The 3rd European Academy on Youth Work focused on emerging trends and developments and their impact on youth work.

 

Main questions the EAYW was exploring were:

  • What will youth work look like in the future?
  • How can we get ready for futures thinking?
  • How can we act, plan and envision for a future of youth work we don’t know?

 

The specific objectives of the 3rd EAYW were to support knowledge-building, peer learning and networking to:

  1. Jointly explore emerging trends and future developments and discuss their possible impact on youth work;
  2. Showcase and mainstream a variety of innovative practices, approaches and strategies developed in response to these developments and
  3. Foster networking and innovative thinking about the futures of youth work within the community.

Main Activities and Outcomes

3rd Residential EAYW Event

200 professionals from different fields of European youth work, youth policy and research took part in the EAYW event, which was held from 14 – 17 May 2024 in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.

The programme included:

  • 25 practice and reflection forums and workshops based on presentations of innovative practices selected in the frame of a public call;
  • Inspiring inputs and discussions of key questions related to innovation, current and future trends and developments, which should help to address the needs of youth work in different environments and build the capacities for innovative approaches of the participants and their organisations;
  • Presentation of the EAYW research: Futures of Youth Work – Potential Future Scenarios and validation of the research outcomes by the participants;
  • Spaces for community-building, networking and joint reflection about futures of youth work;
  • Outcomes of the discussions and suggestions for follow up that can help to build the knowledge and capacities of the youth work field to respond to new needs and developments.

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Practice and Reflection Forums

Descriptions and materials from all forums can be found HERE.

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Presentations

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Creating New Futures

Input by Adanna Shallowe about futures foresight. What is futures foresight, how is it being used, and why is this approach important? How can it help us take meaningful decisions and develop strategies in different fields today? Who decides on our future, and how can we get engaged with it?

Adanna Shallowe is an international affairs analyst, a skilled network weaver and facilitator. As a foresight practitioner, Adanna co-authored a research report entitled A Stitch in Time: Realising the value of futures & foresight. She is passionate about employing foresight tools to empower everyone to create more just and equitable futures for their communities and societies. 

Video

Presentation slides

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Futures of Youth Work

Presentation by Özgehan Şenyuva and Aleksandra Szymczyk of the outcomes of the Futures of Youth Work research project that was undertaken by the EAYW over the past ten months. You can hear about the different scenarios of youth work in different time horizons until 2050 that have come out of this collaborative research. How will youth work develop in the coming years? What emerging trends and developments can we already see or sense today? The session also offered the opportunity to reflect on the connections between the possible futures and the present realities of youth work.

Özgehan Şenyuva is an Associate Professor in the International Relations Department at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, where he works extensively on youth, public opinion, Türkiye-European relations and the politics of European football.
Aleksandra Szymczyk is a Research Associate at Policy Evaluation and Research Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has been conducting research and co-authored publications on topics related to child and youth well-being.

Video

Presentation slides

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Futures of Youth Work – emerging messages, key questions and insights

In this presentation, Gisele Evrard, one of the researchers in the Futures of Youth Work project, is sharing what are the emerging messages, key questions and insights from the research.

Gisele Evrard is a professional in Gestalt therapy, systemic and family constellations, with extensive experience in the field of European youth work and training, focusing on teams and organisations development processes, training and coaching and facilitation of learning.

Video

Presentation slides

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How to Prepare Students for Becoming Youth Workers

Outcomes of mini-research project on the topic of how to prepare students for their work in youth work. The research was carried out by 20 students from 5 universities during the EAYW event.

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Webinars

Webinar 3: Looking Forward, Together (12 September 2024)

After two webinars and a very lively residential EAYW event in May, the Academy team shared the outcomes and key insights from the 3rd European Academy on Youth Work event that took place in May 2024 in Slovenia. We also looked into the strategies proposed by the Futures of Youth Work research team to deal with the unknown and use future-thinking in our daily work.

Seven strategies for future-readiness (webinar presentation)

Visual summary of webinar 3

Article about webinar 3

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Webinar 2: How Future-Ready Are You? (18 April 2024)

In this webinar, we looked into our relationship with the future and our current strategies to deal with the unknown.

Visual summary of webinar 2

Video recording of webinar 2

Article about webinar 2

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Webinar 1: Futures of Youth Work (21 March 2024)

The first online event of the 3rd European Academy on Youth Work gathered actors in the youth field to hear about and discuss the first outcomes of the EAYW future foresight research, which started in autumn 2023 and explores the Futures of Youth Work.

Visual summary of webinar 1

Video recording of webinar 1

Article about webinar 1

Click on the image to read the report. If you would like to read the report on your computer, you can also open it in spread format (see two pages at a time) HERE.

Futures of Youth Work

Futures of Youth Work is collaborative research project – An investment of the EAYW into futures thinking using foresight methodology that aims to consider and shape the future of youth work in ways that align with the needs of a fast-changing world. Futures of Youth Work explored emerging and future developments of relevance for young people and youth work and developed scenarios for youth work in the future.

More Info and Final Research Report

Innovation+

InnovationPlus wants specifically to strengthen the innovative dimension of Erasmus+ projects. The project includes the Innovation+ Toolbox on the topic of innovation throughout the different stages of project development, implementation and evaluation addressed to project organisers as well as the Innovation+ workshop module for a one-day workshop on the topic to be implemented in particular by National Agencies in their national context.