to know everything about the open youth work Erasmus Project

Project Title

to know everything about the open youth work

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers

Project Summary

To know all in Open Youth Work – the knowledge platform www.oja-wissen.info introduces itself

The collected knowledge about Open Youth Work in the German-speaking world in one place – that was and is the goal of the project “All Knowledge in OJA”. For two and a half years we intensively researched, read, selected, evaluated, discussed, decided and wrote abstracts. We – the iSteering team and the project team of three OJA associations from Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as an international editorial team, qualified with experts from practice and science between Hamburg, Bern and Vienna. The result is an online knowledge platform with a collection of almost 400 contributions: Videos, podcasts, lectures, scientific and other relevant publications. The knowledge platform aims to provide relevant knowledge segments on all OJA topics and will continue to be developed after the end of the project.
The allocation to the three categories theory – practice – research, corresponding keywording and a well-developed search function facilitate targeted access to contributions according to the respective desired content. The topic packages compiled by experts offer the best possibilities to get an overview of individual topics on the basis of selected contributions. The knowledge platform was presented for the first time on 22 September 2020 at the German Federal Congress on Child and Youth Work. The video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu1gVtbUb9c.

For open youth work in German-speaking countries, the now published knowledge platform https://www.oja-wissen.info/ is a unique innovation. Due to the rather young history of OJA and its thematic diversity, there have been predominantly fragmented bodies of knowledge up to now. Lengthy, tedious research has often been the result, although it is particularly important in everyday practice to be able to access knowledge quickly. The project also represents a great gain for the further linking of practice and theory for all relevant actors from the profession and discipline, for specialists and managers, lecturers and academics, in everyday professional life on site and in teaching and research.
The available materials can be used to derive a variety of legitimation and argumentation aids for political contexts of action. In times of increasing populist movements, the strengthening of open child and youth work with its core element of democracy education is an important socio-political factor, which is supported within the framework of the project by the qualifying and profile-building bundling of knowledge. Democracy building and participation, youth work in Europe and European youth policy form special focal points in the above context and were taken into account accordingly in the selection of adequate contributions.
A feedback e-mail address offers the possibility to suggest further material to the project team as well as suggestions for the design of the website. Basic criteria for the inclusion of contributions can be found at https://www.oja-wissen.info/feedback/.
How was the work done? How will the project be continued?
The editorial team is responsible for the selection of content. It consisted of a total of 20 representatives from science and practice during the project period. The concrete implementation was carried out by the five-member project team. The three project committees were staffed by full-time and voluntary employees of the AGJF (Germany), BOJA (Austria) and DOJ (Switzerland). To plan and implement the project, meetings were held at least once a month, initially in analogue form, but increasingly in digital form as the project progressed.
The knowledge platform will be continued by the project team on a smaller scale with the help of scientific expertise. The participating organisations will provide resources for this.
A total of 11 multiplier events were held in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the second half of 2020 with the aim of publicising the project and obtaining feedback from practitioners and disciplines on the design and content of the website. A total of 292 professionals, managers and university staff were reached with these events. The overall feedback is very positive: the project to bundle knowledge in open youth work and make it directly accessible is welcomed. Many suggestions and proposals for the further development of the project were collected, documented and partly already implemented.
In the long run, the project makes a great, if not decisive, contribution to the profile building of open youth work.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 325533 Eur

Project Coordinator

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Jugendfreizeitstätten Baden-Württemberg e.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Dachverband Offene Kinder- und Jugendarbeit Schweiz
• BUNDESWEITES NETZWERK OFFENE JUGENDARBEIT