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Youth work / Knowledge / Poli

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by Mark E. TaylorOn behalf of the Coyote editorial team

Hello readers!

If youre reading this edition on paper that means youve printed it yourself. Welcome to the new

online-only edition. We are experimenting with the possibilities this time and you will see that this

edition is more active, with links to sounds and sites. Please let us know what your reactions are to

this change, including what we can do to make Coyotemore interactive.

Our team attended the Zagreb symposium Youth policy co-operation in South-East Europe: the

role of information and counselling in fostering young peoples social inclusion and access to their

rights, which gave us the chance to meet many passionate advocators and practitioners in the eld

of youth information and counselling. As Morana Makovec (Head of department for youth policies in

the Croatian Ministry of Social Policy and Youth), one of the main organisers, told me that in addition

to learning about new tools for their regional information centres, she was hoping one of the main

messages coming from the event would be:

Information for all with the same standards and the same opportunities.

So contributions here really dive into the issues:

How do national policies support youth information?

What role does it play in setting up a Youth Capital of Europe?

How do young people inform each other?

What tools are available to d evelop the competences necessary to provide youth information and

counselling and what kind of professional prole is necessary?

Where do regional SALTOs focus their eorts?

How does working on a one-to-one basis help facilitate the transfer and use of information?

In addition, being in Zagreb, we could not help but stumble upon the Museum of Broken Relationships

(http://brokenships.com)which led us into an aectionate look at what the Partnership between the

European Commission and the Council of Europe in the eld of youth has meant for dierent actorsover the years.

Many thanks to the organisers of the symposium for allowing us full access to all areas!

Enjoy your reading!

Contents

Coyote editorial team:Mark E.Taylor (editor)Marlies PschlDavide CapecchiMatina Magkou

Co-ordination and

administrationMarta MedlinskaViktoria Karpatska

SPDP,Council of Europe

Design & layoutThe Big Family

PhotosShutterstock (throughout the magazine)Portraits provided by the authors exceptfor Fiona McIntyre,Sonja Mitter andMatina Magkou (photos by MarliesPschl);Photo of Marlies Pschl byManuel Riegler

Coyoteis published by the Partnership between the European Commission

and the Council of Europe in the eld of youth. The main activities of the

partnership are training courses, seminars, and network meetings involving

youth workers, youth leaders, trainers, researchers, policy makers, experts

and practitioners. Their results are disseminated through dierent channels

including this magazine.

Coyoteis not responsible for the content and character of the activities announced

in this magazine. It cannot guarantee that the events take place and assumes noresponsibility for the terms of participation and organisation.

Coyoteaims to use a form of English that is accessible to all. We aim to be

grammatically correct without losing the individuality or authenticity of the

original text. Our aim is that the language used in the magazine reects that

used in the activities described.

Some articles are oered by contribution and others are commissioned

specically by the editorial team in order to achieve a balance of style and

content. If you have an idea for an article then please feel free to contact the

editor.

Images provided by the European Youth InformAgency ERYICA in partnership with

Make sure you have the mostrecent versions of Acrobat Reader

and Flash Player to enjoy the newfeatures of Coyote!

Follow the bookmarksto move from one article

to another!

http://brokenships.com/http://brokenships.com/

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by Vedrana Bilii and Ivan MediA youth information centre based on Europeanpractices was a whole new challenge for Croatianassociations as they were only to starting tobuild their recognisability and to e arn credibilityin a society in which informing was still fairlyabstract and marginalised. In 2006, almost noorganisation, apart from the educational system,was providing organised youth information.Only a small number of organisations werefocused on informing and counselling, andonly in a small number of elds, while general

informing and developing media informationservices were completely neglected. Accordingly,the development of youth information centresin Croatia is strongly connected with the

development of information channels and withapproaching young people. Unfortunately, non-prot media (portals, TV and radio shows) are

signicantly underestimated in Croatia. There

is no comprehensive and continuous strategyfor their development, which is additionallyconstrained by bad legislation.

