UNDER 30'

Learning mobility activities in the youth field are restarting following the two years of break due to COVID-19 pandemic. How are youth workers, young people, trainers, facilitators and youth organisations experiencing the return to in-person activities? How are blended, online and hybrid activities taking place? In this episode we discuss the experiences of learning mobility during and post pande...

How does revitalising democracy actually look on the ground and in practice? How can youth organisations contribute to democratic revival on the local and on the international level? How does the European Youth Foundation support local and international projects in the framework of the Democracy Here, Democracy Now campaign? We speak to Gabriella from Fantapolitica and Sophie from the World Organi...

In this podcast, we discuss the Council of Europe's youth campaign "Democracy Here, Democracy Now" and its flagship event the Youth Action Week taking place in Strasbourg between 28 June and 1 July. What is the campaign, why was it launched and what are the issues in its focus? What is the purpose of the Youth Action Week and what are the expectations for bringing together over 400 young people fr...

Youth transitions to autonomy could be defined through many lenses. How did these definitions evolve in time? How have they been used to understand young people's lives and societal changes? How were policies developed to support young people? This episode was made as a preparation for our symposium Navigating Transitions, which will take place in Tirana on 21-23 June 2022. Guests: Ewa Krzaklewska...

Learning mobility activities in the youth field are restarting following the two years of break due to COVID-19 pandemic. How are youth workers, young people, trainers, facilitators and youth organisations experiencing the return to in-person activities?  In this episode we discuss the experiences of learning mobility during and post pandemic, and the changing needs of all actors.  What should be...

Youth work has been very fast in responding to the situation caused by the war in Ukraine, providing humanitarian aid and youth services for internally displaced young people within Ukraine and also to young refugees outside Ukraine. How do youth work competences help youth workers in dealing with the situation? How can young refugees from Ukraine benefit from youth work? What support is needed fo...

How far has youth work gained formal, social and political recognition? Bit by bit resources and actions are having an impact on how we perceive the valuable contribution it has to young people and society as a whole and an ongoing objective. In this episode we introduce the Visible Value library of resources and inspiring stories on youth work recognition developed by the EU-Council of Europe You...

Meet Biliana Sirakova, the newly appointed EU Youth Coordinator. What is the role of EU Youth Coordinator? How does she work on connecting and coordinating different youth initiatives, aimed at achieving EU Youth Goals? What are her daily tasks and challenges? Listen to the podcast to learn more about how EU Youth Coordinator supports co-creation of the European Year of Youth with other stakeholde...

Participatory democracy does not rely only on elections, but also on a range of other tools and mechanisms which facilitate citizens' participation in decision-making. These tools can help young people to organise, engage with policy-makers at all governance levels and demand policy changes.  In this episode we discuss the contemporary youth participation trends, what different tools and methods a...

It’s been more than a month since Ukraine was attacked by the troops of the Russian Federation. Many people fled Ukraine and found shelter in the neighbouring countries, many also moved to other regions of Ukraine, which are not suffering from heavy bombing. How is the youth sector in Ukraine involved in supporting both civilians and the armed forces? How are young people involved in organising an...

Citizenship education remains a contested term, lacking a universally accepted definition. Both, the understanding and practice of citizenship education have been discussed by educational institutions, the youth sector, political parties, ideologies, cultures and society as a whole. While citizenship education is often understood in relation to democracy, human rights and young people's participat...

Digital youth work comes, undoubtedly, with many benefits. It was even perceived as a beautiful, pink balloon, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when all youth work had to be done online. However, very quickly it turned out, it also comes with many costs. In this episode, we are discussing the limits of digital youth work based on the research paper published by the EU-Council of Europe Yout...

The year 2022 is full of new initiatives in the youth sector: the European Year of Youth , announced by the European Commission,  the Council of Europe's campaign Democracy Here, Democracy Now and the 50th anniversary of the youth sector in the Council of Europe. In this episode, we are discussing these initiatives with Antje Rothemund , the Head of the Youth Department in the Council of Europe an...

