Newsletter 2 (December 2015) Dear reader, The team of the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth (EU-CoE youth partnership) is glad to present you this new edition of our newsletter, where you will find information on the recent developments of our programme and an outlook towards our future activities.
Partnership Management Board On 9 December the two partner institutions, represented by Director for Youth and Sport Antonio Silva Mendes (European Commission) and Acting-Director for Democratic Citizenship and Participation, Sjur Bergan (Council of Europe) agreed on the work plan of the EU-CoE youth partnership for 2016, in line with the three-year framework agreement, which is running until the end of next year. The 2016 work plan will continuously focus on youth participation and social inclusion, promotion of knowledge based policy and practice, support of youth work, with a geographical focus on the Western Balkans. Discussions between the two partner institutions concerning the new framework agreement will start early next year... Seminar “Beyond barriers to social inclusion in South East Europe context” (Mostar, 27-29 October) The seminar “Beyond barriers to social inclusion in South East Europe context” (Mostar, 27-29 October), under the Chairmanship of Bosnia and Herzegovina of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe was prepared in the framework of the geographical priorities of the EU-CoE youth partnership, taking into account the results of the thematic activities on this topic. The seminar gathered 50 participants involved in policy, research or practice to exchange on the most relevant barriers to social inclusion in South-East Europe in order to discuss ways to
overcome them. Participants highlighted the need for more opportunities for actors in the field of youth to meet and exchange across the region.
They called for political commitment to youth policy implementation and for support to mainstreaming successful bottom-up initiatives such as local youth club networks, personalized approaches to social inclusion, more research and more updated data on the situation of young people in SEE. Involvement of local authorities in implementing youth policy and involvement of young people in municipal councils was seen as a crucial step to making social inclusion of young people an agenda item in the contexts closest to their living realities. Finally, there was agreement that new answers are needed to the challenges that young people face in their transition to autonomy, requiring commitment across all national and local services. A background paper was prepared by Dunja Potocnik from the Pool of European Youth Researchers (PEYR), highlighting the situation of young people and youth policy in SEE. The paper and all the presentations from the seminar are on the EU-CoE youth partnership webpage page.
Bi-annual Conference of the European Platform on Learning Mobility (EPLM) On 7-9 December 2015 the conference “Learning Mobility in the Youth Field: Towards Opportunities for all - Evidence, experience, discourse� tool place in Istanbul, Turkey. Gathering more than 100 policy makers, researchers, and practitioners, and preceded by a meeting of researchers, the conference aimed at exploring not only what hinders learning mobility or what influences its schemes and structures, but also at going a step further in looking at existing supporting opportunities that have proven to contribute to inclusive learning mobility schemes. The objectives of the conference were to explore learning mobility in the youth field from an inclusion standpoint and to address the topic of inclusion from two perspectives, i.e. analysing whether learning mobility
in the youth field is a tool for inclusion; and considering the level of inclusiveness of existing learning mobility schemes in the youth field.
The Coyote magazine editorial team prepared during the conference a dedicated edition on learning mobility of the publication, while a dedicated issue of the Youth Knowledge Books is in the pipeline and due in 2016. The event was organised in cooperation with the Turkish, French and German National Agencies for Erasmus+/Youth in Action. More information on the conference is available here, where the report of the event will be soon published. More information on the EPLM at large can be found here.
European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy The European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy (EKCYP) is an on-line database intended to provide the youth sector with a single access point to reliable knowledge and information about young people's situation across Europe. EKCYP aims at enhancing knowledge transfers between the fields of research, policy and practice through the collection and dissemination of information about youth policy, research and practice in Europe and beyond. Based on the EKCYP information templates on social inclusion that were submitted by 21 Member States between 2013 and 2015, an updated summary report has been produced. The report is available in the EKCYP at the page available here. The EKCYP website is currently being reviewed to make it more user-friendly.
Analytical Paper on Learning Mobility Authored by the researcher David Cairns, the analytical paper “Learning Mobility and Social Inclusion” was published recently on the EU-CoE youth partnership website. The paper argues that “social inclusion is an issue that needs to be recognised as a major risk factor in the lives of many young people across Europe [and] may be multiplying and diversifying. In looking for a viable means of creating and sustaining youth social inclusion, involvement in transnational mobility initiatives of a non-formal nature provides a means of enhancing skills and capabilities”.
The complete paper can be found here. The EU-CoE youth partnership commissions regularly analytical papers on different subjects relevant to the work plan.
Peer-Learning on Cross-sectoral Cooperation Throughout 2015, the EU-CoE youth partnership has supported a peerlearning exercise among member states of the European Union around the theme of cross-sectoral cooperation. In this framework, a second seminar, organised by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia and by the Latvian Agency for International Programs for Youth was organised on 11-13 November in Riga. As in the first seminar (Luxembourg 15-18 June) participants were national policymakers in the field of youth with an actual experience on crosssectorial youth policy making, representatives of European Institutions in the youth field, and national and international experts on the topic. Magda Nico’s (PEYR) study on cross-sectoral youth policy, mentioned in the last edition of this newsletter, was commissioned by the EU-CoE youth partnership and is available here. Marti Taru, member of the Pool of European Youth Researchers (coordinated by the team of the EU-CoE youth partnership), was responsible for drafting the report of the whole exercise. This report is available here. Symposium on Youth Participation in the Digitalised World Main activity of the 2015 work plan of the EU-CoE youth partnership, the Symposium, which took place at the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe in Budapest (EYCB) on 14-16 September 2015 was also an occasion to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the EYCB. The symposium was opened by the EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Mr Tibor Navracsics, the Director General for Democracy of the Council of Europe, Ms Snežana Samardžić-Marković, and Mr László Szabó, Parliamentary State Secretary and Deputy Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Hungary. The Symposium allowed deepening the reflections on youth participation and the future of democracies in the digital era, on chances and risks stemming from these developments that young people are facing. It came up with some key messages to policy and practice in four major areas: Education and employment; labour market; communication and democracy; and participation. In a nutshell those messages are a) promoting all forms of participation, on-and offline, in all spheres of live; b) providing blended learning opportunities, digital and non-digital, formal, non-formal and informal;
c) addressing all young people, including the marginalised and hard to reach; d) exploring the role of youth work in supporting young people to master the digital age.
