Harno wants to launch an online youth work service aimed at reaching people ages 15 to 26 who are not studying or working or who are at risk of ending up in that situation. The goal of the service is to help young people return to education or the labor market.

Although youth workers are already active in many regions and mobile youth work services and the Youth Guarantee support system are also in place, Harno says a significant number of young people in need of support still go unnoticed.

These may be young people who do not attend events, do not spend time in shopping centers or parks and may not respond to calls or messages from welfare specialists. However, they often communicate in digital environments, including social media, online games, forums and other platforms.

The agency is now looking for a partner to help reach young people online. To do so, the partner must maintain a visible presence on platforms used by young people, such as Discord, TikTok, Instagram, Twitch and Reddit, as well as gaming environments including Steam, Minecraft, Roblox and others.

Olav Kersen, Harno's chief expert on young people who are outside education and the labor market, told ERR that there are no complex schemes for identifying troubled young people — a young person in need of support is someone who expresses that need themselves.

"For example, a young person may say they cannot be bothered to attend school and are frequently absent, that they do odd jobs off the books or that they are on academic leave but do not intend to continue their studies — all of these are signs that they may belong to the target group," he explained. "No personal identification or population register-based checks are carried out and young people may remain anonymous if they wish."

Not every young person contacted by an online youth worker has to be unemployed or out of education and not every interaction has to lead to individual, network-based or group work. The expectation is that if an online youth worker is visible and active, young people from the target group will also reach out to them.

Under this project, services will be provided exclusively through digital channels.

"This gives an online youth worker the opportunity to communicate with a young person from Saaremaa on Discord during the day, interact with young people from Narva in Minecraft and also host a livestream with young people from Valga and Tallinn," Kersen said.

Target to help 2,500 youths

Because the work will be carried out nationwide, online youth workers must be familiar with regional support networks so they can refer young people to local support services or provide information about opportunities available in their home area.

So far, online youth work in Estonia has been tested only in a handful of regions and on a much smaller scale than the planned project. For example, the city of Tartu employs a digital youth worker.

"Since online youth work has not previously been carried out in Estonia on this scale and has generally been provided as just one component of youth work, there is currently no comprehensive, unified concept for it," Kersen said. He added that the winner of the procurement will be given considerable flexibility in how the service is designed and delivered.

Once a partner has been selected, it will assemble a team to provide online youth work. The goal is to build sufficient visibility across different platforms through a consistent presence so that young people recognize that they can turn to an online youth worker with their concerns and questions.

Kersen pointed to online police officers as an example of a service that has already achieved that level of recognition among young people. Online youth workers will also be expected to take a proactive approach to establishing visibility and contact.

The aim is for the online youth work initiative to reach 2,500 young people within a couple of years. The target group consists of young people with only basic education and without vocational or upper secondary qualifications, with the primary focus on those ages 15 to 17. Of those reached, 65 percent are expected to be in a better situation six months after their participation in the program ends.

The activities of online youth workers will be documented and monitored in writing. They will be required to collect pseudonymized data on participating young people, although the amount of information gathered will depend on how much the recipient is willing to share.

The estimated value of the procurement contract is €956,700.

Harno estimates that there are nearly 20,000 people ages 15 to 26 in Estonia who currently need or will soon need support to continue their education or enter the labor market.

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