MTÜ Pärnu Noorte Vabaajakeskus

Pärnu Youth Center is an open youth work organisation that first opened its doors in the summer of 2008. The aim of open youth work is to provide young people with opportunities to support their active and social life. The keywords are openness and the free will of young people. The role of the youth worker is to be a mentor. It is a long-term process that supports young people to be young or grow into adults. Instead of focusing on results, the process itself is more important. All of this provides the basis for creating a positive environment that makes young people feel important to the community and society today. In November 2013 Pärnu Youth Center joined the Association of Estonian Open Youth Centers, which has more than 100 different youth centers in Estonia. Thanks to the Accociation of Estonian Open Youth, Pärnu Youth Center has hosted several large-scale projects aimed primarily at young people who are not studying, working or in training (NEET) and at-risk children. In early 2017, a Parent Support Group was set up in cooperation with network members to support, in particular, parents whose children belong to different risk groups. Since 2018 Pärnu Youth Center also manages Audru Youth Center. In 2019 these two youth centers also started to do mobile street-based youth work in Pärnu city. Day to day basis Pärnu and Audru Youth Centers are opened at least five days a week for 6 hours. Doors are opened to youngsters at the age of 7-26. In total these two centers have 6 youth workers. Every day we have planned different kinds of activities (games, competitions, workshops, contests, lectures, sports, cooking class etc.) for youngster. Participating in these activities is voluntary, if not interested, they can just relax or do other things. Also youngster have the opportunity to rent out rooms (gym, band room, music studio, meeting room) in Pärnu Youth Center.