K210 YOUTH: Bridging the gap between youth and culture workers

Needs analysis: enhancing collaboration between youth workers and cultural workers

Youth workers and cultural workers don't work collaboratively and transversally in cultural facilities (museums, theatres, auditoriums, art centres, etc.) and youth facilities to promote youth agency in the cultural and democratic life of contemporary societies.

That is the case because the current training paths for youth and cultural workers fall short in fostering cross-sectoral collaboration. The existing curricula often lack elements that promote joint initiatives, hindering the development of skills necessary for effective interdisciplinary work. But also the prevailing administrative and normative frameworks do not prioritize transversal collaboration between youth and cultural workers. This lack of emphasis translates into limited support for initiatives that bridge these sectors.

This disjointed approach restricts the opportunities for youth participation in the conception and execution of public cultural programs in youth and cultural facilities. This limitation denies young people the chance to actively shape cultural and democratic narratives.

Objectives

Train youth and cultural workers to work collaboratively stimulating and guiding processes where young people can create and lead their own participative artistic and cultural projects in cultural facilities (museums, theatres, auditoriums, art centres, etc.) and youth facilities.

The aim of the project is to foster youth empowerment and civic engagement with attention to cultural diversity. These initiatives aspire to make them into change agents promoting cultural inclusion, access and participation in their multicultural contexts.

Through this project, we will strengthen cross-sectorial work, establishing a transversal collaboration that not only will improve professional's work, but also contribute to the overall, cultural and social development of local youth communities.

Activities

A1: Research with experts and focus groups:
Conduct interviews and focus groups with experts in each local context to identify needs and best practices to foster collaboration among youth and cultural workers. Gather relevant information and best practices on how these professionals can develop their role as enablers, encouraging and guiding young people to create and lead (autonomously and from within cultural and youth facilities) cultural projects to foster active participation among young people.

A2: Developing a toolkit
Share and amplify local knowledge and best practices gathered in the research phase with the design of a toolkit. The toolkit will develop specific strategies to (1) foster effective collaboration among youth and cultural workers and (2), guide and support young people in cultural and youth facilities to participate in the cultural lives of their local contexts.

A3: Design of a comprehensive program to train youth and culture workers
Design a comprehensive program to implement in each local context to train profesionals and promote innovation in youth work through its crossover with the cultural sector. The program will comprise the development of a collaborative process between professionals of both sectors. Also, an evaluation process to improve the program's quality to make it replicable.

Impact

1. Foster innovation in youth work strengthening cross-sectorial and collaborative work with the cultural sector.
2. Shared and situated knowledge and best practices on how to design processes through which young people can actively participate in their local cultural lives.
3. Dissemination of the toolkit in the local contexts.
4. Youth and cultural professionals trained to work collaboratively to promote youth active cultural participation.
5. An innovative replicable methodology that can be implemented in other contexts to train youth and culture workers to develop their own pilot projects. In a potential second phase of the project, this methodology could be implemented and evaluated in diferent contexts to refine the methodlogy and provide recommendations at a policy level.