Next to the 120 participants in EYCB many other interested people participated online, via a streaming system and the twitter account of the EU-CoE youth partnership and its Facebook page. The report of the symposium will be available shortly. The Facebook page of the symposium is visible online here. The key messages of participants are also available online in the webpage of the symposium within the EUCoE youth partnership page, where one can also find all presentations, working documents and materials produced.
Annual meetings of the members of the Pool of European Youth Researchers (PEYR) and the correspondents of the European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy (EKCYP) In connection with the Symposium on youth participation in the digitalised world, the annual meeting of the Pool of European Youth Researchers and of the EKCYP correspondents took place at the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe in Budapest. The 25 researchers of PEYR gathered and discussed about their respective fields of expertise, evaluated current working methods and put forward suggestions for furthering research on youth in the framework of the EU-
CoE youth partnership work plan. The correspondents of EKCYP, in turn, assessed the current cooperation on the European Knowledge Centre and were informed about the current developments of the EU's Youth WIKI tool. In this regard, ways to pursue a successful synergy were sought for. The current members of PEYR are selected until the end of 2016. EKCYP correspondents are appointed by their respective governments for a duration of up to 3 years (prolongable). Training Course in Youth Policy A first residential seminar of the 2nd training course on participatory and knowledge based youth policy was held in Bremen, Germany, on 7-9 September in cooperation with the Erasmus+ / Youth in Action National Agencies of Germany and Turkey. 6 countries (Armenia, Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Serbia, and Turkey) have appointed 4-5 participants each, representing practitioners, policy makers and researchers to learn more about the process of youth policy making. The curriculum of the training course can be found here.
Expert Group on Recognition The importance of youth work and non-formal and informal learning in the European youth field is reflected in the strategies and priorities of both partner institutions. The EU-CoE youth partnership plays a coordinating role in diverse efforts to achieve their better visibility and understanding, within and beyond the youth field, in line with the renewed “Pathways 2.0 towards recognition” paper of 2011. On 21 October 2015, with the coordination of the EU-CoE youth partnership, the expert group on recognition of youth work and non-formal education and learning met on the premises of the Council of Europe office in Brussels to exchange ideas on the recent developments in the field and discuss of possible synergies for further actions. The report of the work of the group is available on the EU-CoE youth partnership website. After its revision the concept paper on the mandate of the group and the full report on activities 2011-2015 will also be made available in due time.
List of Publications in 2015 The EU-CoE youth partnership is responsible for publishing several series: • Coyote magazine, presenting in accessible manner topics of actuality and relevance to the European youth field, in particular youth work and training; • Training Kits, practical manuals on a variety of topics relevant in particular for youth workers and trainers;
• Youth knowledge series, stemming from youth research, as well as youth policy and youth work practice: Youth Knowledge Books that share conceptual reflections (published since 2004) and Perspectives on Youth, a forward-looking series which seeks new trends that impact young people in Europe and beyond (published since 2014); the two series will be soon merged. Besides, analytical papers on priority issues are published in cooperation with experts from the PEYR and from other networks. Below, the publications that have recently either made available via the EU-CoE youth partnership or with the indication of the expected date of publication. Youth Knowledge Books
History of youth work, Vol.5 Dec 2015 Perspectives on Youth “Healthy Europe?” Issue #3 Dec 2015 Perspectives on Youth "Connections - Disconnections" Issue #2 published in French and German in December 2015 Coyote 2nd European Youth Work Convention #23 2015 EPLM conference Coyote 24 Spring 2016 T-Kits T-Kit 12 Youth transforming conflict reprinted T-Kit 11 Mosaic – Euro-Mediterranean Youth Work reprinted
Publications in the framework of geographical activities Youth Policy Manual EN-ARABIC Dec 2015 Youth Policy Manual EN-RUSSIAN Dec 2015
Dec
Analytical papers / policy briefs: Analytical paper summarizing the state of affairs in the debates around the topic of participation in the digitalized world and stating further needs for policy and practice Analytical paper on cross-sectorial youth policy Yearly report on developments in terms of recognition of youth work and non-formal learning Other materials related to youth work and non-formal learning / education Analytical paper on the European Platform on Learning Mobility Final report and consolidated curriculum of the first youth policy training course The papers are available online under the respective activities areas of the EU-CoE youth partnership website.
News from the EU-CoE Youth Partnership Team The team was recently reinforced by the arrival of Tanya Basarab as youth research and policy officer. Tanya has been active in several policy fields from community development, social and anti-poverty policy to youth policy and youth work development at various levels. She spent four years with the European Youth Forum developing national youth work and youth policy in Europe and has contributed to European debates on democracy, participation and the role of civil society. The team of the partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth takes this opportunity to wish all readers splendid festivities and a successful new year 2016.