Survey for Families with Children Regarding Parish Activities
(to be published on ONL and ort.fi channels)
In November 2024, the Council of the Orthodox Church of Finland decided to conduct a study on the church’s work with children, youth, and families. The task involves assessing the policies and future prospects for children, youth, and family work. This study was entrusted to the church’s Head of Education and Training, Antti Räsänen.
This survey is related to the part of the study concerning families with children.
In this survey, the definition of a family with children follows the definition of Statistics Finland: "A family with children includes at least one child under the age of 18 living at home." Families whose children under 18 do not live at home or live at home part-time can, of course, also respond to the questions.
The questions were created in cooperation with the Orthodox Youth Association of Finland and the doctor of theology Ari Koponen.
The response period ends on 7.3.

For further information about the survey, please contact:
Antti Räsänen
Head of Education and Training
antti.rasanen@ort.fi

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* 1. Consent for Research

I give permission for my responses to be processed as part of the study on children, youth, and family work

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* 2. I give permission for my responses to be processed for other related academic research and study purposes.

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* 3. Background Information

Our family consists of:

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* 4. Does your family live:

* Living in the central parish area often means that all necessary services (e.g., shops, schools, healthcare) are within walking distance or a short commute.
** Living outside the central parish area often means services are more dispersed and may require longer travel distances, often by car or public transport. This includes rural areas, villages, or sparsely populated areas, typically farther from the parish’s central services.

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* 5. Current Activities

What Orthodox activities for children and families have you participated in? (You can choose multiple options.)

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* 6. Open-ended question:
Which of the current activities do you find particularly beneficial, and why?

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* 7. Hopes and Suggestions

What kind of family activities would you like your parish or the church to offer in the future?

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* 8. Do you think there is room for improvement in the parish’s family activities?

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* 9. Optional:
Please elaborate further:

What kind of support or resources would you like the parish to provide for your family life?

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* 10. What kind of activities you would like to be provided by the partner organizations of the Church and other providers (such as ONL, Valamo monastery and other)?

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* 11. Open-ended Questions:

Is there anything else you want to discuss regarding family activities organized either by the Church or the parish?

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