In 2013, some positive changes were made atthe national level in the context of legislativeamendments and funding for non-prot media.

It is also expected that the new national youthprogramme, for 2014 to 2018, will pay adequateattention to informing and counselling and thusprovide a better response to challenges regardingthe promotion of youth media. Their develop ment

hitherto, in spite of recognised needs, has notbeen encouraged adequately. The upcomingLaw on Youth, which will standardise and dene

roles and terminology, should contribute to theimprovement of the situation in the youth sector.

It is imperative to ensure, through an adequatnancing system, the sustainability of youth

information centre programmes. They are stibeing nanced thro ugh annual tend ers which ar

not called on a regular basis; they are usually latfor more than six months every year.

The membership of Croatian youth informatiocentres in the European Youth Information andCounselling Agency (ERYICA) has signicantl

strengthened the status of youth informationcentres, especially at the local level, where thmembership is perceived as proof of excellenceCommunication and meetings with governmenand ERYICA representatives, as well as thstructured work of organisations to strengthethe programmes of youth information centrehave improved the already good reputation othese organisations.

By signing the European Youth InformationCharter in 2012 the current governmenrecognised the problems concerning youthinforming and counselling and at the samtime acknowledged ERYICA and its membersSince the early stages of the youth informationcentres programmes, each organisation has beenapplying its knowledge and adapting its serviceto local conditions. The experience of the PRONCentre for Social Education is very importanbecause PRONI has been applying the exper ienc

of similar centres in Europe in its work from thstart. Although a signicant level of diversity in

the means of informing and in paying attention tocertain subjects is present even today, the sociainclusion of youth is a mutual goal.

A key event in the development of organised youth information a nd counselling in Croatia was an

initiative of the Ministry of Family Aairs, War Veterans and Intergenerational Solidarity during

the 2006 National Conference on Youth, which established concrete collaboration with organisations

that could, according to the estimation of the ministry and based on experience, carry out pilot

programmes for youth information centres in the four largest cities of Croatia: Split, Rijeka, Zagreb

and Osijek. The ocial government document summarising all the measures for

improvement of the status of youth in our society, the National Programme

of Action for Youth, recognised the need to establish centres which would

increase the level of youth information and inclusion and which could

proactively counsel young people and help them to nd adequate sources of

quality and complete information more easily.

Images by Marlies Pschl

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Since the very start, the ministry insisted on theinclusion of local authorities in the programmeimplementation. However, their engagementis often reduced to conducting tenders andsometimes to confrontations with opposingpolitical parties at the state level. Institutionsperceive the role of youth information centres,

and the possibility to make their services moreavailable to youth, very dierently. However, in

general, the possibilities for collaboration havenot yet been recognised. The city of Split hascollaborated extremely well with Info zona. On thelocal level, Info zona is perceived as an excellentpartner when it comes to projects focused on thesocial inclusion of youth. The city of Split andInfo zona are working together towards creatinga youth centre and thus using the potential ofall institutions and youth associations in thesurrounding region.

Croatias membership in the European Unionbrings many new challenges. This is why it isimperative for Croatia to become more actively

involved in European strategies in all elds. Inrecent years the Croatian Agency for Mobility andEU Programmes has been trying to implement aEurodesk service in partnership with civil societyorganisations. Progress has already been madein youth information centres, but it is necessaryto standardise the work of all the centres as soonas possible. Standardisation would facilitate allmutual actions, comparisons and evaluations. It isimportant to underline the need for the expansionand strengthening of the network of local youthinformation centres, especially in rural partsof the country and on the islands, where youngpeople are signicantly limited when it comes to

their personal growth. Government authorities onall levels must assume their role in this process,

which is why we hope that the new nationalyouth programme will provide a more adequateresponse to current challenges.

There is also an eort to conduct, through the

Croatian youth information centres, a strategyat the national level, which focuses primarilyon consolidating the capacities of organisationsworking in youth information, increasing workquality and expanding the network of youthinformation centres. This is why the membership

in ERYICA is very important. In addition to theexchange of information and knowledge, thismembership also gives us the possibility forcapacity consolidation through licensed andstandardised education, which has led to theestablishment of a Croatian team of trainers. Thisis essential when it comes to increasing the numberof workers educated for youth information.

