<< Objectives >>Within the last years the community of educational practitioners and therefore also implemented projects in the field of non-formal education & international youth work was growing enormously. This goes along side the observation of many individual “trainers” starting up their educational practice as a (professional) life path and as a source of income. Nevertheless we are convinced that projects - and therefor us as the ones implementing them with young people and our cooperation partners - often lack reflection, knowledge, awareness & consciousness about a simple but crucial question, namely how to create and shape learning in order to define & achieve impact (individual, organisational and systemic) in cooperation with the target group(s). Or - as a thesis - in order to be able to achieve (and to measure) impact we have to really understand learning.Therefore the overall project foresees a series of educational events to discuss, share, build on & focus on key topics that interest the members of this consortium (organisations) but also support active individuals in developing further their profiles as individual educators. We would like this group to become more valuable for each of us and we believe there is probably no easier way to connect people than to have them meet online & offline and work together for a common purpose. We will develop for & with the group of partners a tailor-made series of European seminars & trainings which aim to provide a concrete profile for the group but also can serve as a reference of quality as educational practitioner. The seminars & trainings will foster the profile of people & organisations and will build on your experiences and needs as educational practitioners but also develops a concrete schedule for providing an overarching horizon of developing competences in the field of (European youth) education.Finally we would like to make available academic and other knowledge that is sometimes not available to certain groups of our society because the formal system excludes certain groups. This project is an attempt in offering training to a target that would otherwise not be able to acquire this type of experience. And secondly we believe that this project, as it is operating under non-formal settings, allows for a much closer learner centered approach and thus allows for a more sustainable and lasting impact. << Activities >>This project will implement 4 residential meetings for 30 participants from all over the European Union and neighbouring partner countries including 3 transitional phases in which further facilitated research is being conducted. This project will involve 30 multipliers, youth leaders, NGO activists, educators, young entrepreneurs, social workers who would like to increase their skill in offering qualitative learning spaces for young people and being able to measure the impact professionally. This project will additionally reach 300 individuals on local level reached through local activities in T3. All activities will operate in the frame of non-formal education and include learner participation and reflection in all relevant stages of the project. << Impact >>This project intends to significantly increase the quality of learning spaces being offered by non-formal educational actors. This will increase the quality and impact of the partners of this project to reach their target group with their respective mission. Non-formal educational activities will become more professional and measurable. We would like to increase significantly understanding of impact measurement and the implementation of measuring impact in general. Local communities will see a more professional NGO activism that can truly support and inspire young people. We also expect the participating organizations to deepen their collaboration in order to implement bigger projects.

"<< Background >>The Strategic Partnership “Network for the active improvement of Youth Work” (NAIYW) takes place in the context of a 5 year-lasting programme called “Generation Europe: The Academy” (GenE:A). 45 European youth work organisations from 16 EU-countries work together in trilateral partnerships and in various working groups with the aim, to improve youth work structures and capabilities in Europe. One of the aims behind this is to support organisations to excite youths with fewer opportunities to become active on local and European level according to the concept of Critical Youth Citizenship.To support this, the official Partners of NAIYW will actively involve in and contribute to the Bonn-Process and make it feasible also for the associated partners for their work on local level. The aim is to connect local and European youth work by supporting local structures. This will be done, among other activities, by collecting best practices, by working on strategies for lobby and advocacy work, by training professionals, and by disseminating the results. Further, the inter-level-connection will be strengthened by finding a common language for ""non-formal civic education'', inventing and improving participatory methodology for diverse target groups, and connecting local youth work with European strategy instruments.NAIYW systematically builds on the results of the project ""Network for Active European Citizenship” (NAEC, 2018-2-DE04-KA205-016959), thus making this project even more sustainable. The experiences gained there and especially the developed products ""Guidance Papers'' and ""Methodbox'' are the starting point for NAIYW.Based on research, the Guidance Papers describe the conditions and needs of youth and youth policy in the countries of the (associated) partners of NAEC. During the process the network realized that youth work organisations are often not used to doing advocacy and lobbying for their needs and for the field of youth work in general. However, this is necessary for recognition of youth work and youth work organisations as well as for real improvement in the field.Further, the Guidance Papers identified the following shortcomings of youth work and in youth policy:- a lack of structured and long term youth work in the local communities and therefore a lack of networking in the european youth work- a lack of support from policy makers to the youth sector- lack of support for the youth work organisations during and in the aftermath of the covid-19-pandeminc on several levels (mental health, economic, guidelines how to start again, pedagogical level...)