I feel it was absolutely worth it
Martti Martinson
Participation and Information (Tallinn)
Moment of excitement to open a new SALTO resource centre.
Actually, a lot of good work had been done in previous years by the two former SALTO centers that were considered the predecessors of SALTO Participation and Information. This meant that youth participation had already been on the agenda in the context SALTO network and the EU youth programmes more broadly. On the other hand, the SALTO network itself had been without major changes for a number of years, so at the time this was quite a big change to close down some existing SALTOs and to open a new one.
On the other hand, the Estonian national agency, under Reet Kost’s leadership, had a clear vision for the new SALTO with its own priorities and agenda, rather than just continuing with everything that the previous two SALTOs had been doing. One of the main changes was the decision to bring in media and information literacy as a focus area to the work of the new SALTO centre and not just as a standalone topic or field of action, but really linking it very closely with participation. “No participation without information” was our unofficial slogan!
Let's make our name and faces known.
Having a SALTO in Estonia was a long-held dream of Reet and throughout the years she certainly had laid the necessary groundwork to see this dream come to fruition. In its own way hosting a new SALTO was perceived as a quality label and recognition for the national agency on one hand and a big challenge on the other. At the time, youth participation was already a priority topic within the youth sector in Estonia and had been so for quite some time: we had strong youth councils, rights-based legislative framework and the voting age at the local election had just been lowered to 16. Media literacy aspect was still somewhat new but it was a very smart move to combine those two topics as they have become even more interlinked in recent years.
The Centre’s inaugural year of operation was very much dominated by fine tuning the vision of the new centre that was presented to the European Commission; being present to make our name and faces known in as many places as possible but also to hit the ground running whilst not wasting any time. One of the early goals we scored that also determined the many future successes of SALTO Participation and Information was the amazing bunch of humans within the new Think Tank. So many of them have played (and some probably continue to play) a very important role in the story of SALTO network: Dan, Evaldas, Corina, Alex, Mathieu, Georg and so many others!
The SALTO brand was already well-known and respected when we came in, so this was a somewhat great experience – that there are so many people who have heard of SALTO, think highly of its work and want to take part in its activities. On the other hand, there were many strategically important discussions where we did not initially get an invite to, so we had to make ourselves known, introduce our vision, find our niche and prove our value and sometimes even knock on the doors more than three times to get invited to the table.
The best part for me was undoubtedly the people I met.
I’m Martti Martinson and before SALTO Participation and Information was born, I had already spent more than a decade working in the youth sector in Estonia and Australia and had developed a particular passion for youth participation-related topics. I did have some prior knowledge about the work of SALTOs but very little practical involvement with the work of the network myself.
My personal involvement at the time can perhaps best be described by the fact that receiving a job offer at the new SALTO was literally the only reason why I decided to relocate back to Europe from Australia – and I still feel that it was absolutely worth it. The best part for me was undoubtedly the people I met and worked alongside – especially my partner-in-crime Meelika and mentor-in-chief Reet. Being part of SALTO has definitely been one of the highlights of my professional journey and I would definitely do it all over again, if I had to travel back in time!
My recent professional history has been dominated by my work as a policy advisor at the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, focusing on planning and implementing policy reforms and legislative changes within the Estonian youth sector.
