The SALTO South East Europe Resource Centre is seeking an expert to design and facilitate the implementation of the Europe Goes Local “Buddy Support System” between municipalities in the Western Balkan region* and other countries.
The expert is expected to develop and implement the Europe Goes Local ‘Buddy Support System‘ in close cooperation with SALTO SEE and the local coordinator of Europe Goes Local in the Western Balkan region.
Context
Since 2021, SALTO SEE has been actively involved in the Europe Goes Local platform by providing expert consultation and guidance to selected municipalities in the Western Balkan region on the development of local youth work and youth (work) policy. In addition, SALTO SEE organises and facilitates the participation of these municipalities in international support and learning activities.
Municipalities participating in Europe Goes Local in the Western Balkan region have frequently expressed the need for more opportunities to connect, network, exchange practices, and establish partnerships with municipalities from other countries. The Europe Goes Local “Buddy Support System” has been designed to respond to this need. The system matches municipalities from the Western Balkans with interested municipalities from other, primarily Europe Goes Local partner, countries and guides them through a facilitated cooperation process. Each paired group will carry out activities that address their shared priorities in the field of local youth work development and its European dimension. These needs will be identified and analysed before the matching. The concept for the Buddy Support System builds on a similar support measure previously developed by SALTO SEE to assist organisations within the European Solidarity Corps.
Download the call for an expert with the terms of reference here
Deadline to apply: 11 December 2025
Application procedure, enquiries, and contact details:
Interested applicants are invited to fill in the online application form by 11 December 2025 at 12:00.
The selection results will be communicated to all applicants by 12 December 2025. For more
information:
● Maija Lehto (SALTO SEE) maija.lehto@movit.si
● Dragan Atanasov (the local coordinator of Europe Goes Local in the Western Balkan region)
atanasov.dragan@gmail.com
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More about SALTO SEE in the Western Balkans you can find here.
JINT vzw is looking for consultants who will support the implementation of the Europe
Goes Local (EGL) project during the 2025-2027 project cycle. The selected consultants will be offered a framework agreement which will enter into force on the day of signing and ends on 30 June 2028.
Tasks:
Fee: 360 EUR/working days
Deadline to apply: 10th of December 2025, midnight (CET).
For more information about the job and the submission of applications, please, read the call
On 24 and 25 June, in Brussels, EGL hosted the first meeting of the renewed Steering group for the 2025-2027.
It was great to welcome our new chairwoman of the Steering Group and director of JINT vzw – the Flemish National Agency – Kaat Torfs, and the newly appointed chairman of the EGL Advisory Board – Claudius Siebel, who represents the German National Agency in the project.
National agencies from Belgium-Flanders, Germany, France, Ireland, Romania, and Portugal will be the Steering Group members in the current three-year cycle. On the European organizations’ side, we are pleased to have KEKS, DYPALL, ERYICA, and the European Youth Forum on board.
In a very active agenda and discussions, we dove into the work program for years 2025-2027, in light of our strategy focusing on EGL as a platform for European youth work and EGL as part of the European framework for youth work policy development.
Across a wide range of important topics, the joint work clustered around the following themes:
· Focus on national approaches to youth work and youth policy objectives, and a pool of good practices
· Preparation for the launch of the new Changemakers kit in fall 2025.
· Evaluation of the EGL event 2025
· Planning for the EGL event 2026 in Tromso, Norway, which will focus on youth participation and outreach to youth in a more inclusive, sustainable,e and creative way
Stay tuned for updates on the plan throughout the year. The next Steering Group meeting will take place online in fall 2025.
The European EGL Event 2005 took place in Prague from 25 to 27 March 2025. With this event, Europe Goes Local, a platform for municipal-level youth work stakeholders, aimed to support municipalities in developing a comprehensive, knowledge-based youth work policy and provide a channel for municipalities to make their voice heard in the European policy discussion and prepare a joint input for the 4th European Youth Convention in Malta in May 2025.
