<< Objectives >>Goal: Assuring equal access to quality and sustainable youth work, in geographically isolated, rural areas and disadvantaged neighborhoods.Objectives:Assess the current situation (practices, models, resources, research of needs and recommendations)Contribute towards creation of equal opportunities (creation of specialized learning opportunities and development of new models)Give access to quality and sustainable youth work (implementing learning activities and creating inclusive youth work)<< Implementation >>- Setting the ground - Joint Study and Joint Research report - Unfurling ways - Development of a curriculum and materials for training and Development of a youth work model - Capacity building - Implementation of training and Piloting a rural youth work model<< Results >>- Created Study of existing practices, models, and (educational) resources- Created Joint Research Report on the needs of the young people and youth workers working in targeted communities- Developed curriculum for Rural Youth Work training course- Developed Inclusive Youth Work Model- Implemented training for Rural Youth Workers based on the developed curriculum- Piloted Inclusive Youth Work model in three communities in the three partner countries

Youth work is being increasingly formalised and politicised. As it gets called on to solve deeper structural challenges societies face, the focus of youth work policy and practice shifts away from the needs of young people themselves, particularly of young people with fewer opportunities. The priorities and topics in youth work seem to change fast, along with sets of elaborate indicators and outcomes that youth work should produce, with little time given to reflect on transformative nature of youth work, approaches used and lessons learned from them.One of the consequences of this is that youth work becomes dependent on interventionist measures demanded by policy makers, and the funds it receives are directly affected by the (in)ability to deliver. This contributes to an ever growing disconnection between the purpose and mission of youth work and the expectations of outcomes, affecting the retainment of professionals in the field and the quality of youth work services that young people receive. This is especially concerning where it leads to shrinking spaces for social inclusion work.This project aims to promote long-term and inclusive 'slow' youth work policy and practice in partner countries and across Europe by initiating a deeper discussion on and delivering responses to the prevalent outcomes-oriented youth work approaches. The objectives of the project are to (1) to identify the implications and impact of outcomes-oriented youth work on experiences of youth work of young people and youth work professionals; (2) to develop and promote the idea and practice of 'slow' youth work focused around holistic, youth-centred, Deep Value-based, long-term thinking about youth work in diverse contexts; (3) to support youth work professionals in developing a language for expressing the value of youth work beyond the quantifiable indicators; (4) to contribute to better evidence-based policy making in the youth field and to promote better youth work practice by disseminating project's results to interested and affected parties; (5) to advance the capacity in youth interest advocacy of all involved organisations through forging new partnerships and alliances.The project will bring together ContextEd from Latvia, Union for Youth Work from North Macedonia, Beyond 96 Youth Club from Ireland, and five associate partner organisations representing youth work professionals, youth interest advocates, and youth work researchers from the respective countries. The main outputs of this collaboration will be a Research Report on the impacts of outcomes-oriented youth work policy and practice (IO1), a Compendium and Guidelines for designing 'slow' youth work practice (IO2), and a Policy Pack for youth work interest advocacy strategy and messaging related to promotion of 'slow' youth work (IO3). The research and production work of all three IOs will be as participatory as possible to ensure learning about youth work policy and practice for everyone involved in the project.Much attention will be devoted to the dissemination activities of the project. The partners will organise an international multiplier event in Latvia for over 50 participants, as well as an international and two national level webinars. To reach the decision makers, policy briefs will be prepared and shared. The most labour-intensive part of the dissemination efforts will be the active sharing of the projects outcomes to potential interested parties in project countries and beyond. Establishing dialogue and requesting feedback will allow the project's results and ideas to reach wider audiences and to forge new partnerships that would continue after the project and would be based around the produced outputs, to disseminate them further. Communications strategy will support wide and deep dissemination of the results and a lively and meaningful discussion around the purpose, mission, and practice of inclusive youth work. In short, it is expected that the project's results will contribute to better decisions in youth work policy and practice to avoid short term initiatives and to focus on the needs of young people.

