Youth House Uniikki is a café and youth centre in the city of Tampere, Finland. The centre is an important place for young people to meet, providing them with a safe place to hang out for a chat and a cup of coffee (and a reasonably priced meal) as well as the opportunity to learn new skills and take part in a whole range of activities. Racism is a problem in the City, but everyone knows that Uniikki is a place where no-one will be harassed.

The local municipality decided to stop funding Uniikki, meaning that it would have to close.

Young people who use Uniikki, The Finnish Federation of Settlements (SSL) and their local member, Ahjola who run Uniikki leapt into action, developing a campaign to save the club.

Activities of the campaign included:

• Making a video about the impact of Uniikki
• Getting the local press involved
• Young people staged a demonstration in the city centre
• The video was played publically and through social media and webpages.

A key development was a meeting between young people and politicians from Tampere. Young people made sure that the politicians understood what Uniikki means to them. They showed the video and publicised the outcome of the meeting.  SSL also met with officials from the City to discuss the reasons behind the cuts and the importance of the youth Uniikki.

The campaign was a success and continued funding for Uniikki was secured.