Did you ever catch yourself thinking “Everything is changing so fast… how are we supposed to keep up?” Well, you are not alone. That exact atmosphere was in our virtual room when we kicked off the “Meet your future – Tools to navigate the future of youth work” webinar series.
The webinar brought together more than 60 representatives of the Community of practice from across Europe for two hours of exploring, sharing, and testing out practical ways to talk about the future. This first webinar focused on two tools from the Futures Toolbox: Exploring types of futures and Four quadrants of future readiness.
The webinar started with a simple check-in: What happens in your body and brain when you hear the word “future”? Participants wrote in the chat reactions like exciting, scary, unknown, challenge, opportunity… and all of them other colleagues could resonate with…
After the quick check-in, we tried out the first tool: Exploring the types of futures, which helps us stop treating “the future” from a single perspective. Instead, we explored different angles, which include the following types of futures:
In small groups, participants could relate to the futures and discuss them, especially thinking about the following questions: How do we feel when looking at this future? What ‘forces’ in society push us toward this future? Who shapes youth work in this future? Who gains or loses influence? In that future, what changes for young people?
The projected future felt heavy: “if we don’t change, today’s problems get worse… and young people inherit the mess”, was the conclusion of participants. On the other hand, the plannable future felt more empowering and “smaller” (more doable), especially when thinking short-term. The preferable future was the hopeful one, where youth work is recognised, supported, properly funded, and shaped with young people (not for them). The potential future came with a lot of optimism: approaches that strengthen young people, mentorship, youth participation in policy-making, and supportive environments that will let young people really believe they can influence things.
Participants shared that they liked the exercise and that it helped them in thinking about what’s coming next, and how to support young people in different realities. After a quick stretching break, we moved to the second tool: Four quadrants of future readiness.
The key message of this tool is that future readiness is not only about individual youth workers “doing better.” It is also about our teams, organisations, communities, and the wider youth work ecosystem – and if the conditions around us make future-ready work possible. The tool maps future readiness across two axes: individual and collective, and inner work (mindset/identity/values) and outer work (skills/practices/structures/policies).
In breakout groups, participants didn’t brainstorm answers. They had a chance to brainstorm questions, which is sometimes the best way to start the reflection. Our overall question was: “When considering future societal changes and the need for youth work to respond to them… how can we get ready as individuals and collectively, as a field of youth work?” Participants described the exercise as challenging, fun, insightful, enjoyable and a little bit confronting.
Some of the questions that participants shared are the following:
- How flexible are we in our thinking?
- Which skills and methods will matter more (and which less)?
- How might youth work’s identity shift (especially along with demographic and tech changes)?
- Which policies, programmes and support structures do we need, so that future readiness isn’t just “personal resilience” as a survival strategy?
The webinar was closed in a lively manner, with the EAYW team announcing the next webinars you can take part in. Even if you missed this first webinar, here are some things you can bring back to your team and organisation:
- The tools presented are not about predicting, but intended to make space to think.
- Context matters – what feels “future” in one place might be someone else’s “today.”
- Future conversations work best when the space feels safe enough to go beyond fear and beyond “we’ve always done it this way.”
- These tools can be used with colleagues and with young people – especially to support imagination, agency, and clearer choices in uncertain times.
And yes: you can use the tools in a light manner, like a “taster”, or go deeper and build full workshops around them.
What’s next in our webinar series?
The “Meet your future” series continues with two more sessions:
- Webinar 2 (22 January 2026): Widening horizons and shifting perspectives (tools which will be presented: Three Horizons + Window to the Future)
- Webinar 3 (12 February 2026): Working with change (Fields of change + How we relate to future change) – apply HERE!
If you are interested in checking the tools which will be presented within the webinar series, you can explore and download the resources from our Futures Toolbox.
Webinar recording
If you would like to watch the webinar recording, please do check it out down below: