The 4th European Youth Work Convention
The 4th European Youth Work Convention
The 4th European Youth Work Convention, which was held in Valletta from May 27th to 29th, proved to be an intense, vibrant and energising occasion. The convention brought together over 500 participants from 42 countries across Europe as well as representatives from the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the European Youth Forum, Councilof Europe Youth Advisory Council voluntary youth organisations and the wider youth work community including the Alliance of Youth Work Associations to discuss and consider the future of youth work in Europe.
The convention was hosted at the Mediterranean Conference Centre and organised by the Parliamentary Secretariat for Youth, Research and Innovation, together with Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, and the European Union Programme Agency (EUPA). It was one of the flagship events of Malta’s Chairpersonship of the Council of Europe.
European Youth Work Conventions have been a regular and significant forum for youth work policy makers, practitioners and the wider youth work community, including researchers, voluntary youth organisations and youth service providers, aimed at promoting and strengthening youth work and further development and fulfilling its potential in supporting and empowering young people.
The work of the three previous conventions – Ghent (2010), Brussels (2015) and Bonn (2020) – provided the context and paved the way for Malta’s hosting of the convention.
The title of the convention, ‘Youthwork xcelerate – A Roadmap Towards a European Strategy for Youth Work reflects Malta’s commitment to advancing the recognition and development of youth work in Europe and providing the momentum needed to give if both shape and direction in the next five years.
The past 25 years have seen a remarkable growth of youth work policy and practice at European, national, regional and local level. Regular Youth Work Conventions are only one example of this dynamic. Despite this progress, however, there are a number of long-standing and often unresolved issues in youth work policy and practice and these informed much of the debate at the convention.
Because of its flexibility and adaptability and capacity to engage with all young people of all ages and social strata, youth work has often been viewed as a jack of all trades and master of none. There has been a tendency to offload onto youth work many problems associated with young people – poor educational attainment, unemployment, radicalisation, mental health issues – by other policy areas with much greater resources, expertise and capacity than the largely voluntary youth sector. Conversely, youth work has also been used as a means of promoting responses to and tackling contentious issues such as climate change, multiculturalism and social media.
This jack of all trades and master of none concept also tends to perplex youth work policy makers and practitioners and this again was evident at the convention. Hence, we worry about who we are and what we do, about boundaries with other and related policy areas and how we should interface with them. Is youth work compensatory or enabling? This perplexity is in large part a result of two aspects of youth work policy and practice that have emerged over the past 25 years and might be characterised as the “old and new ways” of doing youth work.
Traditionally and historically, youth work was a voluntary leisure time activity organised by adults and young people that often had a faith-based or quasi political character with a focus on character building and positive action as a means of either social change or entrenchment. However, in more recent times there has been a shift towards youth work as a practice discipline where professional youth workers deliver quality programmes and services to young people.
This dual and often competing approach to youth work informed and underpinned much of the debate at the convention.
In many respects, Malta, in its hosting of the convention, provided both inspiration and practical ways of addressing and resolving this dual approach in youth work. At one level, Malta, and we in Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, have adopted a practice discipline and professional approach to youth work. Malta is the only country in Europe where youth work is s regulated profession. While youth work is unique and distinctive, in terms of professional practice it is on a par with teaching or social work and other professional fields supporting young people.
We have also been able to demonstrate, however, that giving a voice to young people and listening to and addressing their needs and aspirations and supporting them in bringing about positive social change is also possible. Through commitment and hard work the “old and new ways” of doing youth work are not as incompatible as we might think.
The convention in Malta provided all of us in the youth work community with the opportunity of setting out our strategic vision, priorities and objectives for youth work in the coming years and ensuring that youth work becomes an essential and well supported feature of all youth policy both at European and Member State level.
The next step is to present the findings of the convention to the the Council of Europe Youth Ministers’ Conference which will be held here in Malta next October under Mata’s Presidency of the Council of Europe.
