The newly formed Finnish Cyclists' Federation (FCF) is a great example of how ECF’s Leadership Programme can help boost cycling advocacy.

After years of small-scale and parallel work, funds from the Leadership Programme gave local groups in Finland the final push they needed to unite under one roof.

By empowering and building the capacity of national cycling organisations, the Leadership Programme’s goal is to increase public investment in cycling, strengthen organisational structures and above all, bring more cyclists onto the streets.

This new federation represents 2,000 cyclists and almost every city in Finland with the common goal to ‘promote cycling on the national level, represent Finnish cyclists internationally and increase cycling in every way’.  As the federation continues to grow, so does the best-practice and knowledge sharing between the four advocacy groups who have come together to form FCF.

Besides the valuable funds provided by the Leadership Programme, Finnish cycling advocates have also benefited from dedicated capacity-building workshops run by ECF. All fund recipients met last month in Bulgaria for an ECF workshop on strengthening organisational development. Given the proven early successes of FCF, these opportunities for best-practice sharing have been priceless.

FCF has gained ample recognition from the Finnish media and will continue to build the momentum and make its name known in the coming year.

To find out more about the Leadership Programme, visit ECF’s dedicated page. We will be bringing you more news from Leadership Programme recipients over the next two weeks so watch this space!