On February 24, 2022, a full-scale invasion began in our country.

On March 5, 2022, the team moved to Poland.

Less than a year later, young people organized this conference.

This move was a difficult and painful experience. A new country, a new language, new rules, a new reality, constant stress, and hundreds of decisions to make every day. But even in these circumstances, the young people very quickly felt that they didn’t want to simply wait for life to become stable. They wanted to speak, think, act, and create space for others.

This is how TeensTalk 2.0 was born in Kraków.

What was it?

This is a conference created by young people for young people. Its idea is simple and powerful: to give teenagers and young adults an open platform where they can give short presentations on topics that truly matter to them, and then discuss what they heard together.

The first TeensTalk conference took place back in Dnipro on January 7. And after the forced move to Kraków, the young people decided to do it again — essentially from scratch, in a new city, with almost no acquaintances or ready-made connections.

Young people were able to regain a sense of agency. After losing their home, their familiar environment, and their stability, they didn’t shut themselves away waiting for better times. They created an event in which they once again felt like the authors of their own lives: people who can bring others together, ask questions, speak out loud, and build new connections.

As a result, they managed to:

- secure a hall for the event;

- arrange catering;

- put together a program with 7 speakers;

- gather about 40 guests;

- organize video recording;

- attract support and partners;

- create a warm community atmosphere, not just a one-off event.

But the main achievement went deeper than the organizational results.

Young people were able to regain a sense of agency. After losing their home, their familiar environment, and their stability, they didn’t shut themselves away waiting for better times. They created an event in which they once again felt like the authors of their own lives: people who can bring others together, ask questions, speak out loud, and build new connections.

What did we talk about?

Anton Slesarenko - "Our choice and our freedom"

Freedom is always tied to responsibility: for ourselves, for our decisions, for who we become. His talk invited young people to look honestly at their own lives and ask themselves: am I truly choosing, or just drifting along with circumstances?

M. Nestiurina - “How to live your life? Finding the balance between rationality and emotions”

In difficult life circumstances, it’s easy to either surrender completely to emotions or hide behind cold rationality. But a mature person learns to listen to themselves as a whole: to think, feel, analyze, and make decisions that don’t destroy their inner world.

Daria Shcherbatiuk - “To dream or to live. Rethought.”

Her talk was about how a dream should become not a fantasy but a direction for action. It’s not enough to simply dream of a better life — you need to learn to live in a way that brings it closer to reality, step by step.

Illia Podorov - “How to build your life in a way that makes sense?”

His talk was about responsibility for one’s own future, about choosing goals, and about the idea that life is worth building not only around success, but around values that truly matter.

Mariia Shinkovenko — “Friendship, a Gift and a Life-long Lesson”

Friendship is not only joy, closeness, and support, but also a lesson: learning to be honest, loyal, attentive to others, able to support and to accept. In the context of relocation and a new life, this topic resonated especially deeply, because friendship is what helps a person keep their footing.

Daniil Bilous-"From zero to Hero or a path from refugee to a volunteer."

His topic was the transition from vulnerability to action: from the experience of being a refugee to volunteering, from confusion to a desire to be useful to others. It was a very important voice about the strength that is born through service.

In hard times, a person needs not only practical solutions but also deeper questions: why do I live, what can I lean on, how do I not lose myself. Her talk showed that philosophy can help us get through a difficult life more consciously.

TeensTalk 3.0