Minttu, senior planning officer

A few years ago, I joined Outdoor Services as a senior planning officer to support the work of outdoor activity managers. At that time, planning and development work related to maritime activities, winter swimming, mountain biking and other outdoor activities are what I began to work on, as well as public statements.

The common denominators on my career path have been outdoor activities, recreational use of nature, as well as a wide range of public administration tasks around recreational use of nature in publicly owned areas. I have a master’s degree in general history and wrote my thesis on the development of national park systems in the United States and Finland. Before joining the City of Helsinki, I worked on the national parks for a long time. I have had the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of the recreational use of nature in the United States and of what I learned there that I would like to introduce in Finland is the communality and social side.

Along the way, I’ve learned a lot, most recently basic studies in Futures Research, encouraged by my employer. In my career, I have always been blessed by supportive employers, regarding the development of myself and my skills. I can’t think of a single time when someone had objected to further education.

Nowadays, I work in the Physical Activity Promotion Unit, which lets me get to grips with outdoor activities on a more strategic level. I am, of course, glad that I’ve still got of old, practical promotion of outdoor activities in my job description. One of the most interesting cornerstones of my current work is to gather and bolster our understanding of the barriers and attraction factors of outdoor activities: what kinds of barriers there are and what are the ways for us to help Helsinki residents to discover our find freely available, always open and no-cost outdoor activities.

I’m also responsible for maritime activities, in which I am happy be a part of. After all, I came to work for the city specifically to develop maritime Helsinki. One particularly meaningful thing in my work is the Helsinki Biennale in Vallisaari, which combines art, maritime and outdoor activities in a wonderful way. It’s also possible to find a reason to go out to the sea and a walk outside from an art an culture perspective.

I like it at Sports Services because I get to work in a great unit with fantastic professionals, promoting things that are specially important to me, such as exposing the effects of nature and outdoor activities on well-being available to all our residents. There is no need to go specifically go looking for meaning in this work.

Sports Services is a highly suitable workplace for professionals from many fields, both for more experienced hands and people in the early stages of their careers, who find it important to promote the common good. When we attract more varied expertise and people from different backgrounds to Sports Services, we will be able to produce better services for Helsinki residents.

I consider myself lucky, as I get to promote all kinds of fun leisure activities that boost the well-being of Helsinki’s residents, from winter swimming to mountain biking, from archipelago services to outdoor gyms. A natural bonus is that I get to develop something that I enjoy in my free time, namely outdoor activities in their various forms.