- lack of representation of the sector youth work on a local and international level- lack of exchange/share of experience and best practice of lobbying for the youth sectors.Additionally, the work over the Methodbox revealed the following needs in local and european activities in the field of non- formal education:- lack of appropriate tools and methods for value-based education in terms of Critical Youth Citizenship (CYC),- lack of understanding of participatory and inclusive pedagogical approaches by local youth workers.All activities of NAIYW are dedicated to address the above-mentioned needs and to develop new strategies on how to deal with them.Task Forces (Professionals from the 11 project partners who are in the same time being active in the network of GenE:A) will work on the aims in the frame of the project for and with the associated partners in the network GenE:A. Further they will open results up to the community of practice (COP) (including the fields of science and political and institutional levels) beyond the concrete network.<< Objectives >>The Network for the Active Improvement of Youth Work (NAIYW) takes place in the frame of a 5 years lasting programme called Generation Europe: The Academy (GenE:A). During GenE:A, 45 European youth work organisations from 16 EU-countries work together in trilateral partnerships and in various working groups (for example, Generation Europe: The Ambassadors, 2020-3-DE04-KA205-02058) with the aim to support the inclusion of all young persons and especially of those with fewer opportunities in activities of international youth work, explicitly in international projects that work on the topics of Critical Youth Citizenship (CYC) and European values. Moreover, GenE:A aims to provide inclusive and qualitative non-formal civic education for youth with fewer opportunities. The way to achieve this is to stimulate a European exchange with young people about European values, solidarity and CYC. Thus, GenE:A is coherent with the EU Youth Strategy and supports the implementation of its core ideas and objectives. Eventually, GenE:A aims for quality development of youth work, professional development of youth workers, as well as for strengthening international youth work and its recognition.More specifically, NAIYW sets as main objectives of its work (also in line with the national priority set by the National Agency in Germany) to be committed to recognition, innovation and development of the youth sector in a qualitative way in this post-pandemic period and to support and implement the EYWA (European Youth Work Agenda) as well as the Bonn Process on different levels.In particular, this strategic partnership with its implementation and with the development of the project results (see section below), will achieve to ensure the connection of local and European youth work and a long term support for youth work, on three main dimensions (these main aims will be specified in the project description):InclusionNAIYW will allow the exchange and support of the professional multi-level experiences (educators, youth workers, psychologist, sociologists), within the official and associated partners and indirectly within their local and national community. The dialogue is directly connected to the needs of the community of practice and the direct experiences from different European local communities. This also ensures that the needs of youth work organisations and young people are heard and further solved.Recognition of youth work on a local, national and European levelNAIYW will contribute to the increase and development of youth work by supporting the Community of Practice in its dialogue with stakeholders, coordinating actions, and motivating to bring youth work to the political level through strategic advocacy or lobbying. By training the associated partners, they are encouraged to work for the improvement of youth work conditions at local, national and European level. Moreover, NAIYW will inspire the associated partners and indirectly their local and national community to get involved in the EYWA / Bonn Process in a strategic way and as a common European Process. Lastly, NAIYW will promote non-formal European civic education activities and their value for supporting democratic culture on local, national and European level.Development of youth work qualityNAIYW will provide long term instruments to maintain and guarantee the quality of youth work at the local, national and European level, will contribute to the international dialogue on non-formal civic education and stress its role in democratic societies. Further, it will support with practical know-how the activities with the target group in order to improve and develop the local work. Eventually, NAIYW will develop a concept on non-formal european civic education to be used within the youth work of the associated partners and to be used as an experiential document in the international dialogue on non-formal activities about CYC and “Politische Bildung''.<< Implementation >>To achieve the goals, many activities are building the project structure. They can be summarised as follows:Preparatory activitiesThe implementation of an in-depth survey to better understand the status quo and the needs of the project partners and the associated partners will be carried out in the very beginning of NAIYW. The Survey will build on the recommendations described in the Guidance Papers and also on the learnings from developing the Methodbox. The survey is a starting point to adjust all further project activities and the concrete project results.Project management and monitoring activitiesSeven Transnational Meetings will be organised. Most meetings will take place within the Task Forces. During the meetings, the project partners will focus on project management within their defined area of responsibility. Beyond these meetings, the detailed plans are regularly brought together: Transnational meetings in which all task forces (being built with members from all project partners) come together for general decision-making, monitoring and planning steps of the overall NAIYW