The course is implemented in the spring of the first year of studies. The course objective is to familiarise students with the third sector as an actor in social welfare and with the experiences of citizens as active determinants of their own welfare and as users of social services in the public or private sector. The course includes an assignment on activating participatory observation at a community social work unit.

The central course content covers the multifaceted relationships of communities and citizens, as well as the elements of good life in both the lives of the students themselves and in the lives of citizens encountered in the course. Students are introduced to assistance and counselling work and various phenomena addressed in the social welfare sector from an everyday perspective. The humanistic idea of the individual provides a framework for the course.