Go for Change! - Creating knowledge-based strategies through participatory action research and follow-up

Date/place:

• 1st training module: 4 - 7 April 2022 (Belgium, Kortrijk)
• Optional individual tasks and webinars (28 April, 18 May, 8 June, 10:00-13:00 CET) between April and June 2022
• 2nd training module: 13 - 16 June 2022 (Finland, Kouvola)

Context

Want to have the space to work on evidence based approaches for youth work in your municipality? And to see what Europe has to offer for local youth work?

In the European Charter on Local Youth Work it is stated that: The quality development of local youth work needs clear procedures for continuous analysis of and reflection on outcomes in terms of how they relate to preconditions, work processes and activities, and the need for further development;

In order to meet this demand, the “Go for change” training will lead participants to a reflection and analysis of their own local youth work realities through offering tools and approaches for planning and implementing participatory action research.

The concrete aims of this modular training will be:

Deepening the knowledge of the participants on the content of the Charter and motivate them to take this knowledge home and spread it further within their organisation and to generate change when needed to improve the quality of youth work

Introducing tools and good practices related to participatory action research and follow up, adaptable and inspirational for local realities.

Offering a (peer-)learning opportunity within EGL about quality development in municipal level youth work

Supporting the internationalization of local youth work via showing links to European initiatives and programmes as well as the European Youth Work Agenda and the Bonn process.

Themes and structure:

In the first module, participants from all around Europe will share and compare their ideas and realities in a peer-supported space, with loads of opportunities for dialogue, common understanding and cooperation to build. Participatory Action Research tools & techniques will be presented and explored, enabling participants to adapt and apply them in their own contexts, during the next stage of the training process.

In between the two training modules, participants will be able to involve their communities in the open webinars focusing on various good practices, policy summaries and methodologies. It is foreseen that these webinars should also offer a space for dialogue for the participants’ local networks and spark further discussions between the diverse youth work stakeholders in the local realities, aiming to also engage the wider local community in quality development.

The second training module will focus on what Europe can offer in terms of policies, tools, approaches, actions and activities. Along with the peer-support from other participants this will help participants to identify strategies for developing the quality of youth work in their local contexts. The module will focus especially on linking evidence to short and long-term strategies in local youth work and approaches for “taking the next steps” in each participants’ own youth work community.

The residential modules will be hosted by municipalities and will share their practices as a way to enable community-based learning throughout the training course.

Participants will be expected to start transferring the knowledge they gain to their community already after the first module. This will be supported with an invitation to an interim task between the two modules.

The training process will focus on the themes of:

• Quality of local youth work and youth policy
• Competence development in relation to participatory action research and strategic thinking
• European dimension in local youth work

To learn more about the details of the training course and about how to apply, please, read the attached description.

This call is indetitical to what is shared via the website of the Europe Goes Local project: https://www.europegoeslocal.eu/event/go-for-change/