What can Estonia learn from Nordic practices for engaging newcomers?

WORKSHOP 1 · FINLAND

Measuring social inclusion with ESIS

Facilitator: Marko Nousiainen

Explore the opportunities and challenges of using the Experiences of Social Inclusion Scale (ESIS) as an evaluation tool. Participants will share examples from their own organisations, projects or interventions and discuss how ESIS could help measure social inclusion outcomes in each case.

Preparation required: Participants are asked to familiarise themselves with the ESIS questionnaire and reflect on their organisation’s objectives, target groups, activities and evaluation methods. The questionnaire does not need to be completed.

ESIS materials in Estonian, English, Russian and Ukrainian ↗

WORKSHOP 2 · SWEDEN

Let’s create a social farm and kitchen in Tallinn!

Facilitator: Lena Friblick, Botildenborg

Inspired by Botildenborg’s experience in Malmö, this workshop explores how food, farming and community activities can empower people and create social value. Participants will identify local needs, discuss which Botildenborg methods could work in Tallinn and explore how to establish a social farm and kitchen.

Preparation required: Please send a short introduction about yourself and your organisation in English to Lena Friblick: lena.friblick@botildenborg.se .

WORKSHOP 3 · NORWAY

From charity to business value: engaging employers

Facilitator: Vilde Thoresen Nord, Sammen om en Jobb

How can social initiatives engage employers and volunteers beyond goodwill alone? Drawing on Sammen om en Jobb’s experience, this workshop explores how emphasising the benefits of participation – including leadership development, intercultural competence and new perspectives – can strengthen recruitment and long-term engagement.

Participants will exchange experiences of communication approaches that have succeeded or failed in attracting employers and volunteers.

WORKSHOP 4 · CULTURAL CONNECTION

Bridges, Not Walls: Co-Creating Belonging for New Immigrants in Estonia

Facilitators: Tallinn University MA Social Entrepreneurship students

Background

Newcomers often arrive with skills and energy but face social isolation: a new language, unfamiliar social norms and slow-growing friendships. In Estonia, norms such as personal space and comfort with silence can feel cold to newcomers, while newcomers’ openness can feel unfamiliar to locals. Both sides often misread each other.

The workshop features three Nordic practices. Our session complements them by working on the human side of integration: personal values, belonging and empathy. It also speaks to needs voiced by the roughly 15–20 registered participants, such as lasting contacts instead of one-off events and involving newcomers as co-creators rather than “service consumers”.

Purpose

The session helps participants see how their own cultural values can become bridges to Estonian society, and builds empathy on both sides. By the end, participants will be able to:

• Recognise how Estonian everyday culture can be misread.
• Name a personal or family value they could bring into Estonian society.
• See isolation as a normal experience and say why connecting is hard.
• Sketch a small social-innovation idea with a first practical step.
• Understand a local’s perspective when meeting a newcomer.

Approach

The session moves from culture, to personal values, to a shared problem, to action, to empathy. We start with Estonian cultural examples, invite participants to share what they value, and then show how a value can become a social-innovation bridge.

Our team models this first with four short examples, our own mini homework. Isolation is named openly as normal, and the most personal parts are private or anonymous. Sharing is always voluntary.

Session Flow (75 minutes)

1. Culture keynote (7 min). A short presentation with Estonian cultural examples such as the Song Festival, Midsummer and talgud volunteer days.
2. Our values (8 min). Participants tell a partner about a cultural, individual or family practice they value. We then introduce the social-innovator lens: how could this value be brought into Estonian society so that Estonians can relate to it and a bridge forms?
3. Our four examples (8 min). Each of the four team members shows one example on a slide of a value turned into a bridge. One example is Azerbaijani hospitality, particularly the tradition of welcoming guests with tea. This cultural value could be transformed into a “Cultural Tea & Conversation Evening”, where newcomers and Estonian locals meet, exchange traditions and build meaningful connections in an informal setting. Participants are then split into four groups.
4. Social isolation (10 min). We model it openly: everyone needs connection, and it is normal not to have many friends. Participants reflect privately first. Then a live word cloud on Mentimeter asks: “What do you think are the main barriers to building lasting connections between newcomers and locals in Estonia?”
5. Group work (20 min). Each group, facilitated by one team member, selects a barrier identified in the Mentimeter word cloud and develops one realistic action to address it. The group should explain how a shared cultural value could help overcome the barrier, identify the target audience, suggest a potential organisation or partner in Estonia that could support implementation, and define one concrete first step.
6. Group presentations (10 min). About two minutes per group, shown on a Mentimeter board.
7. Role-play: what is it like to be an Estonian? (10 min). In silence, participants imagine meeting a newcomer as a local, write down what they feel without speaking, and hand the paper to the facilitators. A few anonymous notes are read aloud, and Estonian participants share their own perspective as a mini case study. The message is to overcome barriers through empathy.
8. Close (2 min). One-word reflection and thanks.

Expected Outcomes

Participants leave with four realistic bridge ideas, each identifying a target group, a potential implementation partner, and one concrete first step. The session also strengthens mutual understanding between newcomers and locals. A short exit poll shows what was useful and feeds the course evaluation.