SALTO Youth Inclusion Forum 2006

What was the SALTO Youth Inclusion Forum about?

• Download the Inclusion Forum Report (right click the link and save to your computer) More info here
• Also have a look at the reporting pages, pictures & video-clips, outcomes & evaluation
• A big thank you to Cirrius-Youth Unit (Danish NA) for co-financing this event.

The Inclusion forum was 2 rich days of combining the brainwaves of 75 people working in the field of inclusion (Youth Workers, National Agencies, SALTO and other experts) together with a series of online Virtual Inclusion Forum participants in a dynamic programme to stimulate the inclusion of ALL young people, also those who might encounter obstacles in doing so.

The SALTO Youth Inclusion Forum aimed to

• Bring inclusion people together to exchange best inclusion practice, to stimulate co-operation and networking between them.
• Look back to different inclusion achievements during the YOUTH Programme (2000-2006) and build on them to inspire SALTO's inclusion activities in the future. Give us your feedback at www.salto-youth.net/inclusionFuture/
• Reinforce the Inclusion Strategy of the EU YOUTH programme (2000-2006) by adapting it to the "Youth in Action" programme (2007-2013). Add your comments online
• Explore the roles, possibilities & tasks of different stakeholders in the inclusion field (NAs, SALTO, youth workers,...) in the new Youth in Action programme and stimulate future action.

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Who was there ?

The SALTO Youth Inclusion Forum was crowded with experienced people in the field of inclusion and the European YOUTH programme, committed to share their experiences and to reflect amongst colleagues on how to make the inclusion youth work better and easier in the future. This are:

• Youth workers (social workers, peer educators, trainers,...) who are actively working with young people with fewer opportunities (=excluded/discriminated because of educational level, socio-economic problems, cultural background, disability & health, criminality & offences, sexual orientation, geographic disadvantage,...) and with inclusion experience in the EU YOUTH programme (35 places) - some (limited) places for candidates from Partner countries (SEE, EECA, EuroMed)
• YOUTH National Agency staff actively working on Inclusion in their agency and with inclusion projects within the YOUTH programme & relevant SALTOs (ONE place per NA)
• Invited speakers, guests, officials from the field of inclusion (10 places)
• Find a list of participants here

For thoses who were not able to participate in Antwerp, we had a virtual forum happeneng during the event. More about this here.

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Concept & Programme - What happened?

The SALTO Youth Inclusion Forum was an exciting event that allowed lots of quality interaction. We wanted to reduce the one-way inputs to some "food for thought" inputs and intended to focus on your contributions and expertise. Check out the more detailed programme here.

1. Looking back to past inclusion achievements
   Overview of SALTO Inclusion achievements - great inclusion practices
   Experiment with some of the Inclusion tools developed - possibility for feedback and suggestions
2. A New Youth Inclusion Strategy for a New Youth in Action programme
   A creative introduction to the new draft Inclusion Strategy of the European Commission
   Analysing the new inclusion strategy from different perspectives - The ideal world: your feedback and suggestions for fine-tuning the strategy
3. Roles & tasks for different stakeholders
   Setting up an action plan - who is going to do what about inclusion? How to make the inclusion strategy more concrete? - round table.
4. Exchange of good practices
   Present your inclusion projects, inclusion publications, your developed networks of inclusion organisations, your inclusion tools and methods at the Inclusion Fair

And of course we didn't forget social activities for participants to get to know each other, network and discover multi-cultural Antwerp. All this in 2 days.

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Practically - Where & When?

• From Thursday 12 October 2006 (arrival day) till Sunday 15 October 2006(departure day). This allowed us to have 2 full and exciting working days.
• We choose the socio-cultural conference centre 't Elzenveld in Antwerpen, Belgium for the Inclusion Forum. 't Elzenveld belongs to the city of Antwerp's Social Service Department, which is also responsible for social housing, social benefits, social integration projects, etc: an appropriate place to work on Inclusion. The conference centre was located in a former monastery and dates back to the 16th century, when it used to be a guesthouse for the poor.
• Forum participants were accommodated (in single or sharing twin rooms) either in the former monastery rooms of 't Elzenveld or hotel Ibis at 5 minutes walking distance - both with all modern conveniences.

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Where did the SALTO Youth Inclusion Forum come from?

In the same line as Bridges for Training (2001) and Bridges for Recognition (2005), the European Commission asked SALTO Inclusion to put a "Bridges for Inclusion" event in its workplan for 2005-06 based on the successful previous Bridges. However because of the transition period to the new Youth in Action programme, this event was more modest than previous Bridges events (less people, less days) - but nevertheless it was a great occasion to network with other inclusion people - and to inspire inclusion work in Europe.

• Register for the SALTO Inclusion newsletter to receive the latest information on future Inclusion events!

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