A new beginning
The Exchange Forum was officially opened by the incoming Director of JINT, Kaat Torfs. Kaat shared about her passion for the transformative power of international cooperation in helping young people to develop for their future to thrive in a better future.
She explained that the European Youth Work Agenda provides us with a vital framework to ensure that youth work can flourish in every European country and beyond.
Boosting youth work – inspiration from the key note speech
Koen Lambert provided the historical background of the European Youth Work Agenda and described what it is that the Agenda brings to national youth work development. He emphasised that the Agenda does not stand alone. It is part of a rich history linked to important papers and recommendations dating back to the White Paper on youth of 2001 and the Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)4 on youth work. It is also part of the legacy of European Youth Work Conventions, both the first and second providing direction to the reaching of this point.
Koen pointed out that although we refer to the “implementation” of the Agenda, in actuality we are “developing” the Agenda. The Agenda calls upon the commitment of the community of practice and it calls on all the actors that are involved in youth work for greater coordination and cooperation at the European level. It pushes for all corners of Europe to be involved in the discussions in order to establish, encourage and support national processes – something that the Exchange Forum is doing.
The Agenda provides a framework for local youth work to flourish, linking developments on the local level with what is happening on the European level and using the European level to support the local level.
A boost from the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union
Jan Deduytsche from the Flemish Youth Department reminded the Exchange Forum that Belgium had held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2024.
In May the Council approved an important Resolution on youth work policy in an empowering Europe that came about through the work of many institutions and organisations. The resolution emphasises the role of youth work in strengthening Europe, and calls on all Member States, the Commission and all other stakeholders to support developments and the practice of youth work, including through strong youth work policies.
The resolution also highlights the importance of developing an inspiring framework for municipalities to support local youth work. Moreover, this framework should be shared together with local actors.
The work that the community of practice has done on the European Youth Work Agenda has also contributed to this resolution. The Exchange Forum is therefore also an important factor for sharing and developing insights to realise the ambitions in the resolution.
Local and national realities
The national realities from the point of view of the institutions are only half of the story. The other half is based on the realities of the local and national levels of each individual country. For the second time, the strategic cooperation project of National Agencies “Growing Youth Work” commissioned annual research on the national processes.
The research was conducted by Frederike Hoffman-van de Poll and it reveals the trends and patterns that are emerging regarding the implementation and development of the Agenda.
Frederike presented the 2024 survey report on national processes. The main insights of the report are summarised in this article.
Looking into the future of knowledge building about putting the European Youth Work Agenda into action, Frederike shared the interest in going deeper in the next survey on the relationship between the different levels, focusing more on the regional and local levels.
The report inspired the discussions at the Exchange Forum especially by raising five key questions:
- What do the geographical differences in the implementation of the European Youth Work Agenda mean for the further development of youth work and the (European) process?
- Is there a correlation between the most active countries in the Agenda context and their development of youth work?
- Which role does recognition of youth work play in relation to other priority areas? Does recognition function as a precondition, outcome or stand-alone priority area?
- How do the challenges of 2023 relate to the challenges of 2024 and what approaches can be helpful in tackling these challenges?
- Where is the balance between youth work policy flexibility and the wish for more tailored frameworks and solutions?
Responses to the three key questions
Three participants of the Exchange Forum had been asked in advance to respond to the results of the survey report based on one of the key questions.
After the opening session, participants had a lot of space for exchanging about their national processes. They shared about achievements, success factors and challenges in their processes. In several rounds, they could inspire each other by exploring good practices from different countries and start thinking about possible ways of cross-border cooperation.
The first day of the event provided a lot of food for thought and set the ground for the second and final day of Exchange Forum.
