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The organisation and practice of local youth work needs…

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to continuously exchange information about plans and activities with other local, national and European actors in the field of youth and actively engage in both cross- and intra-sectorial cooperation.

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Introduction

The trustworthiness of youth work and youth workers in the eyes of young people relies on that all forms of exchange of information and cooperation with other stakeholders is done in active dialogue with the young persons concerned and not “over their heads”.

This also means that youth work providers should have the knowledge and contacts needed in order to guide young people to the various forms of activities and support provided by other actors, such as social services and labour market authorities. This is important also in order to secure that youth workers only act within their own sphere of competence and do not take over the tasks of other professions or try to compensate for the lack or incapability of such services.

Cross sectorial cooperation on local level is often, due to for example different cultures or budget rivalry, hard. Since youth work often is the smallest actor, compared to school and social services, it is important that its mission, role and possible contributions are well known to other actors so that they have adequate expectations.

References

  • “In establishing policies that safeguard and proactively support the establishment and further development of youth work at all levels, member States are invited to:
    strengthen the role and position of youth work in order to facilitate crosssectoral co-operation between youth work – whether it is provided by public authorities, the private sector or civil society – and other sectors, including for example: social care, health, sport, culture, formal education, employment services and criminal justice;
    iii. promote and support co-ordination between local, regional, national and European levels of youth work, thereby facilitating networking, co-operation, peer learning and exchange;”
    Council of Europe, Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on youth work, 2017

Guiding questions

To what degree does our local youth work meet this bullet point?

Are there sides/aspects of it that are not reached?
Are there differences related to different activities?
Are there differences related to different groups of young people?
Are there differences related to different youth work providers?
Are there other differences? Related to what?

Specific questions
  • Which other actors in the youth field are we cooperating with today?
    • Are there, other, actors (local, regional, national or European) that we could gain from cooperating with?
  • How can we make the mission and role of youth work in cross sectorial cooperation known to other actors?
  • Are we open and positive to cooperation with other actors, or are we looking at other actors with suspicion?
    • Do we act as ‘underdogs’ or do we act with self-confidence?
    • What would make it easier to argue for ‘a youth work perspective’ in cross sectorial cooperation?

Self-assessment

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Good practices & tools

  • Rural youth and municipalities vs. youth and rural community

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  • What volunteering in open youth center is about

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Future steps

What different steps do we need to take in order to meet this bullet point?

Do we miss any knowledge that we need?
Do we need to take contact with stakeholders not present in our discussions?
Do we need to develop new competences, methods, work processes or organisational structures?
Can we find good practices or tools that might help us to improve this?
Do we have positive experiences from other areas of youth work that we can use also in this case?
Are there other organisations that we can contact and learn from regarding this?
Do we need to take other measures?
Do we have to revise our perspectives and/or priorities regarding youth work?

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