Generally speaking, young people are mostlyinterested in information regarding the elds of

education, mobility and employment. In someyouth information centres, the priority is to provideindividual youth informing and counselling. Otherspay more attention to public discussions, roundtables, lectures and other similar forms of group

informing. Activities of youth information centres,outside the facilities of the centres, are focusedon web-portal maintenance, media appearances,guest lectures in schools and presentations atstands during public events, co-organisation oflectures and participation in public discussionsand other similar events.

Some youth information centres have developedtheir own, original ways of providing information.For example, an event called Info kopa is

organised within the RICM (regional youthinformation centre) of the city of Split. Duringthis event, professional speakers visit secondaryschools and inform young people about the elds

covered by the national youth programme through

a series of short and dynamic presentations. Anadvisory committee, formed by representatives

of institutions and organisations that work withyoung people, is a successful model of collaboration,development and information exchange betweendierent sectors. This model came to life in 2009

at the RICM in Osijek and other youth informationcentres are accepting it gradually. In order toestablish an even closer contact with young people

at the RICM of Osijek, a youth information faircalled Informiranje mladih Osijek (IMOS, YouthInformation Osijek) is held every year. During thefair, institutions and organisations present theirservices to young people.

Info zona started its work in 2006 as a non-formal coalition of associations. Since then, it hasbeen constantly developing in the eld of youth

information and youth policy. Info zona basesits work on sociological research into the needfor youth information, which the organisationconducted in the area of Split in 2011. Theresearch conrmed that young people today

can be informed, counselled and encouraged toactively participate in social life while using means

and services which are interesting to them. It isimportant to emphasise that printed brochuresand yers, as well as public discussions, which are

the most common means of youth informationand inclusion in dierent activities within many

associations, are considered dull by young people.

Info zona pays a considerable amount of attentionto informing through dierent types of media,

such as the Internet, radio shows and TV reportson local networks and uploaded on Internetchannels. The diversity of information channels isextremely signicant when you consider that many

young people live in i solated areas, especially onthe islands, where young people in general areconstrained in many ways, including from the lack

of services which could strengthen their personalgrowth.

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What is it like to be a teenager in need of information in Zagreb? I put onmy sneakers and set out to nd the answer at the Youth Info Centre Zagreb,

which is a project of the association Zamisli. This might already show youthat Im not that young at heart anymore, because as I will nd out later on,

most requests are actually happening online via e-mail or Facebook. Thisseems understandable since the youth info centre is located in the south ofthe city, 20 minutes by tram from the central square. The oce of Zamisli is

a small but friendly space, packed with books, folders and leaets. The six

women who work there are like living books: they have lots of informationand experience to share and like in youth information, each of them

joined in the conversation to give her views and expertise.

Zamisli (Imagine) could be called an octopus in the youtheld: it is not only one of the four regional youth info centres in

Croatia (covering Zagreb and the provinces in the north), but theorganisation also provides counselling and support to teenagers

with disabilities. Being a professional youth counsellor, Ivana tells

me doesnt mean that we know everything. But we do researchand contact people who know the answer, so we can gather all the

necessary information or connect the young people with them.

The organisation tries to react in very exible ways to the needs of the

young people that come to consult them for example they invented aspecial typewriting service for deaf students, as Svjetlana Marijon (presidentof Zamisli) told me. One of the deaf students told us: I would like tostudy, but I am not able to participate in class so what can you do? Weremembered that at a conference in Innsbruck, we saw that someone wastyping for a deaf participant. We thought: thats an example of good practice;we could try that.

One of their aims for the future is to spread out, says Ivana Kuzmanic: Weare hoping to have a bigger youth centre not just a youth info centre, but areal youth centre. This is an ambitious project since youth info centres and

youth clubs, for example, usually have to be in separate spaces in Croatia.Were now in the starting phase, but eventually we have to talk to the cityabout the space we would like. The problem is that you need constant moneyif you want to maintain the quality of your work. The fact that their fundingis always project based makes it dicult for Zamisli to plan for t he future.