The project Creating Youth Workers – the formal education edition, reflects young people's right for access to high quality youth work conducted by competent professionals and their right to participate in decision making processes on issues that affect them, such as the issue on the education of the youth support providers.it responds to the need for deeper analysis of the existent formal and non-formal education opportunities for youth workers, and at the same time addresses the lack of formal education opportunities for youth workers in many countries and the need for greater and more intense synergy between formal and non-formal education for youth workers in Europe. It also tackles the need for development and constant revision/update of the existent education approaches and opportunities for educating youth workers in accordance with the ongoing trends, changing needs and realities of young people. It proposes innovative cross-sectoral approach to developing/updating competency based formal education program for youth workers reflected in involving youth, youth workers, formal and non-formal educators and education experts, and youth workers' employers in that process. The main aim of the project is to improve the access of young people to high quality youth work services and contribute towards greater understanding, professionalisation and quality development of youth work in Europe by proposing new approach in developing coherent and flexible competency-based education for youth workers, that takes into account existing practice, new trends and arenas, as well as the diversity of youth work. The objectives of the project are: •To explore and describe formal and non-formal educational approaches, programs, curricula, resources and practices in the involved countries;•To analyse and define key factors that need to be taken into account when developing different formal education opportunities for youth workers having in mind diversity of youth work, existing practice, new trends and arenas, as well as the ETS competence model for youth workers; •To develop Guidelines for innovative cross-sectoral approach in developing competency based formal education opportunity for youth workers;•To intensify the synergies between institutions that are providing education in the field of youthAs part of the project, coordinated by the Union for Youth Work Macedonia, the partners involved in the project People and Work Unit, Wales, Beyond 96 Youth Club, Ireland, and the Tallinn University Estonia, will organise several events and will produce A Compendium of education opportunities for youth workers in Estonia, Wales, Ireland and Macedonia and Guidelines for innovative cross-sectoral approach in developing competency based formal education opportunity for youth workers that will be introduced and disseminated to other professionals interested in and working in the fields of youth work and in the fields complementary to youth work. It is expected that the project will present the characteristics of the education available to youth workers in involved countries and propose a set of key factors that need to be taken into account when developing/updating different formal education opportunities for youth workers having in mind diversity of youth work, existing practice, new trends and arenas, as well as the ETS competence model for youth workers. Additionally, it will propose methodology for innovative way, meaning by using cross–sectoral approach, when developing and/or updating competency based formal education opportunities for youth workers and introduced colleagues to the importance of the new proposed approach and on ways how they can apply such approach in their work. On the other site, by creating opportunities for working together, the project will result with intensifying the synergies between different providers of education for youth workers in and between providers of education, youth work employers from different countries. All this increases the possibilities for supporting youth workers in becoming more competent and compatible on the labour market which for young people will mean improved access to high quality youth work activities designed and implemented by competent professionals.

The project “The Melting Pot” is a 15 months project involving three Networks of youth workers and three cultural institutions from Serbia, Croatia and The Republic of North Macedonia - NAPOR, Galerija Matice Srpske, Mreža mladih Hrvatske, Pogon – Zagrebački centar za nezavisnu kulturu i mlade, Sojuz za mladinska rabota Skopje, and Opstinska ustanova Muzej na grad Negotino, with the aim to bring cultural institutions closer to all young people through youth work programs. Therefore, it is important to create cross-sectoral cooperation between youth and culture and develop innovative, interactive and inclusive methods and tools for work with young people in cultural institutions, especially with young people with different backgrounds, as well as create preconditions for the professionalism of youth workers and employees in cultural institutions.The aims of partnership in this project are:- To increase visibility and recognition of youth work and cultural institutions’ potential to respond to the identified needs of various youth groups at local, national, regional and EU level.- To raise the quality of youth work across the region by introducing innovative and creative methods integrated into culture and arts programs. - To increase professionalism of youth workers and employees in cultural institutions by creating curricula for their education. - To establish cross-sectoral cooperation among youth workers and cultural institutions at national and regional level.Main results of the project are: Detailed insight into the answers of way youth not participate in cultural activities, as well as insight into possible approaches and appropriate methods to change the situation. Collected regional and EU innovative methods enriched the capacity of youth workers and employees in cultural institutions and resulted in quality provision of services for youth. Created Curricula and youth work programs increased professionalism of youth and cultural workers. Various multiplying events raised awareness of relevant stakeholders (youth from fever opportunities, youth and cultural workers, decision makers and journalist) at national and regional level about importance of investing in youth work services in cultural institutions and its positive implication on youth development. Journalists motivated to report about youth, youth work and culture at the national and regional level. Study visit to Serbia built capacity of youth workers and cultural institutions by gaining knowledge and new insights about innovative good practices applicable for creation of youth work programs in cultural institutions. Laid foundation for fruitful cross-sectoral cooperation among youth workers and cultural institutions at national and regional level.In order to reach the results several activities are planned: - Comparative research on the needs of various youth groups related to culture conducted in 3 countries involving 350 youth ( thereof 140 young people with different backgrounds);- Curricula for education of youth workers in cultural institutions and development of six youth work programs applicable in various cultural institutions;- In the testing phase 60 young people (30 from fewer opportunities groups) will be actively involved in the youth work programs performed in cultural institutions by 6 youth and cultural workers from 3 countries;- Booklet “Melting pot of innovation in youth work and cultural institutions” containing up to 15 innovative and creative methods used in cultural activities for various youth groups, reflecting Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian and EU level;- Study visit in Serbia for 12 youth workers and cultural institutions representatives;- Cooperation with 30 journalists from national, regional and local media in 3 countries participated in the ME 1-3 Melting pot – served as breakfast to journalists;- ME Melting pot – demonstration of innovation! for 30 youth with fewer opportunities, 30 youth workers and 30 cultural institutions from Croatia, Serbia and The Republic of North Macedonia;- ME Regional melting pot – innovations, culture and youth work for 30 youth workers, various cultural institutions and authorities from regional and national level from 3 countries and up to 50 participants from EU countries;- Visibility and promotional actions reaching youth workers from 150 organisations and 150 cultural institutions from Serbia, Croatia and The Republic of North Macedonia and up to 200.000 people of the wider public. Careful plan for dissemination and exploitation of the project results is designed in order to promote the project outputs and outcomes to wide range of organizations and institutions working on national, regional and European level in the field of youth work.

