{"id":43035,"date":"2025-09-23T17:10:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T15:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/?p=43035"},"modified":"2025-09-24T09:45:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T07:45:48","slug":"g-l-u-e-d-linking-resilience-and-youth-futures-in-the-baltics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media-and-learning.eu\/subject\/media-literacy\/g-l-u-e-d-linking-resilience-and-youth-futures-in-the-baltics\/","title":{"rendered":"G L U E D: Linking resilience and youth futures in the Baltics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Dmitri Teperik, <\/strong>National Centre of Defence & Security Awareness, Estonia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As someone deeply involved in media and information literacy and the education of young people, I\u2019ve noticed how much our fast-changing world demands more than just knowledge – it needs imagination. At the start of 2025, when global stability feels more fragile than ever, the way young people consume, question and participate in media isn\u2019t just an academic concern\u2014it\u2019s foundational to how we build resilient societies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across Europe, and especially here in the Baltic states, I sense the ground shifting under our feet. The global order feels less stable, old certainties are dissolving, and a growing sense of insecurity is creeping into our everyday lives. These changes aren\u2019t just geopolitical – they touch us at a deeper level, altering what psychologists might call our \u201csociopsychological variables.<\/em>\u201d In plain language: they shake our confidence, our trust, our sense of belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why our Baltic team of experts keeps coming back to the idea of glue<\/em>. What is it that holds us together when everything else seems to be pulling apart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, belonging is that glue. Without it, resilience\u2014the ability to adapt, endure, and recover\u2014becomes fragile. Belonging is more than feeling accepted; it\u2019s about trust, appreciation, and the assurance that we\u2019re part of a bigger story. If we lose that, resilience crumbles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Listening through new lenses<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we started working with young people across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, we deliberately included ethnolinguistic minorities in the conversation because minority communities – especially Russian-speaking populations – tend to retreat into silence. I\u2019ve seen how that silence erodes trust, widens divides and makes societies weaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paraphrasing poet Lucille Clifton, we asked ourselves: How can we create a better future if we cannot first imagine one?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where the project Baltic Youth Resilience <\/em>came in. These weren\u2019t just ordinary seminars; they were interactive spaces where young people, gathered in Klaipeda, Vilnius, Riga, Daugavpils, Tallinn and Narva, explored foresight techniques, risk landscapes and national development strategies. They discussed everything from climate change to artificial intelligence, from democracy to identity, from personal well-being to European solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results were inspiring. 93% percent of participants said the events were useful. More importantly, their sense of agency grew. They started to see that shaping the next 10\u201315 years isn\u2019t just something politicians do – it\u2019s something they can do. Optimism rose, fears of the future declined, and conversations about hope became more grounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three layers of glue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As our team listened to them, we kept picturing resilience as three layers of glue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n