But the organisation wouldnt be called Imagine if they hadnt alreadygot an idea on how to make their plan possible. Maja Dragojevic imaginesthe future like this: Now that Croatia is entering the European Union, thestructure fund will be open for us and we would like to apply for it. Like thiswe will have more chances for our ideas to be recognised.

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10

An interview with Babis Papaioannou by Matina Magkou

Images provided by Babis Papaioannou and Yiannis Boutaris

The European Youth Capital (EYC) is the title awarded to a Europeancity for the period of one year, during which it will be given the chanceto showcase, through a multi-faceted programme, its youth-relatedcultural, social, political and economic life and development. The EYCinitiative encourages the implementation of new ideas and innovative

projects, with regard to active participation of young people in society,and seeks to present a role model for the further development of youth

policies in other European municipalities.1

1. To learn more: http://europeanyouthcapital.org(date accessed 17.07.2013)

You dont become a European Youth Capital every day.Having this young but still prestigious title is of a greatimportance for a city and a unique opportunity to invest in

youth. How is the issue of youth information and counsellingtreated by a youth capital? Thessaloniki has the title in 2014and Coyote interviewed Babis Papaioannou, Co-ordinator ofThessaloniki 2014, to nd out what the city plans in this direction.

Allow me to start by giving you some historical background of youthpolicy in Greece. The rst time that the government and the public

sector in general paid any attention to youth policy was in 1982,

which brought in the same year the establishment of the GeneralSecretariat for Youth. Since then, several structures for youth

information and counselling were developed (under the title ofyouth information centres); rst in Athens and Thessaloniki (during

the 1980s) and then to the rest of the country (during the 1990s).

The youth information centres achieved very impressive results incertain cases concerning youth information, youth mobility andsupport for local action, while also successfully connecting their workwith that of the local NGOs. These centres methodically encouragedhundreds if not thousands of young people to be active in projectswith the EU, the Council of Europe or other organisations. Today,the centres still exist, but in my opinion, in a dierent form which

is not really connected with the modern times and challenges. Forexample, some of these centres arent up-to-date on the Internet,they dont use social media, they dont follow or constructivelysupport youth NGOs and they cannot help young people to respondto the recent crisis. It is easier for a young person in Athens, in

Thessaloniki or in Greece in general, to nd the information he orshe seeks on the Internet and social networks or through a studentor youth NGO than through some of the existing centres.

http://europeanyouthcapital.org/http://europeanyouthcapital.org/

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Again we should start by providing some information on how themunicipality of Thessaloniki won the title of European YouthCapital. I believe it is interesting since it coincides with a very badmoment in Greek history. In January 2011, the country was inthe eye of the storm; Greece was not considered as a trustworthycountry and was at its nadir in terms of international prestige. Thiswas the result of the negative news and images of the country inEuropean and global media. This was when we decided to apply forthe title for 2014. Moreover, we agreed from the beginning that wewere going to be open and democratic. We agreed that this was anopportunity for social innovation and mitigation of youth exclusion.So instead of consulting experts and private companies specialisedin the development of proposals, we invited the citys youth, youthNGOs and people involved in youth issues to an open dialogue. Thedialogue concerned the city and youth problems and dreams, and

provided the space for proposing and exploring possible future, localyouth projects.

The results of this process were amazing: for four months,Thessaloniki became an open social laboratory. We applied non-formal education methods which allowed the deployment of freshsuggestions for Thessalonikis youth, while recognising the localactions in which the municipality of Thessaloniki had to investresources for the upcoming period and oered almost all the

material which was required for the European Youth Capitalcandidacy. Moreover, apart from the applicationsmaterial, the municipality started to formulate anew local youth policy which focused on youthinformation and support. The European YouthCapital programme ensures the strengtheningof existing youth structures and the enhancement

of networking (local, national and international levels). Inaddition, it is improving the co-operation between the EuropeanYouth Capital 2014 team and local youth NGOs and initiatives,while supporting the development of youth structures. We aretrying to build and support youth structures in a way that can besustainable for the municipality of Thessaloniki and the rest of thelocal municipalities from 2015 onwards.

