The Statement of National Youth Workers Associations

 

Dear Mr/Ms,

We would like to inform you that today we are launching the process of creating the European network of national youth workers associations.

European Network of Youth Workers Associations, as stated in the Final declaration, will advocate for better recognition, certification and validation of youth work as vocation and profession, and support professional growth of youth workers through more systematic international cooperation and exchange opportunities. It will strive to become an equal partner to decision makers on European level, actively participating and promoting the current thematic strategies of Council of Europe and European Union. Also, this network will support the processes of creating national associations of youth workers in the countries where they don’t already exist.

During the 3rd European Youth Work Convention, the representatives of national associations of Youth Workers across Europe had the opportunity to meet and exchange information about their national realities, quickly concluding the shared need for better networking on European level and a vision of having a joint voice of youth workers in European institutions.

In line with that, we cannot hide delight about the recommendation for creating European network of national youth workers associations in the Final declaration, as one of the proposed measures for enhancing recognition of youth work and role of youth workers. We see it as very important and valuable, because the initiative for creating a network, consisting of youth workers associations from different countries throughout European continent began to take shape already during the 2nd day of the Convention and immediately after.

At this moment, 12 national associations are making this statement of intent to establish a formal network in the following months. We’re dedicated to spreading this initiative wider, to other interested national networks of youth workers so we can include all relevant national associations. Our plan is to in the first months of the next year we have defined the structure of this network and developed an action plan for further steps.

We hope you will support our initiative, because only together we can ensure the implementation of The Bonn process, and this is our first step to it. Let’s put it into action.

 

Signatories of the initiative:

1. Czech Streetwork Association

2. Estonian Association of Youth Workers – Eesti Noorsootöötajate Kogu

3. Hellenic Youth Workers’ Association from Greece

4. Maltese Association of Youth Workers

5. National Association of Youth Workers in Serbia – NAPOR

6. National Association of professional youth workers in the Netherlands – BVJong

7. National informal and non-formal education association from Italy – NINFEA

8. Portuguese Youth Workers Association – APPJuventude

9. Union for Youth Work in Macedonia 10. Youth Workers Association of Georgia

11. Youth workers Association in Lithuania

12. Youth Workers Association of Ukraine

Zoom, 09 December 2020