"<< Background >>Youth work plays a very important role within the projects for the accompaniment and growth of young people within the various local communities, offering various opportunities, including some for international mobility. To be able to actually justify that we need to see the impact and to know what youth work brings on different levels. Because of that, this project is opening one new segment striving to be able to justify the impact on youth work in different processes that leads to better recognition. Generally, after the meetings with partners and other relevant actors in the youth field, we come up that there are several tools and mechanisms on the European level that measure the impact of youth work but there are used either on the national level, measure only Erasmus + project impact on youth or not well promoted and available to wider usage. Based on this project will contribute to mapping the all-existing tools/mechanism/practices, pack and offer to the youth sector. It will create a mechanism for measuring the impact of youth work on youth/individuals. Moreover, the project will create new mechanisms to measure the social and economic impact of youth work, test it and offer it to the youth sector on the European level. The field itself is huge but we have to start with the small steps ensuring the data for future advocacy activities.<< Objectives >>The overall aim is to develop a mechanism that will prove the importance of youth work in Europe, create a legacy for future advocacy activities in order to ensure recognition and quality of youth work programs. Specific objectives of the project ""Measuring impact in youth work- mission (im)possible!"" are:1. to conduct mapping of existing practices, mechanisms tools, instruments at EU, national, local levels related to the impact of YW on youth; 2. to develop mechanism and instrument(s) related to the impact of youth work on youth and its usage for advocacy purposes;3. to develop and test mechanism and instrument for measuring the social impact of youth work (economical aspect incorporated) and its usage for advocacy purposes (with a segment which implies how to translate data for advocating).4. to foster multi-sectoral cooperation in the field of youth.<< Implementation >>There are several activities that will be done: Mapping of existing tools, mechanisms and practices in measuring the youth work on the European level. Development of mechanism to measure the impact of youth work on youth. The development of a mechanism to measure the social and economic impact of youth work will be tested during the project. 3 partners meetings, one LTTA - capacity training for partner organizations, 4 national and 2 international virtual multipliers involving different stakeholders.<< Results >>Results planned by the project are: - Booklet “Mapping of leading practices at local, national and European level regarding youth work impact on youth” containing up to 20 methods and tools, reflecting Serbian, Portuguese, Italian, Macedonian and EU level.- Developed mechanism for measuring youth work impact on youth, along with instrument(s).- Research study containing mechanism and instruments for measuring social and economic youth work impact, along with a report of implemented mechanism in 4 countries involving 300 youth. - Capacity building training in Italy for 12 employees of national associations from 4 countries for the implementation of the mechanism for measuring the social impact of youth work and translation of data into advocacy arguments. - ME - “How to measure youth work impact on youth” for 120 youth workers, organisations and representatives of national and local institutions from Serbia, Portugal, Italy and The Republic of North Macedonia. - International ME - “How we can measure youth work impact?” for up to 30 participants from EU and CoE institutions, international organisations and researchers. - International ME – “Creating a plan for measuring the impact of youth work across Europe” for up to 30 participants from National associations of youth workers and European Network of Youth Work Associations. - Visibility and promotional actions reach youth workers from 250 organisations and 100 research and academic institutes from Serbia, Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria and The Republic of North Macedonia and up to 200.000 people of the wider public across Europe.At the level of outcomes: - Collected local, national and EU leading practices in measuring youth work impact on youth and development of new mechanism enriched the capacity of national youth work associations and resulted in advocacy initiatives grounded in evidence-based data. - Various multiplying events raised awareness of relevant stakeholders (youth workers, youth organizations at local and national level, European institutions, researchers) about the importance of investing in measuring youth work impact. - Capacity building training increased the professionalism of national associations by gaining knowledge and skills for creating and collecting evidence-based data for the social impact of youth work and its usage in the creation of advocacy initiatives.- Laid foundation for fruitful cross-sectoral cooperation among youth workers and research and academic institutions at national and European levels."