Impact Study of the Youth Encounters Programme

Institute of Baltic Studies (IBS) is conducting an impact study of the Youth Meetings Programme, commissioned by the Estonian Youth Agency of the Archimedes Foundation (SANA). 

The study has three main objectives: 

Firstly, to assess the programme’s goals and impact to determine how well it contributes to achieving the main objectives of the “Integrating Estonia 2030” development plan, which is currently under development, and the cross-cutting principles and objectives of the “Youth Sector Development Plan 2014-2020”. 

Secondly, to analyse how participation in the programme affects the formation of young people’s open and tolerant attitudes and the establishment of more permanent positive contacts between the ethnic groups living in Estonia. 

Thirdly, to evaluate how the Youth Meetings Programme functions as a non-formal education tool and how it promotes non-formal learning. In this context, the aim is to explore how the experience has influenced the competences and attitudes of participating youth workers, or youth educators, and other educational staff. 

The study will analyse the programme’s documents, conduct interviews with individuals related to the programme, especially with youth workers, and thoroughly analyse the feedback to the programme collected during the pilot year of 2017.