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Reality of youth work

Funder: European CommissionProject code: 2020-1-LV02-KA105-003026
Funded under: ERASMUS+ | Learning Mobility of Individuals | Youth mobility Funder Contribution: 20,307.7 EUR

Reality of youth work

Description

"<< Objectives >>Nowadays youth work plays a very important role for youth development. Youth work encompasses a broad range of activities (social, cultural, educational, sports-related and political) carried out with, by and for young people through nonformal and informal learning. Youth work provides out-of-school education, as well as leisure activities managed by professional or voluntary youth workers and youth leaders. During the Erasmus + project in Malta in 2019 some of partners met together, discussed the necessity of this project, where participants could see, discuss and exchange the good practices of youth work, to share experiences, to learn from each other and in this way to develop youth work in Programme and Partners countries. The main AIM of the project ""Reality of Youth Work"" was to present youth work in Latvia, exchange of experience with partners, improve working methods with youth from different backgrounds and strengthen cooperation of Programme and Partner countries in the field of youth. Project was for youth workers, leaders, municipality representatives from the youth departments from Programme and Partner countries. Partner countries gave the added value for the project as the youth work in Partner countries is less developed and participants learned from the best practices and used it for the development of youth work in their realities.Participants of this study visit also got a chance to build partnerships and plan new joint initiatives. Moreover, there was an opportunity to learn from the local youth initiatives, as well as to share the best practices in terms of successful youth engagement in Europe.Objectives of the study visit were following:•To learn about the reality of youth work in Latvia, Latgale region;•To support understanding of youth work realities of participating countries;•To improve working methods of organizations with youth from different backgrounds;•To learn about youth work in towns and rural area and to compare them;•To foster partnership building between organizations from Programme and Partner countries;•To explore the added value of the European dimension of youth initiatives;•To facilitate the acquisition by participants of communication, teamwork and project management skills of internationalactivities and networking;•To understand the impact and social change a youth center can have within the local community;•To increase the strategic thinking of youth workers in order to create long-term interventions for personal andprofessional development of young people.<< Implementation >>Project was for youth workers, leaders, municipality representatives from the youth departments from Programme and Partner countries. European Association ""World-Our Home"" hosted 29 participants from 12 organizations from - Azerbaijan, Jordan, Spain, Georgia, Israel, Moldova, Germany, Russian Federation, Greece, Croatia, Portugal and Latvia. Partner countries gave the added value for the project as the youth work in Partner countries is less developed and participants could learn from the best practices and use the gained knowledge for the development of youth work in their countries. Participants of this study visit also got a chance to build partnerships and to plan new joint initiatives. Moreover, there was an opportunity to learn from the local youth initiatives, as well as to share the best practices in terms of successful youth engagement in Europe.In Study Visit there were used the following non-formal education methods: the main methods were study visits to the different youth centers, meetings with young people, deputies, youth workers; interactive real-life learning experience; follow-up project development, networking, discussions and understanding of reality of youth work in Latvia, Latgale region; the acquaintance activities - the individual, couple and group tasks, which aim was to let participants to get to know each other closer - the names, interests, occupations, role in the organization, motivation to participate in the project, etc.; the ""ice breakers"" - activities in the groups which were carried out at the beginning of a project to break the ice between participants and create a positive atmosphere in the group; the team building activities which made an attractive way to join the group; brainstorming, during these activities participants generated a lot of ideas on the subject of the project; there were short activities (energizers) to give the energy to participants, especially in the morning, presentations, speeches; the intercultural evening during which every group presented their country and its culture to other national teams; as well as round-table discussions, debates, workshops, evaluations, reflection time.<< Results >>Through this project we wanted to show the participants our work with youth in Latvia and Latgale region. Youth policy in Latvia is quite developed and recognized and we wanted to share our experience and good ideas with partners from Partner and Programme countries. The project had the impact on all the target groups - project participants, partner organizations and young people with whom youth workers/participants involved in the project are working. Study Visit was organized with the aim to give participants the experience, knowledge, tools, examples how to improve the youth work, how to improve their professional and personal skills and at the same time to meet new colleagues from different countries, to learn from the good examples of youth work in Latvia, Latgale region. Project had an immediate impact on all the participants providing them with the international experience, new ideas, knowledge and skills that will help them in arranging and organizing the qualitative youth work at local and international level. Project participants got new ideas for innovations in their work from the study visit, which had impact on the participating organizations for more successful work with young people. Furthermore, all the participants were youth workers who are directly involved into youth work and youth programs in their own countries. In this way all the knowledge and experience gained in the project were shared with youth throughout their work in organizations in their native countries. So the main target groups were young people and their youth workers from European and partner countries.We saw a clear need for more cross border discussions, study visits and peer learning, especially for organizations from Partner countries, on how to work with systematic quality development in youth work. We wanted to make this project for strengthening the trust and building a real partnership at the international, national and regional levels to foster mutual respect, tolerance and understanding and learn from each other as well from our best practices. As a result of the project participants improved their competences, linked to their professional profiles such as youth work, knowledge and skills in Erasmus + programme. Participants saw the good practice in work with youth, working methods in Latvia, Latgale region and in such way every participant got a lot of practical advises and skills by the methods of non-formal education. Youth workers learned how to understand youth with fewer opportunities better and to facilitate them to their personal, social and educational development. They learned from each other and learn from the good practices in youth work. Participants recognized their own strengths and weaknesses in the work with youth. They were able to reach more young people, to understand their needs and to recognize the problems. Participants developed their management skills, creativity, got relevant knowledge, skills, experience, as well as they built a strong partnership among their organizations with the aim to work successfully together in the field of youth and in Erasmus+ programme."

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