The focus areas in this event were knowledge building and exchanges in local youth work policy development and successful long term practices and project processes, current offer of the European youth programmes that can help develop local youth work and exploring municipalities’ needs and challenges in using these programmes.
Find out more about the outcomes of the event by downloading the final report here
View the full event page with all the material here.
We are excited to share our Empower & Inspire: Good Practices in local youth work publication!
These practices originate from various local organisations and projects in Europe and are part of the EGL database. We followed up on them through stories and interviews, and now they are summarized in this publication to empower and inspire all of you – youth workers, young people, and those who are passionate about the quality development of youth work and its impact on local communities.
Enjoy the read, and spread the word!
Download the publication here.
Want to be included in the next edition of the EGL good practices publication? Submit your good practice here.
Does your youth center, organization, or institution have an inspiring practice in local youth work?
We are looking for solidarity projects, individual and team volunteering activities implemented in close cooperation or by municipalities. We will invite the providers of eight selected practices for the ‘Activating citizens – municipalities and local authorities making use of the European Solidarity Corps‘ webinar on 6-7 November 2025 to present their project as part of the peer-learning in the online event. To be featured in this seminar, please submit your good practice by October 24, 2025.
‘Activating citizens‘ is a serie of webinars exploring the various possibilities of the European Solidarity Corps to promote voluntary engagement and active citizenship in local communities. The seminars are a cooperation between the SALTO European Solidarity Corps Resource Centre and Europe Goes Local.
Besides the opportunity for the presentations at the webinar, all approved practices will be displayed on the website of Europe Goes Local and promoted through our media channels. Selected practices are contacted for an interview by our communication team. Take a look at all the previously collected ones at Good Practices – Europe Goes Local and view how they are covered in our section EGL in Action. We also facilitate the invitation of selected practices to participate in other online or live events and conferences in our EGL network.
We’ve already collected, presented, and celebrated over 100 practices, and we invite you now to join this rich database of Europe Goes Local!
To submit yours, go to Good practices – Europe Goes Local, register, and follow the steps!
The call is ongoing to submit a practice to the EGL database. However, if you intend to present your practice at the ‘Activating citizens’ webinar, please submit it by 24th of October.
The Europe Goes Local (EGL) network project is open to receive expressions of interest form European NGOs engaged in local level youth work to join its Steering Group for the 2025-2027 period.
The Steering Group has 11 members. It consists of 4 National Agencies, a regional SALTO Centre and 4 European umbrella organisations plus the Chairpersons of the Steering Group and Advisory Board.
The profile of potential member organisations
European umbrella organisations which:
The call is open till the 18th of April.
Please, read the detailed description for further information about the project, the role of the Steering Group and the way to express interest: Call for EGL Steering Group members
Europe Goes Local is looking for a graphic facilitator and a digital community coordinator to support its upcoming conference, the EGL 2025 event in Prague, in March 2025.
To apply, please, read the calls:
Deadline to apply: 20 February 2025 for both calls.
The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (1/1/2024 – 30/6/2024) hosted the European conference ‘Local youth work and democracy’, with the aim of contributing to the goals of the Presidency in the youth and youth work policy area. The event took place from 20 until 23 February 2024 in Brussels.
The main thematic objective of the conference was to discuss the role of local youth work in enhancing youth engagement and participation in local communities. This event built on the synergies deriving from the Strategic National Agency Cooperation projects Europe Goes Local (EGL), coordinated by JINT vzw and Democracy Reloading (DemRel), coordinated by BIJ – the National Agencies of Erasmus+ Youth for the Flemish and French communities of Belgium.
Find out more about the outcomes of the conference in the report, as well as the advice based on the conference outcome to the Belgian Presidency.
Europe Goes Local will be launching a biweekly newsletter in the future. EGL will be using this new communication channel to send the latest news to the mailbox of interested people.
The themes of the newsletter will be:
EGL aims to launch the future newsletter in the fall, but you can already subscribe here.