Youth hackathon group photo: participants, mentors, jury members, (photo made by Reet Kruup)
Place: Peipsiääre Rural Municipality, Kadrina manor guesthouse
Timeframe: 16.-17. October 2025
Participants: Young people aged 12–16 living in Peipsiääre municipality
Goal: The aim was to strengthen young people’s connection to their home area, show them different ways to be active in their community, encourage them to develop their ideas, and ultimately carry their initiatives through to action.
We involved our Cultural and Community Centre, cultural and youth workers, creative industry mentors, local experts, and partners from the Creative Estonia association in organising the event on behalf of the municipality. Local schools also joined as co-organisers by encouraging young people to participate and granting them two days off to take part in the hackathon.
We organised a two-day hackathon where young people could register either with a team or individually, and either with an existing idea or without one. In total, 14 young people participated, forming 4 teams. Over the course of two days, they received extensive guidance, support, and mentoring to help shape their ideas into stronger concepts.
In the end, we had four great ideas that are now being further developed. The ideas reflect the interests of the young participants as well as their desire to improve life in their community. We will continue to support and guide them throughout the year.
The participating young people gained their first hackathon experience — developing ideas in a fast-paced, creative environment — which will certainly be valuable for them in the future.
The organisers gained confidence as well: the youngsters proved to be enthusiastic, capable, brave, and fully ready to engage in such an event.
The young participants felt that they were heard and that their opinions mattered.
A recommendation for other organisers: definitely involves experienced hackathon facilitators (as we did) who can manage and guide the entire process effectively.
The hackathon took place in one building over two consecutive days. Spending time together — including the relaxed evening hours — helped the young people get to know each other; after all, we had participants from every part of the municipality.
We also had participants whose home language is Russian. They were able to take part successfully and learned many new Estonian expressions, strengthening their cooperation and connections with Estonian-speaking peers.
A lesson learned: when we visited schools in spring to introduce the hackathon planned for autumn, we should have collected the contacts of the students who showed interest right away. By the time we revisited the topic in autumn, some of the initial enthusiasm had faded.