Empowering Estonian, Russian-Estonian and Ukrainian youngsters in Tallinn
Welcome to the Youth Dialogue Lab, a transformative initiative designed to empower a diverse group of 20-30 youngsters aged 13 to 17, from Estonian, Russian-Estonian and Ukrainian background. This project aims to equip participants with essential dialogue, critical thinking, and facilitation skills, enabling them to influence decision-making processes that affect their lives.
Through collaborative conversation and hands-on experiences, these youngsters will explore topics that matter to them, fostering a sense of agency and civic responsibility. By engaging with decision-makers and peers from various backgrounds, they will not only enhance their self-esteem but also contribute meaningfully to dialogues and conversations shaping their communities and futures. This first episode of the Youth Dialogue Lab is planned for 2025 – 2026 in Tallinn.
Focus
The goal of this project is having a diverse group of 20-30 youngsters in Tallinn influence decision making by adults trough dialogue. In order to achieve this they will work together for one year in the Tallinn Youth Dialogue Lab to acquire dialogue skills, critical thinking skills, facilitation and organisational skills and learn how to use them.
These capacities allow participants to democratically choose topics, investigate them in depth through group dialogue and bring them on the table with school principals, politicians, business leaders.
Objectives of this project are:
- Youngsters’ self-empowerment by them defining and discussing topics that are crucial to them;
- Develop dialogue and critical thinking skills;
- Learn dialogue facilitation and organisation skills;
- Build civic experience by self organising and leading dialogues with decision makers;
- Interact with peers from different backgrounds and learn through experiencing similarities and differences in ideas and ways of thinking.
