Europe Goes Local has been selected this year to run a joint session together with the ESPON research project at the European Week of Regions and Cities. Besides presenting the European Charter on Local Youth Work in our part of the session, our panel members will describe the current policy framework in European youth work. The ESPON project focuses on territorial trends in youth unemployment in European regions and cities.
“The European Week of Regions and Cities is an annual four-day event in during which cities and regions showcase their capacity to create growth and jobs, implement European Union cohesion policy, and prove the importance of the local and regional level for good European governance.” explains the website of the event. It will take place in Brussels on 7-10 October expecting 6000 participants and 600 speakers for more than 100 workshops and debates, exhibitions and networking opportunities.
Are you interested in local and regional policies and achievements in the EU? Would you be interested in networking with fellow experts, politicians, project promoters from all over Europe representing diverse policy areas? Visit the official website of the Week and register till 27 September!
Europe Goes Local is much more than a group of youth workers who get together once a year at a European event. We have lots of actions happening at the European, national and local levels. From now, we will start introducing activities that were initiated and carried out by our network members. If you are interested in any of them, contact us for more information!
Think about this vision of a flourishing society: a community whose members, youthful and old, are educated about and occupied with all the serious issues that influence their lives. Among other tools, “lobbying” is an act of attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of legislators or members of regulatory institutions.
Supporting the development and recognition of youth work, it is necessary for the stakeholders to become active in interfering with and influencing local policy making. This requires a fundamental change in youth workers’ attitude as well as adapted and new skills and abilities. It needs further education in areas such as policy intervention, policy advice and lobbying.
In Germany, a model in the years 2013-2015 with these contents and with exceptionally positive outcomes was created. This preparation expects to exchange the Germany model venture to the European dimension. Jugend für Europa, the German National Agency of the Erasmus+ Youth in Action programme and its partners decided to develop an international long term training course for youth workers on the basis of the already existing model, in the framework of the Europe Goes Local project.
The point is to add to a more honed profile and to an improved political situating of youth work. Youth workers are to get out of their uninvolved position and into progressively dynamic roles as step towards developing co-makers of fellow youth work arrangement.
Webinar held in March.
Webinar in October
Webinar in January
The undertaking is planned as a propelled preparing and further training module and will cover the accompanying learning components and errands:
Some additional readings:
The information leaflet of the training course
The presentation of the training course
written by La Sheika Campbell.
We are looking for Brussels-based, English-speaking volunteers to support the implementation of the 3rd European event of the Europe Goes Local project. The event will take place on 4-6 June 2019 in Brussels, at a central location. The event will have about 200 participants who will discuss local youth work.
Volunteers are expected to support the organizing team at the registration desk, guiding the participants and setting up the venue of the event.
Please, see the details of our call here: Call for volunteers.
We are looking for a photographer and a video team to cover the upcoming 3rd European Event of the Europe Goes Local network. The event will take place on 4-6 June 2019 in the centre of Brussels. We expect 200 from all over Europe to exchange about youth work and develop cooperation.
Offers can be submitted separately for one of the tasks or for both if a company can provide the complete service.
Please, see details here in the attached files:
We are looking for a consultant to join the team of Europe Goes Local temporarily. The consultant who will be part of an expert group that will create an on-line toolkit to support the implementation of the European Charter on Local Youth Work in the frame of the project.
Please, see the attached call about the details of the tasks and the expectations towards the future consultant:
The 2nd EGL event took place in Cascais in June. A summary of all activities has been prepared and published on our website which gives a complete overview of the key-notes, thematic seminars and discussion groups of various topics.
Following the link, you can find the presentations of input-providers, the list of participants, photos and the summary of the event.
Support for quality in local youth work is crucial to increase its effectiveness and social recognition. Therefore the 200+ partners from 20+ countries in this long-term project set out to create a European Charter on Local Youth Work.
Such a Charter on Local Youth Work is in line with the recommendations of the 2nd Youth Work Convention (2015) and the Council of Europe recommendation on youth work (2017). Europe Goes Local believes that municipal youth policy and European cooperation in the youth field contribute to the quality of local youth work and its recognition. That is why the National Agencies of the Erasmus+ youth programme focus on youth work development on municipal level. The Charter aims to create the conditions so that local youth work can reach its full potential and actively contribute to the personal and social development of young people.
A European expert group representing different local youth work stakeholders developed a draft Charter for Local Youth Work. These proposals were intensely debated in the national working groups with all the Europe Goes Local partners involved. They also reached out to relevant stakeholders in their various national realties creating a far-reaching ripple effect. Amendments were proposed, achieving a broad consensus and ownership of the Charter amongst all stakeholders.
Of course, the aim was to come to a common tool that can be used to the benefit of local youth work in all corners of Europe, but the consultation exercise also stimulated rich discussions and exchanges of experience between stakeholders. This helped networking and knowledge building between youth work partners at municipal level, both welcome secondary achievements from this consultation exercise.