For the European Youth Capital 2014 the issue ofyouth information and counselling is a top priority.In this direction, we have started to circulate amonthly e-newsletter informing the local, nationaland international communities about activities onyouth policy and its implementation and aboutthe activities of the European Youth Capital 2014programme. On our Facebook page (that countsmore than 22 500 friends), we are publishing dailyinfo posts and answers to questions put forward byyoung people. There one can also nd our online

helpdesk.

The municipality of Thessaloniki, taking theopportunity of the European Youth Capitalprogramme, is continuing a social experiment inthe city with the aim to establish this dialogue ina continuous way; it has created youth counsellingand youth support structures with the activeparticipation of young people and youth NGOs.From the experience until now, we can see thatpeople who are engaged with the youth movementeld and youth NGOs, and are aware of current

European youth policies, can provide moreeective youth solutions and proposals. Moreover,

the people that work at the youth centres should beable to understand the EU and Council of Europecommunications and actions, while being able to

adapt European youth policies to the local levelby using open consultation methods and tools (asthey derive from non-formal education practices).The European Youth Capital 2014 team members,who deal with these issues, have the characteristicsdescribed above and have been or still are activemembers of civil society in Thessaloniki.

Concerning the type of questions submitted the European Youth Capital 2014 until now, thstatistics show that the dominant (45%) interelies in proposals for local projects. Most peophave good ideas but they dont know how to nan

them. The second type of question (30%) conceryouth employment, youth entrepreneurshthe social economy and even requests for a joThe third type (20%) concerns establishininternational co-operation and internationgood practices exchange. Also, some want just communicate their experience of programmwhich have already taken place in some other parof the world. Finally, a small percent (5%) is wh

we call building youth policy which includinstitutional issues. This type tries to establish ainteractive relationship between young people anthe municipality of Thessaloniki that embracparticipation and co-decision taking for younpeople.

On one hand, we aim to be consistent and answer all the questions and proposals from thyoung people or older people who are concerneabout youth. On the other hand, we try to extraconclusions on the trends in Thessaloniki and whthe main problems are, while having in our minthat the crisis is still present in the city and thcountry. By using this prism, we work to responto questions that address the most crucial curre

youth problems.

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In the last three years, we have travelled a lotacross Europe and elsewhere in order to studygood examples and practices in the youth eld,

including procedures for constructive co-operationbetween NGOs and municipalities. I should saythat we found a lot in Europe. They come fromcities that survived periods of de-industrialisationwhich negatively aected their societies, from

cities which were in transition from one socialsystem to another or from cities which were led byan inspired mayor who had a vision and made adierence. I will avoid naming these cities, but I

will not avoid saying that we will try to adapt andimplement as many good examples as possible.Our goal is to develop a new youth support model,

conceived with the Greek reality in mind andwhich has as its foundations EU and Council ofEurope youth policies.

The legacy of European Youth Capital 2014 in thecity is what concerns us the most. All the peopleworking or volunteering for the European YouthCapital in 2014, from the mayor himself to thelocal NGOs, are condent that 2014 will be a

very interesting year for youth in Thessalonikiand Greece. The coincidence of the Greek EUPresidency in the rst semester of 2014, the

European Parliament elections in the middle ofthe year, the EU programming period 2014-2020,the ongoing debate on the future of Europe andthe European Agenda 2020 but also the anxious

eort of the Greek youth to survive this socio-

economic crisis all provide an amazing, creativeand challenging environment.

