set of questions

Ref  youth events.BE,

We are preparing some interviews with the speakers from the conferences.  The findings will show us the experts’ perspective regarding our region in terms of youth policies and developments on youth worker.

If you have more to ask, please send us your questions and we will ask them

Daria C

Danube.EDU  think-and-do tank

Online consultation: RO youth worker

The profile is…..

The challenges are….

The resources and the partners that help her/him…..

???????

Waiting for your post

Daria C.

1st European Youth Work Convention

• > From 7 to 10 July 2010, Ghent
• > Combine it with the History of Youth Work Conference (5 to 7 July 2010, Ghent)
• > Delegations are invited to stay for both events

Taking youth work a step further

The 1st European Youth Work Convention is a unique opportunity to elaborate on the role of youth work, its different assets, its needs, its features, its strengths and contributions to society; but it also strives to set pathways, orientations and boundaries for future developments and discussions on a European level.

What can you expect at the Youth Work Convention?

• Discover the wide diversity of youth work throughout Europe and its impact on young people and society.
• Youth workers from all 50 signatory countries of the European Cultural Convention will give the Convention a truly pan-European dimension.
• Join the European youth work discussions and youth policy processes on strategic themes and give impetus to new processes.
• The Convention aims to boost European cooperation and networking amongst youth workers in order to reinforce youth work.
• The final results should be messages to member states, to the European Union and European Commission, to the Council of Europe, the European Youth Forum…

The Belgian EU-presidency will take on board these messages in the political follow-up of this 1st Youth Work Convention.

Who is invited to participate?

Official delegations from the signatory states of the Cultural Treaty of the Council of Europe will be invited to both this Youth Work Convention (7-10 July 2010) and the Conference on the History of Youth Work and Youth Policy (5-7 July 2010).
The delegations should be composed of:

• representatives from the ministry
• one representative from the national youth council
• one representative from the national agency (Youth in Action-programme)
• one researcher doing (applied) research in the field of youth (work)
• youth workers/practitioners, representative of the diversity of youth work in your country and who have practical experience in working with children and young people and/or experience with (lobbying towards) policy and decision making structures
• youth policy or youth work policy officers of local authorities

Where does this Youth Work Convention come from?

The renewed EU framework for cooperation in the field of youth (27 November 2009) highlights the need to “support and develop youth work”. At the same time, the European Commission, in its Youth in Action workplan, had the intention to organise a conference for youth workers. The Council of Europe from their side adopted ‘Agenda 2020’ about “The future of the Council of Europe youth policy” (2008).

• All these developments inspired the Belgian EU-presidency to commit itself to focus on youth work during its presidency activities.
• Also, the Convention involves strategic partners such as the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the Youth Partnership, European youth researchers, the YiA National Agencies, the European Youth Forum and the Advisory Council.

An important feature of this Convention will be its ambition to involve youth workers from all 50 signatory countries to the European Cultural Convention. Youth work is present and active in similar forms in all these countries. This pan-European assures that networking, mutual support and learning during the conference leads to reinforcing youth work throughout Europe.

Details on:

http://www.youth-eutrio.be/Welkom/EuropeanYouthWorkConvention/tabid/101/Default.aspx

1st European Conference on the history of youth work and youth policy – Relevance for youth work policy today

• > From 5 to 7 July 2010, Ghent
• > Combine it with the Youth Work Convention (7 to 10 July 2010, Ghent)
• > Delegations are invited to stay for both events

No future without a past

Youth work tends to concentrate on the here and now. This is reinforced by a high turnover of members and youth workers. Our youth work has a long history, which led to the practices we know today. Therefore it is good to explore where we come from.

• How did youth work principles evolve through history?
• Which practices have been thrown overboard and why?
• Which policies have been tried before or were recycled several times?

A programme full of insights and exchange

In this conference in the historical city of Ghent, we dive into youth work history.

