European Outreach Seminar: “Lessons learned – challenges ahead” New date: 1st– 3rd of March 2007 Location: Helsinki, Finland; Tallinn, Estonia Organisation: A-Clinic Foundation Helsinki >> program Background Outreach is one of the most important tools to approach hard-to-reach target groups. Various outreach methods have been developed in the past decades, all of them more or less addressed to specific target groups. Outreach methods, which are used for approaching drug users might differ a lot from those, used in the work with sex workers or youngsters. Although there is useful experience in the different areas, there is no exchange or dialogue between the different working fields. A-Clinic Foundation is a main service provider in Finland with extensive experience in outreach work for different target groups (e.g. drug users and sex workers) and peer involvement. The seminar will be held in the context of the tenth anniversary of the health advice centre Vinkki in Helsinki. Objectives/activities Different methods from different working fields will be compared with each other, by evaluating the usability and the effectiveness in the different areas. The seminar will focus also on the question how to realize peer involvement and peer work and how to increase the effect and the impact of this specific methodology. Furthermore, the participants will discuss the meaning of research and data collection in the context of outreach work. A-Clinic Foundation will present the snowball operation, which has been carried out with support of Correlation, targeting Russian speaking drug users and sex workers. Other models of best practice will be presented by several participants in order to compare experience. An outreach manual, currently developed by the Correlation outreach group, will be presented and discussed. Parts of the seminar will be held on the ferry boat between Helsinki and Tallinn to illustrate the challenges of outreach work between these countries. Site visits in Helsinki and Tallinn will be organised. Profile of the participants The seminar is directed to national and international outreach workers and Correlation members. Participants should be able to contribute actively to the seminar issues, by sharing their experience. Outline of the seminar The first two seminar days will be held in Helsinki, while the last day will be organised in Tallinn. The seminar starts on Thursday afternoon with organised activities and site visits. The evening can be used for informal exchange. The official seminar program starts on Friday with several international and national speakers and workshop sessions. After travelling with the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, the seminar continues in Tallinn on Saturday, which includes site visits to different projects. Expected outcomes The seminar will contribute to the better understanding of the issues outreach work and peer involvement. Participants will learn from each others experience and discuss new developments and best practices. The participants will identify obstacles and problems within the practical work and search for possible solutions.