There are about 300 finnish-swedish local youth associations in Finland, with almost 50,000 individual members. The finnish-swedish youth association movement was founded in 1888 and the first youth association, Malax UF, was founded by Johannes Klockars.
The Finnish-Swedish Youth Association was established as a nonpolitical, national youth association in 1906 to advance the interests of the finnish-swedish (swedish speaking people in Finland) youth associations.
Today the main mission is to give young people and the member associations a wide variety of concrete services:
- Information about youth work and funding
- Services in the field of amateur theatre
- Project activities
- Advocate for the economic support of voluntary youth associations by government authorities and other important issues related to swedish-speaking youths in Finland
- Help the members to restore and keep the buildings of the local associations in shape