Youth Work Week 2022

November 7, 2022

Youth workers are the main characters of our center, around whom everything revolves. To emphasize and further highlight their importance, Youth Work Week is celebrated nationwide from November 7-13. In Estonia, the importance of youth work has been highlighted since 2010, and its aim is to showcase the opportunities in the youth sector and youth work by creating favorable non-formal learning environments together with young people and youth sector workers (Harno, 2021). This year, the focus is on creativity and self-development.

We also celebrate Youth Work Week to value our dear youth workers for their great contribution to our young people. This week, young people can swap places with youth workers and experience what it's like to be a youth worker, as well as put their creativity to work by preparing interesting yet purposeful activities for other young people (and youth workers disguised as young people). To support self-development, guests will visit each centre on Tuesday, including a police officer, a biologist, a fishing club instructor, a therapeutic yoga trainer, a self-defence trainer, and a nutritional therapist. On Wednesday, we'll get our bodies moving by holding a sports day with young people, taking place from 4 PM to 6 PM at the University of Tartu Sports Hall. On Thursday, we'll organize a fun community day, and all five Tartu youth centres will open their already always-open doors even wider. We will conclude the celebration of Youth Work Week on Friday with a youth workers' LIVE on the Tartu Youth Work Centre's Instagram, a rap workshop with rapper AG at Lille Youth Centre, and finally a festive event for all people working with young people.

You can find the most up-to-date information on our Facebook page under the Youth Work Week event!

news:

Opinion Piece by a Youth Worker: The Importance of Imagination in Youth Work

At the Lillekese Youth Center, we have always supported young people’s desire and interest in playing fantasy-world games in a physical environment. During our first year of operation, playing “café” was a very popular activity—the café had its own menu, meal times, and waitstaff. An entire room at the youth center was transformed into one big dining area. One of the young people’s biggest favorites this year has been playing “apocalypse.”

So what to do with all this free time—the joys and worries of summer break

Summer is in full swing. Temperatures are climbing steadily, and there’s more and more time to spend at the beach chasing the waves. Summer is a great time to really slow down, put your feet up, and take a few nice, slow breaths. In everyday life and in a society where great emphasis is placed on productivity and rushing around, we tend to

A Youth Worker's Story: The Best Training of My Life—How I Developed My Creativity in Norway

SALTO-YOUTH.net is a real treasure trove. For those who haven’t come across it yet—simply put, it’s a pan-European network for supporting and developing youth work, which offers non-formal learning materials to youth workers and youth leaders and organizes training sessions and networking activities as part of the European Commission’s training strategy. I found a training course titled “Creative Self – Art Practices” in the SALTO training calendar

Do digital environments bring us together or make us more lonely?

Have you ever had a day where you’ve been chatting with friends on Snapchat, Instagram, or Discord all day long, but still feel lonely in the evening? It might seem strange—how can we feel lonely when we’re connected to others almost all the time? Loneliness is a topic that’s being discussed more and more. According to the World Health Organization, about

Philosophizing with Children and Youth

Many 21st-century skills are closely linked to thinking skills. These include, for example, creative and critical thinking, as well as a collaborative and caring mindset. These skills can also be developed in youth work through philosophizing with children and young people. Philosophizing creates more space for discussion and helps participants become more skilled at articulating their opinions, listening to others, making decisions, and

The Tartu Youth Work Brigade’s anniversary summer kicks off with a parade and an evening of work brigade songs

Today, June 15, Tartu will kick off the 30th summer of the Tartu Youth Work Camp, which will bring together 238 young people this year. The opening event of this anniversary year begins at 4:30 p.m. in the courtyard of the Anne Youth Center and proceeds with a parade to Town Hall Square, where the start of the work camp season will be celebrated with a speech by Mayor Urmas Klaas and the taking of the work camp oath. The opening ceremony will be followed at 7 p.m. by an evening of work camp songs in Tartu

Ukrainian Youth in Tartu: A Week That Left a Lasting Impression

In early June, from June 8–14, the Tartu Youth Work Center had the extraordinary honor and pleasure of hosting young people from Ukraine—young people whose lives have been completely turned upside down by the war. The camp was made possible thanks to financial support from the City of Tartu, and the Tartu Youth Work Center wholeheartedly took on the task of organizing the program. The week began creatively—in a stencilling workshop, the young people