In the last working week of April this year in Brussels was held the Second European Youth Work Convention 2015, organising by the Belgian Chairmanship of the Council of Europe (November 2014 – May 2015). The European Youth Work Convention 2015 is one of the flagship initiatives of the Belgian Chairmanship of the Council of Europe. It took place five years after the 1st Convention organized in Ghent on 7-10 July 2010 in the framework of the Belgian EU Presidency.
In this large-scale event, held in the Congress center “EGG ” in the Belgian capital Brussels were participated over 400 stakeholders from all over Europe. The event bringing together complementary knowledge, perspectives and experiences on youth work in order to map and review the evolutions in youth work practice and policy since 2010, to discuss challenges facing youth work at local, national and European level and to find common ground within the diversity of youth work in order to foster recognition.
The Youth Work Convention is a unique opportunity to give a new incitement to the political and institutional debate around youth work in whole Europe.
Participants from all over Europe debated and discussed the current state and prospects of the youth work of the Old Continent, as well as the action plan for youth work in the coming decades.
Analysis and ideas formulated by participants during the Convention will be collected by rapporteurs. They will form the basis of a final Declaration which will be presented in the closing plenary session ‘Looking ahead’. The aim of the final Declaration is to:
- Contribute to the elaboration of a renewed strategy, agenda and action plan for youth work in Europe;
- Trigger an institutional process towards an agreement on the value and significance of youth work at Council of Europe and/or EU level;
- Send a strong message of support to policymakers and practitioners to continue developing and renewing youth work in Europe.
In this largest youth event in Europe this year took participation a representative of the European NGO CEIPES from Palermo, Italy – that was Irene Capozzi from the Youth Department of the organization.
For her participation in this forum we will telling about in the next issue of our e-newsletter.
