The Art of Ethics in Youth Work

Aims & objectives

The training activity aimed to help participants better understand and apply ethical principles in their youth work and youth organisations. It addressed the need for youth workers to strike a balance between being friendly and approachable while also setting important boundaries that foster learning and personal growth. The training encouraged participants to think critically about the models they use in their work, helping them reflect on how to improve their approach.

One of the main goals and key outcomes of the training was the creation of a code of conduct in partner organizations, ensuring an ethical framework for everyday youth work activites. These codes of conduct provided clear guidelines to support consistent, high-quality practices across all organizations involved.

Additionally, the training focused on empowering youth workers to come up with their own solutions when working with young people, giving them greater confidence and flexibility in their roles.

This is directly aligned with the goals of the organizations, which are dedicated to promoting high-quality youth work that supports, educates, and empowers young people.

Target group & international/intercultural composition of the group & team

The main target group were experienced youth workers closely connected to the organisations that were partners in this training. Participants were mostly in managing roles in their organisations, being able to make decisions on the spot.

In this training course, we had participants from:
Croatia, France, Greece, Lithuania, Italy, Estonia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Netherlands, Serbia and Czech republic.

Training methods used & main activities

Different non-formal education methods were used during this training, including icebreakers, team-building activities, group work, treasure hunts, role plays and reflection activities.

Here is the description of non-formal method we used:

The stock market
(IMPLEMENTING ETHICAL PRACTICES: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS)
Aims:
- To explore different non-formal education methods
- To focus on problem-solving skills (promoting critical thinking)
- To think of the practical implications of our ethical dilemmas

There are several roles in this activity:
- Stock manager: a person/trainer who leads the simulation, and who handles the stock and money exchange
- Evaluator(s): a person/trainer who evaluates the stock and whether they can be exchanged for more value. You can have two evaluators, the very strict one and a looser one
- Casino manager: a person/participant who tries to distract the teams, and persuade them to spend money in casino more roles be added depending on the group number (ex. tax collector)

Participants are divided into teams of 4 or 5. The goal is for teams to come up with solutions to the ethical dilemmas they have in the stock). Every team is placed on a different table (one table can be isolated from the others in order to present inequalities in starting positions).
In the beginning, teams receive a certain amount of (monopoly) money.
The task during an activity is that teams exchange money for stocks (each stock is a different task on the topic of non-formal education) and earn more money in order to buy more stocks and earn more money.
There are cheap (easy tasks) and expensive stocks (problem-solving tasks), and teams decide on which ones they wish to invest in. For example:
“cheap” stock: It is okay to make a promise you can’t keep. Explain.
“expensive” stock: 3 cons and 3 pro arguments for the motion: Cancel culture makes more harm than benefits.
When they solve the stock (task), they go to the evaluator's table which then evaluates the quality of the task, and evaluators offer a new price for the stock. After that, teams go to the Stock manager’s table to sell this (evaluated) stock for the appointed amount of money and they buy a new stock.
The team that ends the game with the most money is the winning team.
There are distractions in the form of loud music, and casino where they can spend money or make a quick investment (where chances to win or lose a great amount of the money are equal).

The simulation goes for at least an hour, and you can come up with ideas for challenges during an activity:
- the looser evaluator often goes on a break
- Stock manager is trying to rip off the teams
- introduce the tax collection moment, etc.

Reflection on the activity:
- How did you enjoy the process?
- How did you organize within teams, did you have roles?
- How did you decide on which stocks to buy, did you have a strategy?
- Which topic is most suitable to process through this method;
- What is the pedagogical value behind it?
- Can we use this activity in youth work?

In this publication you can find the timetable: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FDi0IjfO7c5k9oo1IUO_84RwULErvFbU/view?usp=sharing

Outcomes of the activity

After the activity 10 participating organisations developed their codes of conduct in youth work.

Also, due to the success of this program, there is a second iteration in preparation.

Publication: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FDi0IjfO7c5k9oo1IUO_84RwULErvFbU/view?usp=sharing

Curriculum: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FhCoM6xU5eycM8aG99D4czLZNunjFYZ-/view?usp=drive_link

Your tasks and responsibilities within the team

I was in charge of preparatory tasks for participants, most of the logistics of the training, as well as preparing and implementing educational program and coordinating dissemination activities.
Also, I am one of the authors of the curriculum that this educational program was based on.

I was the main trainer for this training in a team that consisted 2 experienced trainers.

I worked on this training for 5 days as a full time trainer.

Testimonial of the reference person

I confirm that Branimira Penić co-facilitated a youth training session with me on the topic of ethics in youth work.