Blog

Maarja Enumäe, director of the Anne Youth Center, recalls a project meeting in Latvia to find new project partners. Last October, we packed our bags and traveled to Riga, Latvia, for a week to participate in the Erasmus+ project "DigiBridge – Digital innovations for youth work." It was a learning mobility program for youth workers, the main goal of which was to bring together people from different countries, develop project ideas together, and strengthen cooperation between different organizations. We spent the week with inspiring people, learning more about the world of projects. Led by the Latvian organization Association of Educational Games and Methods, different workshops and activities took place every day, and over the course of the week, we developed project ideas from scratch into a real team and written ideas. Among others, people from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and other countries were present.

Active young people who gathered at the Tartu Youth Work Center in August have been carrying out the “Idea Blower” project “Where are the KNEES???” in recent months. The project focused on developing mental health knowledge among peers in a playful way. For this purpose, the project team created an escape suitcase, which was simultaneously both a game and a learning opportunity. At the project team's first meeting, a heartfelt topic was found in the form of peers' mental health. Soon, the idea of the escape suitcase was born. After a training in Safecracker's escape room, more active and inspired young people joined the team, and together they designed and assembled a portable game, which they began to use for visits to both schools and youth centers. “Young people seemed interested, and eventually, the execution was already natural,” they commented on the games at Tamme Gymnasium and…

I want to share a method with you that is exciting and useful, suitable for both young people and youth workers for self-reflection. I learned this at an international training course 'Mindful Bridges', which took place from September 7-13 in Portugal, and it seemed like a very valuable method for self-discovery. The method was authored by David Denborough, a narrative therapy specialist and community practitioner from the Dulwich Centre in Australia, who described it in his book 'Retelling the Stories of Our Lives: Everyday Narrative Therapy to Draw Inspiration and Transform Experience' under the name 'The Tree of Life'. The method was further developed by Zimbabwean psychologist and narrative therapist Ncazelo Ncube-Mlilo and popularized by storyteller and blogger Nathan B. Weller. The Tree of Life method is used to support people who have…

The year is coming to an end. This is our studio's first year. It is a year of firsts: work, ideas, emotions, and changes. It is wonderful that these changes have been beneficial to us and attracted more participants. We are grateful to each of you who came, discussed, disagreed, supported, debated, and shared your experiences. Thanks to you, through receiving your reflections, advice, and suggestions, we became more interesting for you. Through receiving feedback, we transformed your wishes into new meetings, new interesting discussion topics, and new workshops. We prepared beautiful gifts (for ourselves and friends), learned to cook new dishes and follow table etiquette, played games, and learned a lot about stress management. We hope that all these lessons, big and small, and the time spent with us in the studio were remembered as well-spent and fun. We learned to communicate and share emotions. And that is also very important. Ultimately...

The youth and youth workers of Anne Youth Centre will open their joint exhibition titled "Around Christmas in a Painting" at the Jakobi Gallery of Tartu Children's Art School (Jakobi 52) on Monday, December 15, at 3 PM. Although the title refers to Christmas, the exhibition does not focus on the Christmas theme. The exhibition centers on a playful insight into oneself and the perception of beauty, and what young people and youth workers consider beautiful and how they convey this beauty in their works. The exhibition will remain open for three days and culminates on December 17 at 5 PM with an art auction of the youth's works, organized within the framework of the Entrepreneurial Youth Centre program. The proceeds from the auction will be used to purchase sports equipment chosen by the youth, to support their active lifestyle and well-being at Anne Youth Centre. Margit Kink, director of Tartu Youth Work Centre, is pleased,…

Summer is usually a very busy and fast-paced time at our centre. Since I didn't manage to truly rest this summer, my joy was even greater when I received the news that I had been selected to participate in the Erasmus+ training “EmpowerED: Pause. Reflect. Reconnect”, organized by the Estonian Association of Open Youth Centres, taking place in mid-September in Portugal. I set a conscious goal for myself: if I couldn't rest in the summer, I would use this project to recharge my batteries. The training topic was exactly what I needed – it was designed for youth workers who are ready to step back from their daily duties, reconnect with themselves, and acquire tools to maintain balance – both for themselves and for others. I am...

Even though December has just begun, Lilleke's youth room is already prepared for Christmas early! To be completely honest, the room has been sparkling since the end of November, although a couple of young people thought it was too early to turn on the lights and bring in the Christmas trees. Yes, we even have two Christmas trees! At Lilleke, we aimed to enjoy this festive sight for at least four weeks.    Even the grey and damp weather of November and December cannot extinguish the glow that appears when the first Christmas lights are lit indoors and Christmas songs play from the speakers, infecting other residents of the building. Youth workers can often be heard humming Christmas carols to themselves on the stairs.    Of course, not all young people immediately joined in. Many watched skeptically as we started stringing lights along...

As part of Youth Work Week, Narva was visited together with young people. Our youth worker Liisi Soo recalls this trip. On November 11, we organized a trip for young people to Narva, where we visited the Narva Youth Centre, briefly explored the city, and participated in an exciting excursion at the Kreenholm Manufactory. We hopped on the bus at 9:30 AM, and our journey to Narva began! Upon arriving in Narva, we walked along the river and observed the fortresses on both riverbanks. We then moved towards Kreenholm, where we spent an hour and a half exploring the museum grounds and learning about the manufactory's exciting history. The Kreenholm Manufactory is a textile industry enterprise, named after its location (Kreenholm Island), and operated for a total of 153 years (1857–2010). In the second half of the 19th century, the Kreenholm Manufactory was the most modern industrial enterprise in Russia…

Organizing a youth event is more than just setting a date and planning activities. Participating in organizing offers young people the opportunity to develop, communicate, discover their strengths, and feel that their opinion is valued. I believe that the success of an event cannot be measured solely by the number of participants or a diverse program, but by whether young people felt included and heard. Below, I have outlined five of my own thoughts that, as a youth worker, have helped me organize memorable and successful events with young people over the years. 1. Involve young people from the start. Involving young people doesn't just mean asking for their opinion, but truly taking their ideas and thoughts seriously and considering them. Young people often have...