guides and Scouts of Finland are collaborating to enable scouts to become part of the Red Cross's emergency preparedness and assistance capacity. The goal of the collaboration is to strengthen cooperation in preparedness as well as the capacity to provide aid during disruptions and emergency conditions. The collaboration complements the work of the Voluntary Rescue Service (Vapepa) network.

The collaboration includes, among other things, youth training and joint exercises related to preparedness themes and incident management. In addition, scouts are guided to register in the Oma Red Cross system to indicate their willingness to assist in potential large-scale aid and disruption situations. The collaboration was launched in spring 2026, and its forms are being further specified.

What does the collaboration mean for branches?

The Guides and Scouts of Finland direct scouts to join the Oma Red Cross system and, through it, become branch volunteers. In its guidelines, the Scout organisation encourages scouts to register as helpers for sudden assistance situations.

People who have joined branches through this collaboration can also be invited to take part in other activities if they wish. They can, for instance, be invited to newcomer evenings or events to get acquainted. On the other hand, if individuals do not wish to be involved in activities other than aid operations, we still warmly welcome them to take part in assistance situations.

Scouts can be alerted for aid operations in the same way as other branch volunteers. They also appear in branch statistics as branch volunteers.

This page will be updated as the details of the collaboration are further specified.

Questions about the collaboration

The information will be visible on the volunteer card in Oma starting in the autumn.

Activities can be suggested to volunteers who have joined through the collaboration if they have indicated so.

If the person is not interested in joining other Red Cross activities right now, they can still be warmly welcomed to join in the future if they change their mind.

You can contact volunteers who have joined through the Scouts via the same channels as other volunteers: by sending a message to the entire branch or by utilizing Oma's filtering tool. In addition, potential helpers can be reached by posting task-specific announcements in Oma or by communicating with volunteers through groups.

Scouts strengthen the branch's readiness to help both in everyday life and in operational situations.

Scouts can opt out of marketing communications directed at volunteers, but not communications regarding volunteer activities.