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School holidays are coming again! The skiing weather tends to be rather volatile and poor right now, so what to do with this free time? Just chill? Resting is always a good idea, one must rest! However, in case you get tired of just lying around and staring at the ceiling, we have opportunities for you to spend your holidays actively and fun! Once again, the Tartu Youth Work Center has put together a holiday program, and in addition, there are regular activities in all five Tartu youth centers. What do we have planned? On Monday, February 27th, we will gently ease into the school holidays, and regular activities will take place in all five centers. On Tuesday, February 28th, there will be a visit to Elektrikino. We will go to see a film called “A Little Miracle” at 3:30 PM…

Dear young person! Spend your school holiday diversely and come spend a day with us in Tallinn! We will see what's happening in the Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament) (where we will also have lunch), visit the Bank of Estonia, go jumping at Skypark (T1 Mall of Tallinn) trampoline center, and explore Tallinn from the Wheel of Tallinn Ferris wheel. The excursion to Tallinn will take place on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Gathering starts at 7:40 AM and the bus departs at 8:00 AM from the bus parking lot in front of Vanemuine! We will return around 9 PM. The trip is FREE for young people (including lunch at the Riigikogu), and 25 young people can join! A (digitally) signed parental consent form secures a spot for the young person. NB! According to the requirements set by the Riigikogu, it is important that the personal identification code of the visiting young person is submitted in advance and that during the excursion there is…

On February 1st, a network meeting of the youth prevention activities working group took place at the Anne Youth Centre. Representatives from the Tartu Child Protection Service, the Centre for Educational Support Services, the Social Insurance Board, the Police and Border Guard Board, and the Tartu Youth Work Centre participated in the meeting. The network's common target group is young people active in the city of Tartu, and the objective is to focus on preventing risky behaviour among youth, conduct more effective outreach in children's, youth, and educational institutions, offer assistance to the community in difficult situations, and increase visibility within the city. This is pursued through joint information days, seminars, and events, thereby ensuring the well-being of young people in Tartu. However, the aim of the meeting held on the first day of February was to increase the effectiveness of network cooperation, which is why the focus was on establishing the network, its regularity, and other substantive aspects. Through this, common ground was found regarding bottlenecks,...

At the beginning of February, Mariia Palamarchuk, an international volunteer from Ukraine, started working at the Tartu Youth Work Centre. Mariia will primarily work at the Anne youth centre for younger and older youth (Uus 56, Tartu), but will also assist youth workers at, for example, the Ilmatsalu youth centre (Järve tee 8, Tartu). The international volunteer's working hours at the youth room are Monday to Friday from 12 PM to 7 PM. Mariia communicates in Russian, Ukrainian, and English, and welcomes all young people to visit and get to know each other better. The Tartu Youth Work Centre has hosted international volunteers for a long time, and we have seen a positive impact on both our youth and staff, which is why we plan to continue involving volunteers in the future. By involving international volunteers in our daily work, we give our young people the opportunity to…

At the nationwide youth sector recognition event “Thanks for Youth” held on January 25, the city of Tartu was awarded the title of Youth-Friendly Local Government of the Year. As Margit Kink, director of the Tartu Youth Work Center, stated on stage, Tartu is indeed the best city for youth work. Decision-makers are always supportive, offering advice and assistance, and helping to find resources! Thank you and congratulations, dear city of Tartu! Read the Tartu City Government press release HERE Photo: Erlend Štaub

One of the areas of activity that has developed at the Tartu Youth Work Centre is supporting youth-initiated projects, which we briefly call NOA. These are projects initiated by young people aged 11-19, be it a party, a fair, a training session, a podcast, a creative work, or anything else, whose activities are aimed at the community or young people. The aim of the activity is to support young people in implementing their ideas and thereby also the wider community. To achieve this, we provide them with a youth worker who can help them brainstorm ideas, ask for assistance with necessary tasks, or, for example, with carrying out the project. We also provide financial support for youth activities, the amount of which has increased to up to 400 euros this year. The project…

From February 9-13, director Margit Kink and Ilmatsalu Youth Centre manager Elen Hermanson went on a study visit to Tampere for the “Inspirational Study Visit - Services for youth in NEET situation in Finland”. During the week, they visited various institutions whose activities are aimed at NEET youth* and learned about different new methods used in youth work in Finland. During the study trip, it was observed that in Finland, systematic youth work is also done for young people aged 18+, offering similar services that are primarily provided to minors in Estonia. One impressive practice that stood out was Opetuskahvilla, which is like a youth cafe where NEET youth are given their first work experience, either as customer service representatives or in other roles associated with running a cafe. They create menus, advertise their services, and much more. This provides initial experience and...

From January 16-20, a board game week was held at the Tartu Youth Work Center in cooperation with Brain Games. The aim of the board game week was to introduce various board games to young people, learn them together, and enable them to play new games in the youth room in the future. Over four days, different board games were played, and the week concluded with a board game tournament chosen by the young participants. During the week, games like UNO, Lama, Ligretto, Klask, Rummy, and Carcassonne were played. The latter was taught to the young people by Brain Games' super cool game masters: Robin, Martin, and Laura. It also happened that games not originally planned, such as Team3, were played. Although the game masters were initially supposed to teach only older youth, the Anne Youth Center game master also ended up teaching Carcassonne to younger youth. Anne's parents...

Yesterday, January 17, an event recognizing contributors to Tartu's youth sector took place at the Alexela creative stage, where the past year's achievements were reviewed and the most notable ones were honored. Elen Hermanson, the head of the Ilmatsalu Youth Center of the Tartu Youth Work Center, was nominated as the Youth Worker of the Year. In 2022, Elen stood out as an extremely dedicated, conscientious, and development-oriented youth worker. She easily establishes good contact and a trusting relationship with young people both on the street and in the open youth room. Working with young people in risky situations is particularly close to her heart. Under her leadership, mobile youth work has been developed in Tartu; she has initiated and led a network of specialists working with at-risk youth and has built good working relationships with various organizations. In the autumn of 2022, she also accepted the challenge of leading the Ilmatsalu Youth Center,...