• We look at different countries and compare their youth work histories.
• We explore the history of several worldwide youth work forms and observe how they evolved in differentiated ways in different countries.
• We will have a look at the history of youth policy and youth research in their connection to youth work practice.
• And we won’t leave out the testimonies of former youth work participants.

In several keynote speeches and work group introductions, we address these different topics. The focus will lie on discussions with all participants, an exciting mix of researchers, policymakers and practitioners.

Details

https://tineretyouthworker.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

importance of Youth work

Key words: Youth work, profession, participation, results, research, lobby, efficiency, NGO’s

The importance of the work delivered by a youth worker has both in theory and in practice big added value. In order to understand the realities of the year 2010, we are living in, we should compare countries, regions, communities, we should conduct qualitative research and we should ask the members of the local communities: do you work with youth workers?

Firstly I would like to emphasize the fact that in Romania we can find big differences between different regions: in some, youth workers are very much appreciated and their work is fully supported by the community, in other the youth worker ‘status’ is blurred. And here I will give a negative example from the county where I chose to develop my ideas and work for the last year: Calarasi. I understand the reality that we are currently in the stage of developing new legislation in the field of youth work, volunteer activities, NGO law, and we cannot compare with advanced countries in the field as for example the Netherlands, but I am always thinking from the point of view of a person that wants to create, build bridges and be open, and the perspective from this kind of approach is proactive. Calarasi county with its institutions, few NGO’s, social workers, organized community did not have the interest in promoting any kind of youth work. This is the reason why in 2009 when we analyzed the situation, the youth work was 0, in the meantime it was able to grow very fast with public schools interested to work together with youth workers, with town halls active to support the new NGO’s. The result was very convincing: we are now coordinating a network for regional development on youth issues with 23 countries in the the region. From 0 to efficiency there are some steps to follow: enthusiasm, determination and participation.

Going from our micro regional example to the national level we can surely affirm that youth work is valuable due to its objectives: working with young persons for a brighter future. And the bright future is not only for the person involved, but for the entire community, the entire society. These kind of results are hard to measure and to prove: youth workers’ work can be evaluate on the long run. Once one sees the advantages and the results, it can be sure that it will be convinced of the high importance of youth work!

The young persons a youth worker is working for and with have different socio-economic backgrounds: rural areas, roma communities, young people that lack information about international activities, young people that came from poor families, gifted children. Youth workers have to mix the methods, work creatively, create synergies and make it last. If they succeed then they are the heroes of the community and the importance of their work is acknowledge.

As you can see from my CV, over the last five years, I have steadily advanced my knowledge and experience on the issue of youth involvement in public policy, starting from research and then turning it into actual projects, most of which were implemented nationally or regionally as European youth lobby campaigns, and then finally they became lasting local realities to which I am a proud contributor. I have expertise in this field and I do believe that youth workers should be more visible and have more to say in the policy making. The youth field lacks research and the majority of youth policies are drawn from basic knowledge. It is time to have realistic policies adapted to the realities and to the young people they refer to. At a recent youth workers’ meeting[1], a pre-event of the conference in Ghent, we discussed about national realities and the importance of youth work also. We all agreed that young people have the right to quality guidance to learn to fully integrate in society, that young people’s needs and wishes to participate and potential talents are leading factors; that more structured dialogue, piloting and experimenting between youth research, youth policy and youth work is needed; that we should take more use of the power of facts and figures and evidence based methods; and these are true when we are speaking of national, European or international level.

Youth work is an equal partner within a coherent cross sectoral approach of professions and provisions guiding and supporting young people. However in order to progress and improve the quality of the youth work, and maybe increase the importance in the eyes of other stakeholders, youth workers should lobby more for their profession.

I have always been driven by realistic objectives and determination in my professional life and I will continue in doing so in search of better results and ways to achieve long-term positive changes in the field of youth policy. The youth work is very challenging and that is another reason or wider support and recognition.

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[1] http://www.nji.nl/nji/download/Outcomes%20of%20the%20seminar.pdf (accessed on May 2010)

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