A multinational exchange of experts on the topic of "Inclusion in youth work"
45+ youth work multipliers from 13 countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Ukraine and Belarus) were guests at the wannseeFORUM from April 7th to 14th, 2015 and exchanged ideas on the topic of “Inclusion in youth work”.
By addressing mechanisms of social exclusion with the aim of counteracting them, youth work has long made an important contribution to inclusion. However, the question facing those involved in extracurricular youth work is whether their programs actually reach socially excluded young people and whether they are designed in such a way as to enable the active participation of everyone. Designing inclusive youth work ranges from structural measures to reduce physical barriers and the development of public relations strategies to changes in didactic and methodological approaches. While increasing efforts have been made in this direction in recent years, the daily work routine often lacks the time resources required to acquire the necessary funding and, above all, to initiate self-reflective processes.
The main objectives of the professional exchange were:
1) to raise awareness among professionals and multipliers about the situation and needs of socially excluded groups;
2) to explore the concept of "inclusion" and develop their own stance on inclusion;
3) to reflect on their own role in the exclusion/inclusion of young people;
4) to acquire and further develop competencies necessary for inclusive youth work, such as sensitivity to the need for continuous reflection on the methods used in their own practice;
5) to utilize existing methods for inclusive work with diverse target groups (traditionally affected by exclusion);
6) to develop new methods for inclusive youth work;
and 7) to network the participating youth work professionals and multipliers with the aim of developing and offering inclusive projects for young people at the European/international level.
The results were used to create a digital handbook for practical application.
The manual (written in English) can be downloaded here
This was the multinational professional exchange “Exclude exclusion – we do inclusion!”:
- A short video impression.
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The multinational professional exchange “Exclude exclusion – we do inclusion!” was supported by the EU program Erasmus+ YOUTH IN ACTION .
Changing lives. Opening minds.