DIFFERENT DRUM (2020-2023)
The project aimed to collaborate with schools in Malta, Ireland, and Estonia to provide professional youth worker mentorship for young people aged 13–15 in areas where they needed the most support.
Throughout the project, youth workers worked individually with each young person through a mentorship approach, building a supportive and trusting relationship. The mentor — an experienced and caring adult — shared knowledge and life experience with the young person, who in turn reflected on these insights to improve their own quality of life.
The youth workers guided and supported the young people in becoming more independent, helping them reach their personal and academic goals. The cooperation between the youth worker and the student lasted for two academic years, both in and outside of school. In addition, youth workers collaborated closely with the student’s family, school, and community to ensure a holistic approach that supported the young person’s overall development.
The mentorship focused on several key areas:
Competence: Building on each young person’s strengths in social, academic, cognitive, and vocational fields.
Confidence: Fostering self-esteem, self-fulfillment, and a positive outlook on the future.
Connections: Creating, improving, and maintaining healthy relationships with peers, family, school, and the wider community.
Character: Encouraging respect for social and cultural norms, moral awareness, integrity, and appropriate behavior.
Caring: Developing compassion and empathy towards oneself and others.
Overall, the project successfully strengthened the personal growth, resilience, and social inclusion of participating young people through consistent mentorship and community-based support.
OUTBOUND YOUTH WORK (2022-2024)
This Erasmus+ KA2 international cooperation project brought together organizations from Estonia, Malta, and Greece to focus on youth mental health and develop nature-based therapeutic methods to reduce mental health problems among young people. The project lasted for over two years.
The first partner meeting took place in Estonia (November 2022), where partners presented research on youth mental health in their countries, discussed key challenges, reviewed the project budget, and brainstormed nature and animal-assisted methodologies.
In May 2023, a training mobility for youth workers was held in Malta, focusing on the benefits of nature and animals for mental well-being. Participants also received mental health first aid training to strengthen their ability to support young people.
In Estonia, practical activities for youth aged 13–17 were carried out from October 2023 to June 2024, including beekeeping, animal care, winter swimming, archery, forest orienteering, nature photography, gardening, and SUP boarding. Each activity was guided by specialists and supported by youth workers. Participation was free of charge, and the project successfully promoted youth mental well-being through active engagement with nature.
YOUTHINVEST: DEVELOPING FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR YOUTH(2024-2026)
As organisations working with youth, we often engage with young people who come from families facing difficult social and economic circumstances. Many of these families live below the poverty line, while others struggle daily just to make ends meet.
Research highlights that poverty is not a single, uniform experience but can take different forms. A particularly relevant type for the families we work with is Generational Poverty. This refers to a cycle of poverty that persists across multiple generations within a family or community. It is characterised by long-term deprivation where poverty becomes embedded as a way of life, transmitted from parents to children (Taylor & Francis, 2007).
The Youth Invest initiative seeks to address this by equipping young people with financial literacy skills that can help them break free from the cycle of generational poverty. Financial literacy education provides young people with the knowledge, tools, and practical skills needed to make informed decisions about earning, saving, budgeting, and investing. Research shows that when financial literacy is introduced from an early age, young people have significantly greater chances of breaking their family’s poverty cycle and creating new opportunities for themselves and future generations (McClain, 2020).
Through this project, we aim to empower young people to become financially capable, independent, and resilient, thereby creating pathways out of generational poverty.
KONTAKT
Rahvusvaheliste projektide koordinaator
Margit Vellend
margit@vabaajakeskus.ee
+372 5660 5982