Following the discussions about the new strategy for youth in the EU, we, the practitioners of youth work, are also trying to find innovative answers to the challenges that youth work is currently facing. This is how the project ”The Future of Youth Work” came to life, and this is what the 3 organisation partners – CID (Macedonia), Project2020 CID (UK) and Involved (Estonia) will be doing in the next 15 months.
The first activity of the project was a training course, held in Tallin, Estonia, between the 20-28 of April 2018. It gathered 21 youth workers and practitioners from the 3 countries and provided them with an opportunity to gain knowledge, skills and practical experience necessary for supporting youth, especially those from marginal backgrounds. It focused on developing tools both offline and online that they can use in their future work in this field. One of the major aims of the collaboration is the development of accreditation and recognition of professional youth work both in the UK, Estonia and Macedonia as well as Europe and even on a global context.
During the whole week, the group worked together to build trust among each other, to share from their local realities, exchange good practices and brainstorm together on new ways of addressing current challenges in working with young people with a special focus on youth from marginalised communities. The training also included a visit day to local youth centers, to have the practical experience of learning from the local experience of conducting youth work in Estonia.
So what is next for the future of youth work? Several mobility opportunities for youth workers from all 3 partner organisations to learn about each other’s realities and to practice in another context. The mobilities will be implemented in the following 12 months. At the same time, the team will work on the development of online support tools for practitioners of youth work.