Study on Youth work in the EU Final report (original) (raw)
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Study on Youth Work in the EU Final report Executive Summary
Study on Youth Work in the EU Final report Executive Summary, 2021
This study constitutes the second European-wide comparison on youth work published by the European Commission. The first European Commission study on youth work, published in 2014, was an exploratory investigation of youth work at European level, seeking to identify commonalities and to map the state of youth work policies across the EU. This second report goes further and focuses on the needs of youth workers at the grassroots level to critically analyse whether existing public policies fulfil these needs. This is a timely report: the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the youth work sector. It has forced youth workers to rethink how they provide their services, and placed many in a precarious position, particularly at the local level and for youth workers who support the most vulnerable young people. Project Director: Dr Shane Beadle Advisors: Prof. Tomaž Deželan Dr Tomi Kiilakoski Sladjana Petkovic Dr Manfred Zetner Project Manager: Dr Cécile McGrath
The Impact of Youth Work in Europe : A Study of Five European Countries
2018
This book is the culmination of an Erasmus + funded project which aimed to independently identify the impact of youth work in the UK (England), Finland, Estonia, Italy and France. It applied a participatory evaluation methodology entitled ‘transformative evaluation’ which collated young people’s own accounts of the impact of youth work on their lives – collecting their stories. Over 700 stories were collected in total over a year long process. The stories were then analysed independently through a process of coding and only then was youth work in each of the five countries compared and contrasted. The findings reveal both the diversity as well as the similarity of youth work in Europe. Differences include the variety in age ranges across the five countries, where youth begins at 7 in Estonia, but extends to 35 in Italy. Other differences revealed include the differing levels of resources available to youth workers and therefore the variety in opportunities that this creates for youn...
The history of youth work in Europe : relevance for today's youth work policy
2009
Youth work is a polyvalent and multi-facetted practice. It takes place in a wide range of settings, varies from unstructured activities to fairly structured programmes, reaches a diverse array of young people, touches upon many different themes and cuts across several other disciplines and practices. This versatility is one of the strengths of youth work, but at the same time it may lead to fragmentation and product vagueness.
The Socioeconomic Scope of Youth Work in Europe - Final Report (with I. Bohn, L. Stallmann et al.)
2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated, reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic (CD-Rim, Internet, etc.) or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of Youth -youth-partnership@coe.int
European Youth Work Policy and Young People’s Experience of Open Access Youth Work
Journal of Social Policy, 2021
This article examines young people’s experiences of open access youth work in settings in the UK, Finland, Estonia, Italy and France. It analyses 844 individual narratives from young people, which communicate the impact of youthwork on their lives. These accounts are then analysed in the light of the European youth work policy goals. It concludes that it is encouraging that what young people identify as the positive impact of youth work are broadly consistent with many of these goals. There are however some disparities which require attention. These include the importance young people place on the social context of youth work, such as friendship, which is largely absent in EU youth work policy; as well as the importance placed on experiential learning. The paper also highlights a tension between ‘top down’ policy formulation and the ‘youth centric’ practices of youth work. It concludes with a reminder to policy makers that for youth work to remain successful the spaces and places fo...
Young People, Youth Work and Youth Policy: European Developments
2010
Recent years have seen very significant developments in the 'youth sector' at European level. There are two major institutional contexts for these (and other) European developments, and not surprisingly people sometimes get the two mixed up. The first is the European Union (EU) which grew out of the European Economic Community (EEC, or 'Common Market') established in 1957 when six member states signed the Treaty of Rome. The membership has grown over the years to its current figure of 27 (Ireland joined in 1973) and a succession of further treaties have amended and expanded the competences of the 'community' or 'union'; these include the Treaties of Maastricht (1993), Amsterdam (1999), Nice (2003) and, most recently, Lisbon (2009). While the term 'economic' is no longer included in the EU's name, economic matters remain absolutely central to its purpose. The Council of Europe (CoE) is a different organisation. It was established in 1949, i...
In the contemporary political and socioeconomic context the future of open access youth work remains uncertain. Since the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government came to power in 2010 substantial funding cuts seem to have been coupled with increasing, often misguided expectations for the youth work sector. Emerging from this context are distinctions between youth work in principle, as espoused by contemporary youth policy, and youth work in practice, as experienced by practitioners. This article draws on empirical data to explore these distinctions. Presenting ethnographic material from three years of research with casually paid youth workers, volunteers and young people, the article illustrates some of the contradictions embedded within the Coalition government's youth policy. In this endeavour the discussion also demonstrates respondents' commitment to the principles of child centred, open access youth work.