What is youth work? There is no short answer to that question. To get a glimpse of how complex a topic youth work is, one might start with the chapter on defining youth work in the report on the value of youth work. Here is a brief look at three definitions of youth work used by European institutions.

EUROPEAN UNION

The new EU Youth Strategy for the period 2019-2027 views youth work as “civic and socio-educational activities that give young people life skills and act as a bridge to society, especially for disadvantaged youth”[1].

Hence, youth work has been given a role in the development of society. Youth work experts have defined youth work in policy contexts as “actions directed towards young people regarding activities where they take part voluntarily, designed for supporting their personal and social development through non-formal and informal learning”, and youth workers as “people working in direct contact with young people, carrying out activities designed for supporting their personal and social development through non-formal and informal learning”[2]

THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE too has adopted a rather wide view of youth work, though it keeps its focus slightly more on young people. Though it recognises the social nature of youth work, it puts less emphasis on the social functions of the practice:

Youth work is a broad term covering a wide variety of activities of a social, cultural, educational, environmental and/or political nature by, with and for young people, in groups or individually. Youth work is delivered by paid and volunteer youth workers and is based on non-formal and informal learning processes focused on young people and on voluntary participation. Youth work is quintessentially a social practice, working with young people and the societies in which they live, facilitating young people’s active participation and inclusion in their communities and in decision making[3].

The co-operation programme between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the field of youth, known also as THE EU–COUNCIL OF EUROPE YOUTH PARTNERSHIP, maintains a rather broad understanding of youth work:

Youth work is a broad term covering a large scope of activities of a social, cultural, educational or political nature both by, with and for young people. Increasingly, such activities also include sport and services for young people. Youth work belongs to the area of “out-of-school” education, as well as specific leisure-time activities managed by professional or voluntary youth workers and youth leaders and is based on non-formal learning processes and on voluntary participation.

This definition builds on five features of youth work:

 Voluntary participation of young people

 Listening to the voice of young people

 Bringing young people together

 Connecting to young people’s lifeworld

 Broadening young people’s lifeworld.[4]

Youth work nowadays is seen to have a role in supporting participation in the formal education system and in learning in non-formal environments, in the transition to the labour market, in addressing social exclusion, in supporting civic activism and participation and in helping young people to obtain healthy habits. Also, violent radicalization and the social integration of refugees appear among social issues youth work has chosen to address.

[1] European Commission (2018), “Engaging, Connecting and Empowering young people: a new EU Youth Strategy”, Brussels, 22.5.2018 COM(2018) 269 final. https://ec.europa.eu/youth/sites/youth/files/youth_com_269_1_en_act_part1_v9.pdf.

[2] European Commission (2015), “Quality Youth Work – A common framework for the further development of youth work. Report from the Expert Group on Youth Work Quality Systems in the EU Member States”: http://ec.europa.eu/assets/eac/youth/library/reports/quality-youth-work_en.pdf.

[3] Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)4 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on youth work (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 31 May 2017 at the 1287th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies), https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectId=0900001680717e78, accessed 23 May 2018.

[4] Webpage of the EU-CoE youth partnership. Youth Work, a very diverse field of practice: https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/youth-partnership/youth-work1 , accessed 17 December 2018.