Our goal for 2015 and onwards takes intoconsideration all the eorts and huge resources

invested by the municipality from 2011 to 2014 andhas three axes. The rst axis is the development of

a permanent structure for local youth informationand support. This structure can be the conversionto a complex youth information centre whichwill take advantage of the local experience andconserve interactive youth spaces (there is nosuch structure currently in Thessaloniki). Thesecond axis is the establishment and maintenanceof open, eective and democratic permanent

youth consultation processes for the municipalityof Thessaloniki. This process will start by thedevelopment of a local youth action plan whichtakes into consideration the proposals of theCouncil of Europe on local youth participation

and on the Local Youth Council Foundation, as itis a good tool for ensuring tangible positive eects

for young people. The third axis is the repetitionand institutionalisation of the best actions of theEuropean Youth Capital 2014 programme. Thecrucial criterion for selecting the best actions isgoing to be their acceptance by local young people.

The European Youth Capital 2014 is a big bet.We are taking the bet and we have to prove bothto the European Youth Forum, which trusted uswith the title, and to the local youth that we canrespond to their expectations. We are obliged towin the bet, especially for the local youth. Theyhave believed in the municipality and in the city

and they have supported our actions from the verybeginning. And so did the rest of the citizens whocelebrated with us when Thessaloniki was declaredthe next European Youth Capital. We believe thatthe legacy of Thessaloniki as capital will be onlypositive, not only for the youth of Thessaloniki, butfor the entire city.

Youth participation and volunteerism were the core valueat the heart of our candidacy in 2011 for the EuropeaYouth Capital 2014, which was prepared and submittein collaboration with 150 youth organisations of the citand more than 250 volunteers. Hosting the EuropeaYouth Capital is a unique opportunity for us to create communication platform for our youth to openly discuss anexchange ideas.

Additionally, it gave us the chance to re-activate the YoutInformation Centre Network, in collaboration with thGeneral Secretariat for Youth. The main oces of the yout

information centre are now at the city hall and this allowus to considerably improve the information and counsellinservices provided to young people. We see the EuropeaYouth Capital 2014 as an opportunity to build long-lastininfrastructure in the service of our youth.

Yiannis BoutarisMayor of Thessaloniki

Babis Papaioannou is a youth worker and iscurrently the Co-ordinator of the European YouthCapital Thessaloniki 2014. He has been active inthe civil society of his city for more than 25 years

and has a lot of experience on youth issues inSouth-East Europe. He is a founding member ofthe Network of Voluntary Organisations of thecity of Thessaloniki and has been a member of theboard of the European Youth Forum.

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by Matina MagkouImages by Marlies Pschl If the rst thing that comes to your mind when you

think about a triangle is geometry or a (special)love aair, you are not too wrong, but you might

be missing something there. Using the termgolden triangle in youth work is a reference tothe interrelationship that exists (or should exist)between youth policy, practice and research. Thegeometrical form of a triangle designates theway these three aspects of youth work are linkedto each other and represents what I would call aholistic approach to youth issues. There is ofcourse debate concerning the accuracy of theterm, since some argue that this golden triangleneeds to be enlarged to a square incorporating

youth organisations and young people.1 But thisis another conversation. Lets concentrate on ourtriangle.

The principle behind the symposium held inZagreb was actually to bring actors from all threeelds (remember the triangle corners) together.

Even if youth policy makers, practitioners andresearchers work in the same eld, they rarely have

the opportunity to sit at the same table, exchangeviews or nurture each others work. This becomeseven more complicated at the international level.Accepting this reality, just the fact of being at thissymposium seems to be a kind of a privilege andtriggers even more my curiosity conversations.

Curiosity conversation #1:from practice to policy?

The rst person I talked to was Ante Martic in a

coee shop outside the symposium hotel. It is quite

an untypical interview since I knew Ante from thepast when he was working for the European YouthForum in Brussels. Ante is today Head of the Sector

for Youth at the Ministry of Social Policy and Youin Croatia. But my experience comes from mNGO work and the European Youth Forum, hsaid. Coming back to Croatia from Brussels, Anworked for the youth information centre in Rijeand then joined the public administration anworked in the co-ordinating institution for civsociety. When in 2011 there was a political decisioto create a strong youth sector, they proposed mto take this position given my experience on thlocal, national and international level. When I wworking for the youth NGO sector I never thougI would do this, but, as you understand, I couldnsay no.

