The Youth met in Tallinn

The Commission on Youth Issues organized an Open Meeting in Tallinn on 12-14 May 2008. The meeting was intended for both young people and civil servants responsible for youth issues. Participants came from six different countries: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

The first day was dedicated to the overview of the commission's work carried out last year, including joint project ,,Different History - Common Future... ". Some of the interesting activities include the so-called tolerance trips that provide young people with an opportunity to study the lifestyle of minorities in various countries; youth conferences and relevant publications; European Voluntary Service (EVS) promotion events.

In the afternoon the cities presented their best practices of youth work and held a brain storm to plan activities for the next period. Participants agreed that goals to achieve should include encouragement and support to the young people taking part in social life, which can first and foremost be achieved by using various types of non-formal education and all kinds of opportunities for the involvement of the youth, e.g. by providing sufficient funding. One important objective was also mutual cooperation between the young people within their region, supported by exchange of youth and also youth workers. Moreover, the participants considered it important to emphasize the youth policy in the region, complemented by cooperation between active cities. Sharing of best practices, research and discussions, and last but not least - increasing the resources intended for youth work were found as the most useful instruments.

According to the Deputy Mayor Kaia Jäppinen the open meeting was the first important step for Tallinn as the co-ordinator of the Commission in: "promoting youth work in the Baltic Sea region, stepping up cooperation between the cities in order to create new opportunities both for the youth and youth workers for exchange of know-how, experience and best practices - these are main goals Tallinn intends to focus on during its coordination period".

Open meeting produced initial ideas for the next joint project between the members of the Commission. By now we have collected several good examples of the best practices on youth work, renewed our contacts and extended the list of cities wishing to join the commission.