Mapping professional open youth work Erasmus Project

Project Title

Mapping professional 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 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy)

Project Summary

Mapping professional open youth work (in Europe)

The project created a strategic partnership for working on underlying principles and concrete tools for mapping professional open youth work in Europe as of today. It gathered ten partners from nine different countries coming from diverse backgrounds – we managed to have partners from the non-formal and the formal education sector as well as grass root youth work and umbrella organisations. It gave this part of youth work the room for professional debate on the core profile of their work as well as some tools for online discussion and showcasing of professional open youth work. It therefore had two pillars that were closely linked to each other:

1) Debate and Description of „Principles of Professional Open Youth Work in Europe“
The partnership engaged in a very serious discussion about a common defintion and underlying principles of professional open youth work and worked on a document that would respect the various national and background realities and create a clearer profile of this profession in Europe. The result of this process is a “Declaration of Principles” which was published and disseminated in September 2016. Read more about the process and the result here: http://magazine.poywe.org/magazine/logbook-issue-3/mapping-a-profession/

2) Online platform for debate, capacity building and dissemination of knowledge about professional open youth work in Europe consisting of:
The LOGBOOK Platform that was created within this project aims on the one hand to enable exchange of experience and good practice and on the other hand on show casing what Professional Open Youth Work is and what effects it has in Europe today. For achieving this aim it features several things:
a) The LOGBOOK E-Magazine was created and three editions were published during the project duration. It features descriptions of the state of the art of youth work in all participating countries, one hot topic per issue (1. radicalisation of young people and the role of open youth work, 2. professional open youth work and young refugees and 3. youth work as a profession), news and information about training, methods and interviews with young people and youth workers.
b) A video channel with short videos that explain professional open youth work from different angles – currently there is 19 interviews with youth workers and experts from 12 countries.
c) Debate and exchange of experience – to widen the debate we have also created a space for webinars, where we have discussed the final version of our declaration of principles with interested participants.

Apart from this concrete results the project helped to build a stronger network of professional open youth work in Europe that is going to be active and in touch also after the end of this partnership. Several participants of the closing event announced that they will translate the “Declaration of Principiles in their own languages for making it even more accesible for youth workers in their own country. The LOGBOOK Platform will stay and POYWE plans to keep publishing the E-Magazine, continue uploading video interviews that show what professional open youth work is doing and provide webinars for youth workers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 145229,96 Eur

Project Coordinator

PROFESSIONELLE OFFENE JUGENDARBEITIN EUROPA, PROFESSIONAL OPEN YOUTHWORK IN EUROPE & Country: AT

Project Partners

• Netzwerk der Jugendtreffs und -zentren Südtirols n.e.t.z.
• AGENZIJA ZGHAZAGH
• Ungdom & Fritid – Landsforening for fritidsklubber og ungdomshus
• SUOMEN HUMANISTINEN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY HUMAK
• Politikos tyrimu ir analizes institutas
• Stichting JONG Rotterdam
• Udruga za promicanje kvalitetnog obrazovanja mladih s invaliditetom “ZAMISLI”