European Youth Work
Youth Work Ireland works with a number of leading European based youth organisations to create opportunities and collaborative activities for young people. Our work strengthens relationships between young people and youth workers and offers young people the chance for exchange visits and valuable learning opportunities. This work empowers young people and youth organisations to joinly tackle issues that affect all European youth.
European Youth Work Showcase
On Saturday May 13th Youth Work Ireland hosted a European Youth Work Showcase event which allowed us to share the value of European youth work by hearing from youth workers and young people from Youth Work Ireland Member Youth Services on their participation and experiences of exchange, mobility and Key Action projects and programmes. It was also an opportunity for us to collectively promote the value of European youth work to those Member Youth Service who have yet to engage.
The event was co-hosted by Leargas and featured inputs from young people from CDYS who have recently returned from a European youth exchange in Greece. We also heard from youth workers sharing their experiences of programmes they have been involved in. Celine Martin from Leargas, Orla Corrigan, PO, DCEDIY and Jacob Kornbeck, Youth Unit of the European Commission also contributed.
We welcomed MEP Maria Walsh who gave an inspiring keynote address on the value of European connections for youth services and young people in Ireland.
Proud Spaces Project
Creating Safe, Inclusive and Proud Spaces for Young LGBTQ+ People thought Youth Work Practice.
The PROUD SPACES is a three-year Erasmus+ funded project that will evidence the positive outcomes youth work practices have achieved. Together with our partners European Confederation of Youth Clubs (Belgium), GrowSpace (Poland) and Youth Work Ireland Laois and we will develop tools to support youth workers in creating safe and inclusive spaces for young LGBTQ+ people.
Ireland as a society has come a long way in its acceptance and inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community. Young people accessing our youth clubs get to explore and celebrate their identity in a safe and supported way. However, this is not the case in some European jurisdictions, such as Poland, where the human rights of young LGBTQ+ people continue to be eroded and where policies and legislation seek to further exclude and discriminate. The PROUD SPACES project has been deliberately planned to address such concerns through European cooperation and shared policy engagement. By evidencing and promoting the success decades of Irish inclusive youth work practices have had on the lives of young Irish LGBTQ+ people, we can seek to influence and inform European policy.
Supporting Youth Transitions in post-Lockdown society through Detached Youth Work
This European Project supported by Erasmus+ via Leargas addresses the social economic impact of the l COVID-19 pandemic on young people in Europe, focusing on those socially excluded. A consequence of lockdown is that the number of young people disconnected from employment, education and training supports will increase. In Ireland, for example, young people have been disproportionately affected by Covid 19 unemployment (ESRI, 2020). Lockdown has caused discontinuity of service for youth. Those young people previously facing challenges are likely to have experienced a complete disconnect from services and supports and will now need new supports to transition back into services.
Our partners in this project are Aseman Lapset (Finland), Fryshuset (Sweden), Dynamo International (Belgium) and LOGO Youth Management (Austria).
The RETAIL Project
The RETAIL sector is undergoing deep changes because of technological progress, blurring the lines between sectors and leading to new consumer behaviour. The growth of e-commerce is changing the way businesses operate, generating new challenges and opportunities especially for Young People.
This Erasmus+ project supported by Leargas will create training packages addressed to different audiences – experienced retail entrepreneurs, and digital natives looking for new work opportunities. These packages will include subjects such as new retail business models, e-commerce, social networks, business strategies and more!
Our Partners include The Dublin Chamber of Commerce, The Polish Chamber of Commerce, KAINOTOMIA & SIA from Greece, INSTALOFI LEVANTE and MARKEUT SKILLS from Spain, and DANMAR COMPUTERS from Poland
YES Project
The YES Project is a Europe wide initiative to provide young people with empowering sexual health and reproductive education in a community setting. Collaborating with ECYC (European Confederation of Youth Clubs) and LOGO Jugendmanagement we will work over the next two years to develop the capacity of youth organisations to deliver SRE to young people. This project is based on the need identified by Youth Work Ireland through a consultation with young people in Spring 2018, for young people to be involved in the development of a resource to support their learning around health and safety issues related to their sexual health.
Skill IT
The project enabled youth workers to support young people in developing their ICT, digital and social media skills as well as ‘soft’ and future skills, so as to enhance their employability, civic participation and wellbeing. This programme was supported by Erasmus+ and Leargas and was in line with the Erasmus+ goal which stresses the need for more highly qualified young people for the digital economy. The project provided tools for youth organisations to improve the services provided to young people by embedding Digital Learning into the whole organisation at all levels.
Our partners in this project included Fundacja Samodzielni Robinsonowie Poland, Fundatia Danis, Romania, Norsensus Mediaforum, Norway, and Camara Education, Ireland.
Erasmus + Youth Work Music & Cultural Entrepreneurship
Youth Work Ireland has formed a strategic partnership with youth services from across Europe who use music as a tool for supporting the development of young people. These partners include; UK Youth, Youth Cymru (Wales), Samfés (Iceland), Youth Scotland, Lithuanian Children and Youth Centre and Youth Action Northern Ireland, with Youth Work Ireland as the lead partner. The most recent achievement of this partnership has been the successful funding of a KA2 Erasmus + project entitled Youth Work ‐ Music and Cultural Entrepreneurship. The end result of this project is the design of an online toolkit/site on how to use music as a tool for engaging and retaining young people in youth services, as well as creating an online community of other youth services from across Europe that use music. Learn more>>
As part of this collaboration a special edition of Scene Magazine was published which sought to capture the experience of a diverse range of youth organisations and practitioners and to provide ideas about practice that can support Irish youth work practitioners in developing their own practice.
The CoOp Project
The Cooperate to Operate Project (CoOp) ran from 2017 – 2019 and aimed at enhancing the collaboration between Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and youth organizations, to promote and encourage private investment in youth development, and education. The goal of the project was to support youth workers and youth organisations to diversify their funding sources and attract investments from the business sector, by professionalizing them in the field of CSR & fundraising from SMEs.
Our partners in this project are Asset Technology (Greece), Norsensus Mediaforum (Norway), Fundaction Robinson Crusoe (Poland) and Fundiata Danis (Romania).
Status Toolkit – Traveller Project
This project was a joint project lead by Youth Work Ireland with the support of Involve, YouthAction Northern Ireland and An Munia Tober. The project aimed at identifying, developing and sharing best practice approaches for engaging with, retaining and working with Young Travellers. The main focus of the project was to develop easily used tools that help organisations to effectively support Traveller youth work.
The STATUS Toolkit is now available to download
The project was funded through the Erasmus+ Programme and supported by Leargas,
