The work of Pohjois-Karjalan Osuuskauppa (PKO) – North Karelia cooperative society – in employing young people with special support needs has been selected as the Cooperative Action of the Year 2026. The winner was announced at Pellervon Päivä, organized annually by Pellervo Coop Center, on April 15, 2026, at Kulttuurikasarmi in Helsinki.
“We want to use the results of our cooperative to promote youth employment and prevent social exclusion. Although our actual need for summer substitutes is around 300, next summer we will hire 1,300 seasonal employees, of whom 180 are young people with special support needs. For us, this is a clear value-based decision. Political decision-makers speak eloquently about the need to include everyone in working life, but concrete actions and support for employers seem to be decreasing year by year,” says PKO’s HR Director Mika-Jussi Mononen.
“We have been developing practices for employing young people with special needs for a long time, and the greatest credit for this award belongs to our supervisors and staff,” Mononen adds.
PKO’s initiative prevents social exclusion
The jury valued the initiative for its exceptional concreteness. In particular, individualized support and the hiring of job coaches enable genuine success for young people in working life. The jury praised the long-term nature of the work and its focus on a group that often remains invisible. As such, the initiative helps prevent social exclusion and can be replicated in cooperatives of different sizes, increasing its broader societal impact.
PKO has been carrying out long-term work in employing young people with special support needs for over 15 years. In recent years, the cooperative has employed 100–120 young people annually, providing them with personal support to succeed at work.
What makes this a cooperative act is that it promotes key cooperative values such as solidarity, social responsibility, and caring for others, as well as the principle of responsibility for one’s own operating environment.
Award presented for the third time
Other finalists in the competition were the entrepreneurship education work of Yrittämö Cooperative, operating in Keuda, which is a vocational training school for young people and adults in Central Uusimaa. And LähiTapiola Mutual Insurance company’s 200-million-euro investment in Finnish growth companies.
Since 2024, Pellervo Coop Center has organized the Cooperative Action of the Year competition to highlight the societal contributions and activities of cooperative enterprises more visibly.
Anyone could nominate candidates for the competition. The winner was selected by a jury consisting of Member of Parliament and Chair of Parliament’s cooperative group Hanna Laine-Nousimaa, University Lecturer at the University of Eastern Finland Sanna Saastamoinen, and Editor-in-Chief of Maaseudun Tulevaisuus Jussi Orell.
Previous winners of the competition include the cooperative Kovameno OSK (2025) and electricity cooperative Oulun Seudun Sähkö (2024).