Blog

From September 8-15, the Tartu Youth Centre organized the youth exchange “Be Real”, where young people from Armenia, Hungary, Spain, and Estonia participated. The aim of the youth exchange was to learn more about today's online dangers, and the outcome was 6 videos that highlighted various dangers. During the youth exchange, online police officer Andero Sepp gave a talk, sharing his experiences and discussing prevalent dangers. Based on this, the young people started writing a script and creating a video. Each country also conducted at least one workshop, for example, a video editing workshop, a filming workshop, a social media workshop, etc. In the evenings, fun activities were planned, such as a cultural evening, during which various national dishes were tasted, hit songs from their respective countries were performed, and interesting facts were presented. There was also a dance evening, where...

From September 5th to 9th, there was a lot of activity under the Sõprus Bridge. Specifically, a large mural, or rather murals, were created there in cooperation with Estonian and Finnish street artists and young people, covering several walls, stairs, and even asphalt, totaling over 500 square meters. The main goal of the activity was to offer young people the opportunity to learn and contribute legally to public art. The young people were guided by the group SirkusRakkausPumPum, who have extensive experience in similar undertakings. A participant (15 years old) said: "I liked it. It's great that something like this was undertaken and young people were involved. There aren't many opportunities to do proper street art, or at least I haven't come across them. So it was a very special experience." Another...

☘️In spring, a youth-initiated project on the theme of Environment Week, 'Path to a Greener Future,' took place☘️ The project's goal was to inform the school community about environmental topics in fun and playful ways and to plant an environmental seed in everyone's hearts💛  Their activities included an environmental film night, a recycling fair, an exhibition of shocking facts, a waste sorting competition with preliminary rounds and a final, environmental lectures, the 'Come to School on Foot or by Bike' campaign, and World School traveling exhibitions.   Helen Toomsalu, project manager at the Tartu Youth Work Center, points out that young people undertake a wide variety of projects. For example, a photo hunt was organized, through which young people learned more about the city of Tartu. Every theme has been novel and exciting in its own way. Young people are very creative, and all great ideas are welcome! Projects can be carried out in such ways…

2.-7. September, the final meeting of the TED3 Tools for Employment & Environment Education Development project, or TED3 for short, took place in Reggio Calabria, Italy. TED 3 is an environmental international Erasmus+ project created to support sustainable development. The project's goal is to focus on socio-economic development and, at the same time, equip youth work with the necessary methods so that our young people acquire an environmentally friendly mindset and behavior from an early age. The project started already in 2019, but due to obstacles caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the project had to be put on hold. Now, there was again an opportunity to resume the project and meet together. The purpose of the meeting was to summarize and review what had been done during the project and to improve where necessary. Activities included...

On September 8, a networking meeting for people working with young people was held at the Tartu Youth Work Center on Lille Street. The purpose of the meeting was to learn more about each other's fields, establish new contacts, and find opportunities for cooperation. In addition, participants were told about restorative justice as a way of resolving conflicts or violations of the law and about the SPIN program, and they were given a closer look at the Lille Youth Center's facilities.  In addition to youth workers from the Tartu Youth Work Center, the meeting was attended by child protection specialists from the Tartu City Government, school social pedagogues, local police officers, the coordinator of the "Ringist välja" model, and specialists from the Education Support Services Center.  Margit Kink, director of the Tartu Youth Work Center, who organized the meeting, summed up the day as follows: "It is gratifying to see that nearly 60 specialists working with young people considered the meeting necessary and contributed to the event with their presence...

September 1st was an important day for many young people, as a new school year began. For the Tartu Youth Work Centre, however, this day was filled with busy work, because in addition to the Tartu Wisdom Festival, new premises were opened in the Lille and Anne youth centers for a younger target group than before. The second floor of Anne Youth Centre (Uus 56) and the first floor of Lille Youth Centre (Lille 9) now welcome 7–11-year-olds to spend their free time after school. The ground floor of both centers will henceforth be aimed at 12–19-year-olds. The opening program was more festive than usual, as befitted the first day. The official opening of the Lille premises with city government representatives took place at 12 PM, and at Anne at 1 PM. In addition to young people, visitors came to explore the premises…

September 8th is International Literacy Day, and to celebrate it, Read Hour, a one-hour reading break, is organized. It originated in 2018 from the Finnish Children and Youth Foundation, with the aim of encouraging people to read for an hour every day, in any form. This is part of the Moomin Initiative "Reading, Writing, and Moomins." It is a multi-year international initiative whose goal is to spread the joy of reading and writing worldwide through Moomin stories. The initiative brings together charitable organizations and companies from all over the world (readhour.com/). As part of the Diggiloo project, we, in cooperation with the Finnish Institute and the Tartu Oskar Luts City Library, are also celebrating September 8th with Read Hour. Since Read Hour originated in Finland, there is a strong emphasis on Finnish literature, but the selection also includes…

This Thursday, September 1, two new youth centers will be officially opened, one at the Anne Youth Center (Uus 56, Tartu) and the other at the Lille Youth Center (Lille 9, Tartu). The new centers are aimed at a younger target group, ages 7-11. The opening of the new centers will take place at 12 noon. On the first day, there will be a special program at both centers: you can have your picture taken, play room bingo, participate in various workshops, and enjoy cake in honor of the special day. On September 1, everyone interested, including parents, is welcome to come and see the rooms. The center will be open until 6 p.m. The youth centers for the younger target group are open Monday through Friday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and are located on the second floor of both buildings. With the opening of the new centers, the age range of the existing Anne and Lille youth centers will also increase to 12-19...

The Youth Summer Camp has ended for this year. As every year, the Youth Summer Camp concludes with the Tartumaa youth camps' gathering and the nationwide EÕM gathering. This year, the Tartumaa youth camps' gathering took place for the first time at Valgemetsa Holiday Village, and in addition to young people from Tartu city, youth campers from Elva and Peipsiääre municipalities also participated. During team games and competitions, the winning groups were determined, who then had the opportunity to travel to the EÕM gathering held in Toosikannu. This time, the winners crowned were the Hummuli group, the joint group of Säre farm and Tamme Traube, and the Telia and Tartu Sport group. At the nationwide gathering, participants traditionally competed in volleyball, tug-of-war, relay races, surprise events, recitations, songs, and much more. This year's performers at the gathering included AG and Traffic, among others. This time, there is…