We are looking for an experienced expert – or a team of experts – to carry out an impact study exploring the contribution the EAYW has made to the development of youth work in Europe. Since 2019, the EAYW has brought together youth work practitioners, trainers, researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders through residential Academy events,…
Written by Alicia Holzschuh, EAYW Steering Group member Edited by Lorena Baric, EAYW rapporteur Held at the 4th European Academy on Youth Work in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia (5 – 8 May 2026), this Deep Dive brought together youth workers, trainers and policy practitioners to explore what polarisation and democratic fragility mean for youth work -…
Written by Katarina Kuhar, EAYW Steering Group member Edited by Lorena Baric, EAYW rapporteur Held at the 4th European Academy on Youth Work, this Deep Dive brought together youth workers and facilitators to discuss how AI is changing young people’s mental health, social skills and support needs and, ultimately, youth work. Over the three 90-minute…
Written by Lorena Baric, EAYW rapporteur Held at the 4th European Academy on Youth Work, this Deep Dive session explored how climate justice is shaping youth work, with a focus on climate emotions, participation, fairness and repair. Through discussion and reflective exercises during three 90-minute sessions, participants explored how youth work can respond to the…
Written by Juha Teubl-Kiviniemi, EAYW Advisory Board Member Edited by Lorena Baric, EAYW rapporteur The winds of change can be rough The world is always changing, and we have to adapt to it. With digital technology, this becomes more challenging due to the rapid pace of change. AI has even further increased the pressure for…
What does youth work need to move forward in times of uncertainty? For four days in May 2026, almost 200 stakeholders in European youth work, policy and research tried to answer that question together – and discovered that the better question may be who do we need to be. The gathering From 5 to 8…
Peter Merry, evolutionary leadership expert and long-time companion of the European youth field, started his speech with a word: hyper-complex. He traced it back to a 2012 IBM study where thousands of CEOs were asked what challenges they were facing. The word they came up with, hyper-complexity, was an admission that they no longer knew…
Prof. Dr. Özgehan Şenyuva (Middle East Technical University, Ankara) walked onto the stage with a confession: he is not a sociologist. He is a political scientist who used to be a youth worker and is now, depending on the room, asked to give shorter and shorter keynotes. The room laughed – not just at the…
Research from Wales found that for children who have experienced significant adversity such as abuse, neglect, household instability, consistent access to a single trusted adult reduced poor health outcomes from 59.8% to 21.3%. So, not a programme, not a policy but one person who showed up, reliably, regularly, over time. Science caught up with practice,…
Every journey into the future is better with a Companion. The European Academy on Youth Work has launched the Companion for navigating innovation and futures thinking in youth work – a reflective resource created by the field, for the field. Drawing on learning from the Academy’s work between 2018 and 2025, the Companion brings together…