What is Finland Forward?

Finland Forward was a communications and cooperation project coordinated by the Prime Minister’s Office between 2020 and 2022. The project was set up to support citizens and Finnish society during the coronavirus crisis and to enhance their psychological crisis resilience. Finland Forward comprised acts of communications, campaigns and projects by the authorities, organisations and companies. Basic details of Finland Forward campaigns are presented on this page.

Finland Talks

Under the theme Finland Talks, people were encouraged to discuss the feelings and experiences arising from the coronavirus crisis throughout the Finland Forward project. A podcast series and radio programmes were produced in spring 2020, and in spring 2022, several Instagram live events were held in cooperation with Maaret Kallio. Discussion events titled Finland talks about crises and feelings were held in Joensuu, Rovaniemi, Turku and Helsinki during the autumn of 2022.

Museum of Contemporary Emotions

The Museum of Contemporary Emotions is a virtual museum and an experiential narrative about the feelings experienced during the state of emergency.

The museum’s timeline starts from March 2020 when the WHO declared the coronavirus epidemic as a pandemic. In 2022, the contents of the museum were expanded to cover the war of aggression against Ukraine and climate anxiety.

Public transport campaign

Passenger numbers in public transport declined during the coronavirus pandemic and the campaign was launched to encourage people to return to buses and trains. The national public transport campaign, jointly carried out by a number of government and municipal authorities, was first launched in autumn 2021 and it continued in summer 2022.

The campaign was carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Finnish Transport and Communications Agency and the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, and a large number of public transport actors and municipalities were also involved.

Lockdown Dialogues

Lockdown Dialogues provided citizens with an opportunity to meet and discuss their experiences during the coronavirus pandemic and look into the future.

In the series of discussions coordinated by the Dialogue Academy, the Timeout Foundation, the Ministry of Justice, Sitra and the Ministry of Finance, a total of 232 dialogues were held on nine days in different parts of Finland and the world. More than 1,600 people from different age groups and professions took part in the discussions. More than 100 actors from different areas of society were involved in organising the dialogues: organisations.

Finland Cares

The Finland Cares campaign between August and September of 2021 drew attention to the key role of voluntary work in the safety net of the welfare state and highlighted the activities of organisations and volunteers during the prolonged coronavirus crisis. Stories by volunteers were heard during the campaign, which involved more than 70 organisations.

Finland is Active

In the national campaign carried out between August and October of 2021, people were encouraged to engage in physical exercise and other leisure activities and return to their pre-coronavirus routines enhancing wellbeing, taking into account health safety guidelines and recommendations.

The campaign brought together events and regional campaigns in different parts of Finland. The purpose of the campaign was to ease the concerns about leisure activities and other activities outside home boosting wellbeing that have been on a long break over the past two years.

After Pandemic

#Mitäsitku (After Pandemic) campaign took place in May and June 2021. The purpose of the campaign was to encourage people to dream about the time after coronavirus pandemic and in this way create hope for the future. In radio programmes and on social media, people were asked what they would do when life has returned to normal.

Finland Thanks

Studies show that four out of five of all Finns have helped somebody (a close family member, a friend, an organisation or a small entrepreneur) during the coronavirus pandemic. Even small acts have made a difference and helped others to cope with the difficult situation. In spring 2020, people were encouraged to make video calls to persons who had helped others or made them happy.

Five Assets

It was decided to summarise the corona guidelines into easy-to-remember instructions, and the Five Assets campaign was the result. In this campaign, well-known personalities demonstrated how important it is to wear a mask and reminded that all this comes down to people caring about each other.

In 2021, the campaign theme was used in the video series featuring Mika Salminen, Director of Health Security at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. The series was translated into more than ten languages and directed at a broad range of different language groups.