Big events cast their shadows ahead: just one day before the European Youth Work Symposium ‘Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers’, young people from twelve European countries and met in Dortmund, Germany. Together, they prepared to present their views on the burning issues in the field of youth work to representatives from administration, politics and academia.
On Youth Day, the young people worked on the topics they wanted to discuss with the other stakeholders: For example, how local projects can be sustainably secured as a basis for international cooperation, how youth work can be made more inclusive and accessible, and what needs to be done to promote mental health.
The overall aim is to enter into dialogue with those who set the framework for youth work on how opportunities for participation can be supported and secured even in times of multiple crises. In this way, young people are lobbying for their own interests. For this purpose, they have come to Dortmund from Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Spain, Hungary and many German municipalities. Also present is a group of active Ukrainian young people who are currently living in and around Munich.
Representing your own positions on a big stage – that’s pretty exciting! To enable a discussion at eye level with people who have decades of experience with public events, the young people had plenty of opportunity to try out the stage setting.
Also an important part of the European Youth Work Symposium: In a colourful exhibition, young people from the Generation Europe network present their diverse local work, by which they are making a difference in their communities. On Youth Day, they prepared their presentations.
Staying committed despite huge challenges and sometimes difficult conditions – how the local groups have overcome such difficulties was another topic of discussion at Youth Day.
It is remarkable that so many young people are taking part in an international stakeholder conference. After all, all too often political and academic consultations, even on topics such as youth work and youth policy, take place largely without the involvement of those who are most directly confronted with the consequences.
Act local, connect European, think global: Meetings like this are invaluable.
Building bridges: the title of the symposium was even taken literally on the preperation day. In the Dortmunder U, Centre for Art and Creativity, an installation was created with wishes and demands that the young people are campaigning for in order to strengthen and maintain an active European civil society.
The Youth Day programme was prepared and implemented by a team of youth work professionals from the network of Generation Europe – The Academy and IBB e.V. The Dortmund-based NGO has been coordinating networks and funding programmes to enable European youth institutions to work together across borders for more than 15 years now.