Report on the 4th European Youth Work Convention raises questions
Schlussfolgerungen der Vierten Europäischen Youth Work Convention / COE
The DNK takes a critical view of the conclusions presented(online here), not least because the youth organisations do not consider them to be sufficiently comprehensible.
Already during the convention, at which the interests of young people from Germany were represented by the DNK, procedures and opportunities for participation were inadequate from the perspective of the organisations. From the perspective of the youth organisations, it is critical that the report suggests the development of new standards and platforms, although proven structures, broad knowledge and professional instruments already exist at European level.
On the other hand, the emphasis on long-term, stable funding and sustainable infrastructures meets with approval. From the perspective of youth organisations, reliable funding is a key prerequisite for high-quality youth (association) work. National frameworks must be reliably designed, while in the increasingly difficult conditions of shrinking, closing and closed spaces, organisations are dependent on accessible European funding.
On the other hand, the proposal to anchor youth work separately in a separate chapter of the future EU youth strategy is clearly rejected. In the conclusions presented, it is also important to avoid the results of the convention being used to further influence state actors in the landscape of self-organised youth (association) work.