Europe Goes Local will once again join the European Week of Regions and Cities. This time, we will join the round table “Youth participation, why should we care?” during the event “YOUTH PARTICIPATION – How to foster youth participation in local communities?”. The discussion will take place on the 25th of October at 10.CET. You can register here.
The other participants will be the city council of Altea, project VOLUNTEU: Volunteering citizens as a response to social COVID19 crisis, JINT, the municipality of Idrija, and the project Governance and Youth in the Alps. Europe Goes Local has also ran joint sessions in the past.
Youth participation is key to the democratic and inclusive development of local communities. Join EU Region Week on 25th October at 10.00 CET to learn how to foster youth participation in practice.
The event “YOUTH PARTICIPATION – How to foster youth participation in local communities?” will highlight the importance of youth participation for the development of local communities, showing approaches and funding opportunities available. It’s a follow-up event of the “Getting more children and young people participating in the workings of democracy: success stories” event, organized by DG JUSTICE and EACEA during the EU Week of Regions and Cities.
The debate will be moderated by CERV točka, Slovenian national contact point of programme CERV.
For additional information please write to cerv-tocka@pina.si.
You can find the pdf with the invitation here.
Apply for the seminar ‘Visible Value: Strengthening the implementation of the European Youth Work Agenda in Eastern and Southeast Europe’ by 29 September!
Find more info here.
The study visit will provide insights to the reality of local youth work and youth participation, through visiting three municipalities of the region. It will take place from the 9th to the 12th of November in Trenčianske Teplice, Slovakia. The application deadline is 4 October.
The study visit will provide insights to the reality of local youth work and youth participation, through visiting three municipalities of the region. You will meet a diversity of local stakeholders, experts and practitioners and reflect on quality aspects of youth work and youth participation from the perspective of Europe Goes Local and Democracy Reloading tools.
You can find more information and apply here.
During this study visit you will to get to know the Finnish youth sector and youth participation work in Finland, especially in the municipal field and locally. The study visit will take place from the 12th to the 16th of December in Helsinki, Finland.
Aims & objectives
Participants
The Study visit seeks to involve and invite various actors and stakeholders of youth work, youth participation and the inclusion sector from practice, policy and research from all over Europe.
Accessibility and sustainability
The venue where we organise the event is accessible for wheelchairs. We will also consider your special needs so that you can fully participate in the training. If you need a support person, accessible room and transport or supporting tools, we will try to arrange them for you. If you are selected to attend this Study visit please tell us your needs already beforehand so that we can be ready. We will also send a questionnaire about special needs and dietary restrictions to all those selected.
Find more information and how to apply here. The application deadline is 25 September.
Are you a municipality officer (or their partner) who wants to improve your youth policies, structures, and projects engaging young people in municipal decision-making?
Then apply for a webinar from Democracy Reloading this autumn! There are webinars on 28 September, 26 October and 30 November 2022.
The webinars will
Find more info and how to apply here.
The second Project Lab of Europe Goes Local focuses on rural youth work. This training will take place in Chalkidiki (Greece) from the 14th to the 17th of November 2022. The participants will also join a preparatory webinar and an online meet and greet session in October. If you’re interested in a general Project Lab about local youth work, you can apply for the Project Lab in Bonn.
The Europe Goes Local Project Labs are international training and networking events. They bring officials and practitioners in youth work together to strengthen the usage and exploitation of the possibilities offered by the Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps programmes for youth work at municipal level.
Specifically, the Project Labs aim to:
Find more information about this project lab on rural youth work here, and apply until the 20th of September here.
You can also still apply for the Project Lab in Bonn until the 5th of September. This project lab doesn’t have a specific theme.
This Project Lab in Bonn (Germany) is an international training and networking event to strengthen the usage and exploitation of the possibilities offered by the ERASMUS+ and the European Solidarity Corps programmes for youth work at municipal level. The event will go on from the 19th to the 21st of October 2022.
The Project Lab aims to …
Apply until 5 September 2022 here.
If you’re interested in rural youth work, you can apply for the Project Lab about rural youth work in Chalkidiki until the 10th of September. You can find more information here.
In the framework of the Europe Goes Local project, the German and Hellenic National Agencies of Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes are looking for trainers who will be part of a team that will implement the Europe Goes Local (EGL) project labs in 2022. The application deadline is the 25th of July
Two project labs are foreseen in 2022.
The first project lab has a general focus and will take place in in Bonn (Germany) from 19-21 October 2022 (including arrival and departure).
