This research was a client-based qualitative research with a deep background research on therapeutic community end community education. The basis of the empirical research is Häkkinen Juvenile Home in Jyväskylä, which is an educative community that specializes in youth with drug with drug experimenting and addictive behavior. The idea of the research came from the researchers’ common interest in youth work and substance care, as well as an interest in deepening own knowledge about therapeutic community and community education practice.

The aim of the exploratory part of the research was to gain a broad knowledge-base of therapeutic community end community education, and to reflect the results of empirical research to studied material.

The empirical research was client-based and qualitative, aiming to learn what the youngsters at Häkkinen Juvenile Home think about community meetings and physical activity groups at Häkkinen Juvenile Home. The success and feasibility of predesigned interview forms as an evaluative tool was also analyzed and evaluated.

The study shows that the youngsters at Häkkinen Juvenile Home are mostly pleased with the community meeting and physical activity group, and willing to participate in the groups voluntarily. The physical activity group was seen as fun and as an opportunity to be together as a community, and the community meeting as an essential channel to influence common issues.

Opinions of the interview forms as a method differed between staff and youngsters. In the youngsters’ opinion, the evaluative method could not be used by them in the future if radical changes were not made to the interview form, and the evaluation should not be conducted as often. The staff was positive to the evaluation method, and saw the interview forms as a good evaluation tool.

For the benefit of the clients the interview forms could be shortened down, made clearer and not used as frequently. Generally the use of predesigned interview forms is possible in any social work unit, and the form can be adjusted to the client group and the purpose of the evaluation.