I then asked Ante what was the situation of youtpolicy in his country. In Croatia, for the last 2years the youth sector was somehow neglected anmost of the developments have been the result grass-roots initiatives or nanced through tende

for projects coming from EU funds and embassieIn the mid-2000s the scene developed but styouth policy was not articulated in an inclusior sustainable way. There was no commitmeto developing a proper legislative framework what was there was more of a strategy than a repolicy. While youth organisations and activitiwere developing in many directions at the samtime, the main priority of the institutional suppoin recent years went around the creation of

legislative framework (a law for youth) that coube translated into a sustainable and evidencbased approach to youth policy.

I wondered how his practical experience hahelped him in his current role. He answered wita smile that for years I was on the other side the equation and this has helped me to learn thprocesses.

1. http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/documents/Publications/Coyote/16/arriving.pdf (date accessed 31.07.2013)

I should start by saying that what you will read below is not a typicalinterview. It is actually four dierent conversations driven by curiosity:

if we are in a symposium on youth information and counselling inSouth-Eastern Europe, what makes this region so special and what

are the common (if there are any) challenges, wishes or opportunitiesregarding youth information and counselling among countries in thisregion? This curiosity pushed me to look for free moments during thesymposium to talk with four dierent people representing what we call

the golden triangle of youth work.

If you are also curious, read below to see what I found out.

The setting:Youth policy co-operation in South-East Europe,

Symposium on the role of information and counselling in fostering

young peoples social inclusion and access to their rights organised

by the Partnership between the European Commission and the

Council of Europe in the eld of youth, the Ministry of Social Policy

and Youth of Croatia, ERYICA and SALTO RC SEE

Dates:19 and 20 June 2013

Interviewees:Ante Martic (policy), Sladjana Petkovic (research),

Zoran Ilieski and Jan Kulenovic (practice)

Duration of interviews:30 min to 90 min

Interview locations:coee shop outside the symposium hotel/

corridor outside plenary room/hotel restaurant

Photo opportunity location: white chairs on 1st oor lobby

http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/documents/Publications/Coyote/16/arriving.pdfhttp://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/documents/Publications/Coyote/16/arriving.pdf

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Curiosity conversation #4:what is the role of research in this direction?

I could say that I am one of the pioneers when it comes to the promotionand development of youth information in ex-Yugoslavia, especially Serbia

and Montenegro, said Sladjana when I asked her to present herself. I wasone of the trained youth workers and counsellors and I worked at the localand national levels rst to raise awareness of decision makers and create

opportunities, like services within existing organisations such as the Oce

for Prevention of Drug Abuse. Sladjana has experience in youth work from apractice point of view, but tod ay she is a researcher in the youth eld and one

of the experts of the European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy.2At themoment of the interview she told me that she is doing a policy, institutionaland legal analysis which is going to identify gaps in dierent areas of youth

employment and participation in the region. Based on this research andother input, a specic programme is going to be supported by the United

Nations. This sounds promising, but is it really eective? Sladjana thinks that

research needs to be put in the agenda it is the starting point. F rom myexperience and from the recent UN point of view, what has been highlightedas a main obstacle for low youth motivation and participation was lack ofaccess to information, she added. Youth information and counselling are

the priority needs of young people in all policy areas, especially when it comesto youth employment and participation; however, there is a lack of capacitiesof public institutions to answer to these burning needs and in Montenegrofor example, international institutions are taking over, said Sladjana.

2. http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/ekcyp/index

Curiosity conversation #2:I need an example of what happensin practice

I joined Zoran Ilieski for lunch on the second day ofthe symposium. Zoran is Executive Director of theNational Coalition of Youth Organisations (SEGA)

in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.During the last four years, we have been tryingto develop a youth information system andmechanisms that will provide opportunities foryoung people to be in touch with the informationthey need. We need to take into consideration thatin the country there was no previous experience norany memory of this compared to other Europeancountries, he explained.