The second project lab is focussed on municipalities and local organizations from rural areas. It will take place from 14-17 November 2022 in Halkidiki (Greece).
Both project labs will have around 30-40 participants from the programme countries and neighbouring partner countries of the Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes.
There will also be a joint preparatory webinar for the participants of both events during the week of 3-9 October.
Essential skills and experience:
Advantage:
All costs of travel, board and lodging incurred in relation to the meetings and events will be covered by the organisers. Expert fee (gross): €320/working day.
The number of working days depends on whether the trainer facilitates only one or both project labs.
Find more detailed information and how to apply here.
You can also find the call for participants here.
The Latvian National Agency organises a study visit “Youth Workers’ well-being” from August 17 to 19 2022 in Latvia. This target audience are youth specialists, youth workers, youth policy makers, NGO representatives,… involved in youth work.
Youth work is constantly developing and being assigned new roles and functions, such as building civil society, improving social inclusion, preventing health risks, etc. With this continual evolution, the focus and aim of youth work is to ensure quality systems and frameworks that guarantees its improvement and shows its impact and value. The concept of quality youth work, however, can’t only focus on the development of standards, indicators, methods and manuals. So supporting development of quality to create lasting impact on the lives of young people includes the quality of well-being and wellness of youth workers themselves.
“Youth workers’ jobs are challenging and dynamic”
Agnese Karklina, Project Coordinator at the Latvian National Agency
Youth workers are facing multiple challenges, such as burnout, municipal employee turnout, and lack of support from employers. In addition to this, they’ve carried the weight of a global health crisis. And recently, there has been the destructive consequences of a war nearby, which all of these bring the urgent necessity to light to address all issues around the emotional and mental well-being of youth workers.
The Agency for International Programs for Youth in Latvia is organising a study visit within Europe Goes Local to bring awareness to and spotlight the importance of the psycho-emotional well-being of youth workers.
We talked to Agnese Karklina, Project Coordinator at the Latvian National Agency. She told us about the significance of this study visit and why the well-being of youth workers is an essential precondition for developing quality youth work.
Agnese: “Youth workers’ jobs are challenging and dynamic. It takes a lot of energy and resources to work directly with young people; by creating individual plans, consultations, mentoring, creating group activities, trying to find funding for everything, writing projects, and implementing new services. Sometimes youth workers forget about themselves in this process, or they put their needs on the last place. At the same time balancing the workload and private life raises questions: Am I being appreciated in my work? Is anyone thanking me? Am I being paid enough? Is it worth it?”
Agnese: “Youth workers’ health and emotional well-being directly affects productivity and motivation at work. Having good emotional health for youth workers is a fundamental aspect of fostering resilience, self-awareness, and overall contentment. And it goes together with the capability to be more productive in their work hours, staying motivated, raising their problem-solving skills and helping to be more solution-oriented.”
For who: youth specialists, youth workers, youth policy makers, NGO representatives, etc. involved in youth work
When: 17 – 19 August 2022 in Latvia
Arrival: expected on 16 August 2022
Departure: 20 August 2022
Application Deadline: 26 June 2022
Where to apply: http://trainings.salto-youth.net/10298
Furthermore, you can find more information about the Latvian National Agency on their website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, or TikTok.
SALTO Eastern Europe and Caucasus made beautiful videos of their EGL municipalities. We’ve bundled all the videos of SALTO EEC for you here. You can click on “subtitles” on YouTube to watch the video with English subtitles.
Let’s start with the municipalities in Moldova!
The first video is about Cahul, which is a city and municipality in southern Moldova. The city is the administrative center of Cahul Distract.
The next municipality is Sipoteni, a commune in Călărași District.
SALTO EEC also made three videos about their EGL municipalities in Georgia: Chokhatauri and Zugdidi.
Chokhatauri is a town in Georgia’s Guria region, 310 km west to the capital of Tbilisi. It is an administrative center of Chokhatauri Municipality, which comprises the town itself and its adjoining 60 villages.
Zugdidi is a city in the western Georgian historical province of Samegrelo (Mingrelia). The city is located 318 kilometres west of Tbilisi, 30 km from the Black Sea coast and 30 km from the Egrisi Range.
The first video of Zugdidi is about their culture center.
And then we also have the video about the library in Zugdidi.
We posted one video a week on our social media, and this concludes our weekly videos. You can also watch all of them on the YouTube channel of SALTO Eastern Europe and Caucasus Resource Centre !