When boredom turns into activity

August 26, 2024

Young people often think that when they come to the youth center, a multi-hour program of activities planned by youth workers awaits them. However, upon arrival, it turns out that the youth center is primarily an opportunity, not an activity, and young people often need to find activities for themselves.

Although there is at least one central activity planned by youth workers every day at the youth center, such as cooking, outdoor activities, drawing, etc., this activity generally does not take up the entire opening hours of the youth center. Young people have several hours to fill as they see fit.

Young people often wander around the youth room and say they are bored; as a result, we have always directed them to the board game shelves, and sometimes they find a cure for boredom there, but sometimes even that is not enough. When young people eventually realize that the entire youth room is at their disposal, not just the board game shelf or comfortable sofas, their imagination starts to work. For example, we have built a cafe in the youth room, complete with a menu and appropriate interior; we have spontaneously made cookies from available ingredients (Cooking unites and educates | Tartu Youth Work Center); played hide-and-seek outdoors, and created a completely new game of dodgeball.

Sometimes the most interesting activity lies in doing nothing and is born out of pure boredom.

news:

A mobile youth center will be on the move in Tartu this summer

From June 1 to September 1, the Tartu Youth Work Center is launching the MoNo bus—a youth center on wheels—as part of a pilot project, bringing youth work to young people at their everyday gathering places. It is a specially adapted van designed to provide young people with a safe and supportive environment in areas where youth work services are currently unavailable or where young people cannot easily access them on a daily basis. MoNo

Youth workers from the Tartu Youth Work Center on a study trip to Portugal

From April 19–26, youth workers from the Tartu Youth Work Center participated in a study trip to Lisbon, Portugal, as part of the Erasmus+ program, to learn about local street youth work methods, non-formal education, and ways to support young people in the NEET situation. Study trips give youth workers the opportunity to step outside their usual work environment for a moment, learn about different practices, and bring the knowledge and effective solutions they gain back to their own community (Pavlakias and

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“Let’s start a green-thumbed club!”

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The Voice of Youth in the Action Plan

Actively involving young people in developing the youth center’s action plan is an important step in fostering their sense of participation and responsibility. Children aged 7–11 are able to successfully express their interests and ideas when provided with a safe and supportive environment. One effective way to do this is through a monthly brainstorming session, during which young people can freely suggest activities and topics. Young people’s opinions matter and have a real impact on the life of the youth center. In addition to the idea generator, it is important to gather ongoing feedback on daily activities to understand what resonates with young people and what needs to be changed. The youth worker’s role here is to guide: to help make ideas more concrete, then link them to an action plan, and involve partners as needed. Even with younger children, simple tools such as voting, drawing, or discussion circles can be used. In a young person’s life, everything changes very quickly: what was relevant two weeks ago

Come work with us this summer – 0.5 FTE mobile youth worker

Mobile Youth Worker (0.5 FTE) For the period June 1 – August 31 Job responsibilities: establishing contact and communicating with young people on the street and in other public places; carrying out youth work activities in the mobile youth work bus; introducing opportunities to young people and supporting them in finding suitable activities; assisting youth workers at the youth center as needed. Requirements for the candidate: higher education (may be in progress); good communication and planning

Students from Annelinna High School visited the Lille Youth Center

The Lille Youth Center, part of the Tartu Youth Work Center, offers young people a wide range of opportunities for participation and personal development. Schools are welcome to visit us for project days or to encourage their students to join our clubs. The clubs operating at the Lille Youth Center include the Hiking Club, Cooking Club, Book Club, Career Club, and the sex education club “Seks vä?”. In addition, we organize city-wide major events, where we welcome young people to actively participate in the organizing teams.