About us

South West Finland’s Riverside Partners Association is a rural development association situated in South West Finland. It is a Local Action Group (Leader group) that receives funding from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), the Finnish state and municipalities in its area.

We operate in eight municipalities (Aura, Loimaa, Koski TL, Marttila, Oripää, Pöytyä, Somero and the area of Tarvasjoki in Lieto). Our main function is to help keeping our area’s countryside living and active. This is done mainly by granting small subsidies to NGO’s and small businesses.

Riverside Partners has been active for almost 20 years. During that time, we have granted funding for over 400 different projects. Since 2005 we have also executed four international projects and we aim at increasing our international activities.

The area

Around 46 000 people live in the area. The size of the area is 2 786 square kilometres. Largest rural cities in the area are Loimaa and Somero. The largest urban city near the region is Turku, which is situated about 66 kilometres from Loimaa and 86 kilometres from Somero. Helsinki, the capital of Finland is about 150 km from the center of the area.

There are around 5 000 businesses in the area. Large number of businesses operate in mechanical engineering and metals industry. There are also many companies in wordworking and building materials industries. Due to the strong agricultural sector there are also numerous food producing companies in the area.

There are over 60 different associations active in the area. Their activities vary from general village actions to different leisure activities like sports and culture.

Nature environment in the area is very varied. Rivers and ridge areas alternate and hikers find beautiful hiking trails in different parts of the area.

International activities

Riverside Partners Local Development Strategy aims at involving villages, NGOs and small businesses in cross border Leader activities. We encourage local actors to establish international contacts and partnerships. International cooperation between villages and NGOs helps local actors to find new ways of developing their living area. Businesses will find new business ideas and establish business partnerships. We are especially interested in starting international projects for young people and small businesses.