The consultation was carried out by the national working groups involved in the core work of Europe Goes Local. They collected feedback from relevant representatives of local youth work (e.g. umbrella organisations, youth councils, trainer pools,…) via questionnaires, discussion groups and round tables. The working groups used the methods that fit best to their context.
The Erasmus+ Youth National Agency of each participating country provided a summary of the national consultations and the draft Charter was also submitted for scrutiny at the Europe Goes Local conference in Portugal (June 2018). This fed the European expert group and helped them to propose a revised draft has been sent around for feedback in the middle of November.
The last amendments, based on this second round of consultations, should be integrated in 2019, leading to a consolidated European Charter for Local Youth Work, based on a European-wide stakeholder consultation. The Charter will be launched at the 3rd Europe Goes Local conference in 2019 and widely disseminated, to make youth work thrive in Europe, from the smallest villages to the largest cities.
Read more on the Charter and the consultation and contact your NA if you wish to participate in it.
Starting with the Kick-off Event in Ljubljana and having various activities in national working groups, it is time to get together again and inspire partners across Europe to raise the quality of local youth work. During this 2-days event that will take place in Cascais, Porutgal on 5-7 June 2018, project partners will share about the progress of this strategic partnership, thematic inputs will be given by various experts and you are all invited to contribute to next steps, to a European Charter for Local Youth Work and to a wide array of exciting cooperation activities.
The programme will be mix between thematic inputs (food for thought), stakeholder discussions (exchanging expertise) and youth work methods (to devise action together).
Erasmus+ National Agencies are setting up their delegations that will come from the 22 ‘Europe Goes Local’ partner countries. Delegations will be composed of:
Besides the representatives of different countries, members of European organisations, institutions will also be present.
The brochure of the event is available here.
More information will be published soon.
Youth work practice is – and needs to be – diverse. But the Council of Europe Recommendation on Youth Work* outlines some common ground: all youth work empowers young people to find a constructive pathway in life and facilitates young people’s active participation and inclusion in their communities and in decision-making.
Youth work does so by facilitating learning, supporting labour market participation, strengthening young people’s well-being and sense of belonging. The Charter on Local Youth Work is meant to be a youth policy tool to safeguard and support the quality of youth work at municipal level, as this is where the vast majority of youth work takes place.
In order to achieve a broad consensus and create ownership of the Charter, a Europe-wide consultation process would be implemented with the support of the National Agencies of the Erasmus+ Youth in Action programme and with the participation of the Europe Goes Local National Working Groups.
The outcomes will be collected and analysed by the expert group, and will be channelled into the further Charter development process. As a next step, they will feed into the discussions of the 2nd European event of the project.
According to the plans, the Charter will be launched in 2019.
Please, download the draft text from here:
Towards a Charter on local youth work
If you have any questions, please, contact the project coordinator or your National Agency.
*Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on youth work – Scope and purpose of the Recommendation – definition and scope of youth work
Many steps contribute to a journey, towards quality youth work at the local level. The strength of Europe Goes Local lies in the synergy between European and local interventions. A lot of the discussions happen at national meetings and events, inspired by the work at European level. This way Europe trickles down to the local level.
The Croatian Erasmus+ National Agency consulted 21 local self-governance units (mayors, deputy mayors and heads of department of 21 towns and municipalities) who are actively involved in Europe Goes Local. They received a self-evaluation questionnaire about their capacity, potential and needs for establishing a system of local youth work. The initial analysis of the questionnaire was presented to a preparation group composed of 2 representatives of the Erasmus+ National Agency, 4 EGL working group members and 2 trainers.Together they prepared the central EGL activity for 2018: a national seminar on youth work for local governance units (towns and municipalities). The trainers were present to develop the concept of the seminar. And deliver it later in the year.
10 youth work representatives from Latvian municipalities visited Tartu City Government and two youth centres in Tartu (one municipal youth centre and one NGO). The participants discussed youth work structures in place, funding schemes, the work of the youth council, mobile youth work and influence patterns in local youth work (lobbying).
They Latvian delegation also went out to a youth centre in Rõuge in the south-east of Estonia to discover how youth work is done in a more rural setting. There were enlightening discussions about the definition of youth work, the different types of youth work organisations and youth work legalisation in Estonia.
Because comparing is caring.
The Italian Erasmus+ National Agency invited 50 youth workers and local administrators from all over Italy to discuss the European Charter on Local Youth Work. In smaller working groups the delegates elaborated a national consultation plan for the charter.
The participants were introduced to the Europe Goes Local project from a European and national perspective, but they also became familiar with national research on youth work and the youth worker profiles that exist in Italy and Europe.
A nice mix of input and action.
The Estonian Erasmus+ National Agency gathered 10 youth work specialists from 3 active municipalities to discuss the work on the European Charter on Local Youth Work.
The participants also made a need analysis of youth work in their municipality and possible activities to strengthen local youth work. Each municipality will develop their action plan by the end of March 2018.
From talking to action!
Send your updates to Judit Balogh, EGL coordinator.