On 23 February in Brussels, Europe Goes Local welcomed Zurab Samadalashvili from Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation for a job-shadowing day focused on strengthening cross-national learning in youth work.

Zurab visited Brussels to gain deeper insight into key Flemish initiatives: the LandInSight tool and lobbying for Youth Work, both developed by JINT – the Flemish National Agency. Zurab also met with Bataljong, the umbrella organisation supporting municipalities in developing strong local policies for children and young people. Their expertise in connecting local authorities, youth councils, and practitioners offered a valuable perspective on how structured support can empower local youth work.

The next step included a brief description of the tools from JINT and Bataljong that were shown during the day. First LandInSight developed by JINT – this tool puts internationalisation on your organisation’s radar. It helps organisations explore how international activities and cooperation can strengthen your organisation. The second tool is Aanstekers from Bataljong. This is a web tool where all young people can add ideas for their local council. You can also view all the ideas submitted by others. The last one is Debattle from Bataljong. Debattle is a project focused on the 2024 municipal elections, tailored to young people and youth councils in particular. Debattle informs, facilitates and activates youth councils so that they can increase their influence and ensure their voice is heard in the new policy plans.

During the day, we exchanged experiences on how youth work is organised in Flanders and Austria. Zurab presented his pilot project- the Local EGL Trio Model. The visit created a space for reflection, mutual learning, and new ideas. We learned a lot about each other’s work, and we look forward to exploring future opportunities to connect our practices and strengthen local youth work across Europe.

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This article was written by Hanne Bogaert, an intern of JINT vzw and Europe Goes Local. Hanne is currently completing her Master’s degree in EU Studies at the University of Ghent. She was present during the job shadowing, followed along and got to know Zurab and his project, the LandInSight tool from JINT and Bataljong and their projects and tools.

Het bericht EGL Job Shadowing in Brussels: Sharing Local Youth Work Practices between Flanders and Austria verscheen eerst op Europe Goes Local.

EGL is 10!

2026 marks #10 years of our Europe Goes Local network project dedicated to supporting and empowering municipal youth work across Europe.

Europe Goes Local started as a European network project with a key objective to strengthen youth work where it matters most: at the local level. By connecting municipalities, youth workers, and policymakers across Europe, the project turns European youth policy into real-world practice—raising the quality, visibility, and recognition of local youth work.

Through peer learning, capacity building, and cross-border cooperation, the EGL framework has empowered local actors to innovate, professionalise youth work, and embed a strong European dimension in everyday practice. By actively contributing to the European Youth Work Agenda and the Bonn Process, our network bridges local realities with European strategies—ensuring that youth work is valued as a key pillar for inclusive, resilient, and youth-friendly communities across Europe

Together with 35 member countries and a large number of youthwork stakeholders, we are happy to be here. We are grateful for a decade of collaboration, learning, and impact.

We invite you to join us for this special anniversary year and look out for a series of inspiring activities, events, and moments that honour the journey so far and get excited about the next steps.

Het bericht #10 Years of Connecting Youth Work Communities verscheen eerst op Europe Goes Local.

Throughout 2026, in Poland, local governments can benefit from special mentoring support to effectively develop youth policies and create local strategies for working with young people. This program is an EGL pilot mentoring program in Poland, created for Polish local government units, whose development goals include shaping youth-friendly policies based on cooperation with young people. The program will allow local stakeholders to participate in international events (design labs, study visits, training sessions, seminars, conferences) and work on joint projects.

The selected local governments include larger cities (Rzeszów and Gdańsk), medium-sized and smaller municipalities (Starachowice, Świdwin, Racibórz, Piekary Śląskie, Mińsk Mazowiecki, Legionowo), and rural municipalities (Miedzichowo and Święciechowa). The pilot program aims to develop solutions tailored to local needs – with the prospect of broader implementation in the future.

More about the EGL Mentoring program in Poland:

One of the main goals of the EGL mentoring program is to support local governments in developing strategies for the development of local youth policies or other documents supporting youth development in their municipalities (e.g., local youth work standards or youth worker support programs). The type of support proposed will depend on the level of development of a given municipality in the area of ​​its youth policy and on the needs assessment conducted.

The pilot is a 7-month, free support program for local governments selected through an open recruitment process published on the SALTO website. Throughout the project, the participating municipalities will develop their own plan to strengthen local youth work in their local government and will receive support and advice from their mentor and the EGL team in Poland. EGL as an opportunity vehicle for local governments.

By engaging the EGL program for mentoring, local stakeholders will be able to benefit from:

• Opportunities to develop local and international partnerships with other local governments;
• Promotion and dissemination of youth policy development in Poland;
• Building bridges between the local and European levels, including with municipalities in rural areas;
• Strengthening dialogue between stakeholders in local youth work.
• Making the European dimension an integral part of local youth work;
• Support for local stakeholders (local governments and NGOs) in the form of new tools and opportunities for cooperation and the development of joint projects;
• Identifying and promoting the best European practices for mutual learning.

Visit the designated Polish-language website europegoeslocal.pl, which introduces the partners and interested parties to the concept of a systemic approach to youth work and participatory youth policy development in Poland

Read more and get in contact:

EGL in Poland

Het bericht EGL Mentoring in Poland verscheen eerst op Europe Goes Local.

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.

Het bericht Call for Expert: Buddy Support System for Western Balkans verscheen eerst op Europe Goes Local.

Tasks:

• Facilitation of the Steering Group meetings (4 working days)
• Facilitation of the Advisory Board meetings (6 working days)
• Facilitation of the yearly EGL Event (10 working days)

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

Het bericht Call for consultants to support the implementation of the 2025-2027 cycle of the Europe Goes Local project verscheen eerst op Europe Goes Local.

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.

Het bericht EGL Steering Group meeting 2025 verscheen eerst op Europe Goes Local.

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.

Het bericht FINAL REPORT – EGL Event 2025 verscheen eerst op Europe Goes Local.

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.

Het bericht Empower & Inspire – Good Practices in local youth work verscheen eerst op Europe Goes Local.

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.

Het bericht Call for Good Practices: Apply now! verscheen eerst op Europe Goes Local.

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:

• support/enhance youth work development
• provide advocacy / information / training / knowledge-building / networking for local youth work providers (NGOs and/or municipalities)
• represent municipalities and have a thematic focus on youth work and youth policy among other topics

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

Het bericht Call for members for the Europe Goes Local Steering Group (European organisations) verscheen eerst op Europe Goes Local.