All of us can contribute to the development of the youth work environment! What needs to change? Do I need to be a superhero and do everything on my own? Where do I start? The EU-Council of Europe Youth Partnership's upcoming publication can support you in starting a change. In this episode, we are talking with Ajša Hadžibegović and Bastian Küntzel, the two authors of Thinking Together and Levelli...

The EU-Council of Europe Youth Partnership has recently published a research paper “European youth work policy goals analysed” written by Ilona-Evelyn Rannala, Jelena Stojanovic and Marko Kovacic. The goal of this analysis is to showcase, examine and compare youth work policy goals/objectives of the European Union and the Council of Europe. Where do they meet? What is different? What tools do they...

The impact of learning mobility projects is quite well known, it is well researched, mainly when it comes to the impact on the individual level. We think about it when we develop project ideas - what impact will the project have on the participants. But the impact does not end with the individuals, it also extends to a community - people who are sometimes intentionally or unintentionally affected...

About time! is a new reference manual for youth policy from a European perspective published by the Youth Partnership. The manual is a reference tool for initiating youth policy and learning about the diversity of national and international governance and about the infrastructure available for youth policy, its implementation, review and evaluation. Thematically, it focuses very specifically on th...

In this podcast series, we have discussed many times the impact of the pandemic and all related restrictions on the lives of young people. Some time ago, we also had an episode on the Covid-19 Knowledge Hub developed by the Youth Partnership. The Hub has been there for a year now, and since it was officially launched at the Youth Knowledge Forum in October 2021 it has been filled with new informat...

In today’s episode we are discussing two European Youth Strategies, the EU youth Strategy and the Council of Europe youth sector strategy, looking at what they have in common and where they differ but also how relevant they are now in the COVID or post-COVID period. Both strategies are institutional reactions to the situation of young people in Europe. The reason for our discussion is the paper wr...

The EU-Council of Europe Youth Partnership has recently published a study “Young people in rural areas: diverse, ignored and unfulfilled” co-authored by Adina Marina Șerban and Rūta Brazienė.  One of the most striking findings is that rural policies ignore young people and youth policies ignore rural youth. Generally, there is little understanding and acceptance in policy that young people in rura...

The issue of climate change and its impact on all of us has been discussed in many activities implemented both by the European Union and the Council of Europe. It also appears in many policy papers issued by both institutions. It is also present in many initiatives undertaken by youth organisations and youth movements. How can we, in the youth sector, be more environmentally conscious? How can we...

In previous episodes of our podcast, we have explored different topics covered in the latest Youth Knowledge Book on Young People, social inclusion and digitalisation. With this episode, we would like to focus on another topic you can find in the Knowledge book - digitalisation and social inclusion of youth people with disabilities.  This topic is explored in two articles, which you can find in ch...

This is another episode, in which we do deeper into different topics explored in the Youth Knowledge Book on Young People, social inclusion and digitalisation. This time we look into two chapters that discuss how digitalisation is affecting young people’s mental health and well-being. Our guest, Cathy Street wrote a chapter, in which she looks into young people’s digital well-being outlining curre...

This time we are talking with two guests - Daniel Briggs , who wrote an article on the use of WhatsApp by newly arrived refugees in Europe and Antía Pérez-Caramés , who reflected on the virtual communities created and used by young Spanish migrants in Europe. Both articles were published in the Youth Knowledge Book on Young people, social inclusion and digitalisation [ LINK ]. Hosts: Dariusz Grzem...

This episode is one of the few ones, in which we will talk with different authors who contributed to the latest Youth Knowledge Book on Young people, social inclusion and digitalisation.  Dariusz Grzemny and Lana Pasic are talking with two guests who wrote the chapter on Power, participation and geographical isolation exploring the impact of a digital project run with young people in the Scottish...