With around 90 participants, youth policy priorities in international youth work were discussed. In addition to speeches by Bettina Bundszus (Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth), Andreas Karsten (RAY - Research-based analysis of European youth programs) and Federal Minister of Youth Anne Spiegel as well as an outlook by Hans-Georg Wicke (YOUTH for Europe), the participants could choose between different workshops. In addition to Challenge accepted - Europe, workshops were offered on the topics of "Strengthening and further development of Youth Work - Possibilities for shaping the Bonn Process in Germany", EU Youth Dialogue and "European and International Youth Work in the Municipality".
The event was organized by JUGEND für Europa in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
"Challenge accepted - Europe" with its own workshop
Together with GOEUROPE!/EJBM, IJAB presented the project to interested youth workers: The project idea developed from the question of which topics are relevant for young people in Europe, which challenges are associated with them and how one can exchange about them on an international platform. Via screen sharing, the participants were shown the structure of the platform and given the opportunity to try it out for themselves and ask questions. For this purpose, they developed their own activity on the platform and were given the opportunity to test the challenges on the topics of migration, sustainability, feminism and mental health.
Discussion showed potential
In the discussion that followed, it became clear that developments in the area of digitalization during the pandemic offered many potentials that will also be effective after the pandemic. Professionals reported that young people continue to be interested in digital projects and tools, even sometimes more so than in face-to-face events. Everyone agreed that diverse, low-threshold and voluntary participation opportunities for young people - as in the Challenge accepted - Europe project - are of great importance for international youth work. Positive feedback on the platform was that the ability to quickly expand the playlists makes it possible to "keep up" with the topics. Also, the mobile version of Challenge accepted - Europe offers more possibilities of use and possibly reaches an even larger circle of participants. It would be important to anchor such projects sustainably and structurally in international youth work in order to enable a long-term development process.
Challenges
Furthermore, the experts point out that a linkage of Challenge accepted - Europe to existing projects such as the Youth Dialogue could be useful in order to establish new cooperations and to reach more young people. The issue of underfunding and lack of planning security for projects was criticized, as anchoring at many levels would be more sensible and effective in order to exploit the full potential of the projects. There was a lack of structural expansion of some projects. The possibilities and potentials can thus often not be exploited.
Conclusion
The event offered many opportunities to talk with professionals from international youth work and to discuss the potentials or challenges of current and future youth work. The Corona crisis and the current refugee flows from Ukraine have become a big task. Perhaps there is a need for a stronger reflexive phase and more exchange about the profession and the developments of International Youth Work in order to be able to cope with the current and future challenges. A time of crises is also a time of growth. The European Year of Youth can contribute to strengthen young people and youth work to better perceive the needs of this generation and to initiate structural changes at all levels of society in Europe.