project. In addition, there were and will be numerous other digital or presence meetings financed by other sources within the task forces (see Management section).Feedback loops and other activities with the associated partners from the GenE:A networkHere the annual 5-day GenE conferences and interface activities with the young professionals from the Ambassador Network (2020-3-DE04-KA205-020581) and the associated competence group shall be mentioned. Also we will evolve and include feedback from early Pilot Workshops and Trainings to strengthen the concepts for the LTTAs.Communication with the youth work world outside the GenE:A networkActive involvement in conferences, meetings, political events and committees especially on the Bonn Process (all funded from other sources) is planned.Learning, Teaching and Training Activities.Trainings: Building up on the Methodbox as a concrete result of 2018-2-DE04-KA205-016959, a Task Force will develop and execute two seven days lasting training sessions for project partners and associated partners. Methods and tools for non-formal civic and value-based education will be collected, adapted and often developed completely new. The training will enable the participants to initiate, implement and exchange context- and needs-based solutions in youth work, to facilitate educational activities for youth with fewer opportunities based on principles of CYC.Workshops: A concrete result of NAIYW will be a manual for advocacy and lobby work in youth work. A corresponding series of four workshops will be developed and offered as LTTA within the framework of NAIYW. Later, the workshop concept and the manual will be published and offered as part of NAIYW's dissemination strategy (see below).Multiplier Events (MEs)A series of MEs will take the project results far beyond the circle of official and associated partners and reach the larger COP. One project partner from each project country will organise an ME. Target groups are professional youth workers from other organisations in the region. Additionally, there will be MEs organised by the coordinating organisation IBB. They will be in an international context, inviting international representatives of the COP.Activities in the Field of Youth PolicyTogether with the connected project GenE:A the strategic partnership implements further activities (funded by other sources) to engage in a constructive, empathetic, and versed way with the power of all (associated) partners in the Bonn Process and to motivate the associated partners of the GenE:A Network to engage as well.<< Results >>During its 23 months, NAIYW will reach different results to address current needs of European youth work (see section above).NAIYW will create three concrete products, along the lines of the objectives of the Bonn Process: ensuring a long term support for the youth work on professional level, giving long term instruments to ensure the quality of youth work and promoting the recognition of the youth work on local, national and european level.The products will be created with the support of the associated partners and youths. There will be a constant exchange within the official partners, associated partners and youths to assure the inclusion of their perspectives. This cooperation will strengthen the quality of the final products.Collection of Booklets on participation and inclusionThe five booklets will focus on: supporting the motivation and engagements of local groups in civic education and in the participatory process, making the local youth work inclusive and connected with European values and activities, creating long term and strategic structures for youth work and supporting mental health practice in uncertain post pandemic times. At the end of the project, these booklets will be gathered in one collection. The collection will be a support and source for the community of practice in order to help them in their work on European non- formal civic education on different levels. Moreover, the collection will support the work on a local level with methods and practices. This product will bring structure to the community of youth work, will develop and innovate the quality of its work.Paper on civic educationThis paper will be the result of research, discussion and exchange within the groups of official and associated partners and also external experts about existing concepts of non-formal civic education in Europe. The paper on civic education aims to connect European values with non-formal activities. It will be the basis for the methodology of the booklets and for the associated partner’s activities with the target group. Moreover, it will be used to promote non-formal European education activities and their value, to support democratic culture in local communities and on national and European level. Manual for lobbying in Youth WorkThe Manual shows a strategic process that youth work organisations can follow to make advocacy for their own work (mostly on local level) and for youth work policy on European level, in a network of practice. Moreover, it shows how to lobby for concrete changes in local communities: giving advice on how to implement the European Youth Work Agenda on a local level, giving advice on how to connect with existing networks and structures on a European level and mapping a European Stakeholder-Schema. Additionally, a series of workshops for the associated partners is going to be developed in a parallel process of mutual adjustment loops.NAIYW also expects through the training to make projects on CYC accessible and attractive for diverse target groups. With its associated partners, NAIYW integrates substantially different youth work organisations and thus holds great potential for the professional exchange about how to make non-formal civic education more inclusive. NAIYW will include policy makers from different political levels to promote the dialogue between them and youth work organisations: we expect to raise the interest in supporting further projects in the regions to become an active part of a European network that works on a common strategy.Eventually, by the combination of the GenE:A and the strategic partnership we aim to improve the accessibility of international projects in the field of CYC for youths with fewer opportunities."