Rieska-Leader ry

Rieska-Leader ry is a local action group, so called Leader, that works for rural development and supports small local businesses and communities mostly from the European Rural Fund. We have 4 workers, a managing director, a fund advisor, a finance and payment expert and an international and youth coordinator. We are actively involved with the communities of our area (7 municipalities), the associations, education centers and youth houses and we create our own projects and fund other´s to develop the vitality, social- and business life of the region. We constantly take part in organizing events with other associations. Youth and international activities has been a very important part of our strategy for decades and we have our own small youth group that makes decisions on the Youth Leader (nuorisoleader.fi) projects, which is funded by the local municipalities. Our main goal is to activate our youngsters to prevent segregation and have a better youth involvement in activities and decision making process in our rural areas. We have funded youth related projects on our own and also coordinated youth exchanges and a strategic partnership funded from Erasmus+. Having activities with other cultures makes our youngsters more tolerant, open-minded and skilled to have a meaningful life in the countryside.