By becoming a partner of EYRICA they tried touse dierent tools from information centres in

other European countries and to negotiate withthe government. But the rst steps were very

dicult, he said, as nobody knew what you

were talking about, and they couldnt understand

the value of information systems. Today, theissue of youth information is still unknown by thestakeholders, the government, as well as youngpeople themselves, he explained. In 2010 theyopened the rst youth information and counselling

centre in Prilep. The local government has providedthe facilities but the nancial support from the

central government was only guaranteed for ayear. Although there is a political commitmentto open youth information, there is no nancial

implication in the governments budget, he said.

Curiosity conversation #3:one more example from practice,please

I approached Jan Kulenovi because my curiosity

drove me to ask for another example from apractice perspective. Jan made a presentation

during the symposium on good practices in the eldof employment and entrepreneurship and allowme to be subjective at this point what he said wasquite motivating. Jan is the Executive Director andFounder of the Youth Information Agency (OIA)in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which works for theimprovement of the position of young people andtheir participation in society. I need to put it intocontext, he said when I asked him to explain mehow the agency was founded. Twelve years ago,when the agency was founded, the key players inthe youth sector were international organisationsbecause of the post-conict and transition period.

Therefore, the Open Society Fund, as part of theiryouth strategy, established a year-long strategythat afterwards evolved into an NGO with youth

information as one of its pillars of work. Therewas no and there i s still no government support;funding comes from international organisations,he explained. Jan mentioned that since thebeginning we are trend-setters for a lot of dierent

tools and approaches, he explained and added thatall our activities are improving the situation ofyouth ocers, teachers in schools and politicians;

it is a constant, ongoing process. In his opinion,what is important right now is to focus on moreco-ordinated and individualised programmes inthe eld of youth employment (entrepreneurship,

career counselling, mentorship programmes) andhe explained that in his country, in 2012, theyopened an innovative social innovation incubatorwhich created synergies between dierent

activities (information points, mentorship, start-up support, networking space) which reachedaround 2 000 young people in Sarajevo. This is aninteresting model that, in co-operation with otherexperts, can be transferable to other contexts orcommunities, he said.

http://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/ekcyp/indexhttp://youth-partnership-eu.coe.int/youth-partnership/ekcyp/index

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All four curiosity conversations evolved around the issue of challenges faced in the region concerningyouth information and counselling. Zoran thinks that youth information in the region is at a startingpoint and young people in the region dont know they have the right to information. Jan mentionedthat the disadvantaged position of young people, the lack of an institutional framework (recognisingthat maybe in Croatia there is one, but quite new) are among the common challenges in the region. We

still have to ght and to promote why youth information is needed instead of working on next steps ofdening creative ways and approaches to youth information; it is a pre-period where we still ght for

recognition, he said.

Ante underlined that rst of all there is a big problem of understanding the added value of this kind

of work and he explained that in many countries of SEE, young people are seen through a prism ofprevention and protection instead of participation and empowerment. Eorts to help young people

with their self-orientation or involving them in decision making are often seen as encouraging politicalambitions. Politicians need to see quick and nal results.

Although SEE countries share geographical and historical connections, Ante mentioned that the situationin South-East Europe is dierent from country to country and added that in Serbia for example there

has been a lot of work in terms of legislation; there are youth agencies and oces on the local level and

an umbrella organisation for youth organisatons has been put into place with state support. Croatiasintegration into the EU has also allowed youth information centres to connect a lot with Eurodesk andother international networks, while still working with counterparts in the region. Ante feels that Croatia

has the responsibility to transfer its experience to other EU candidate countries within the region. AllBalkan countries are aspiring members, the question is only about the speed, but sooner or later they willjoin the EU and Croatia can oer a lot of advice based on our experience.

Lack of funds was a problem identied by all of them. However, Jan underlined that, from a practical

point of view, the contribution that we need primarily from governments is not only through budgetallocations but it can also be through infrastructure support, creating the space for ocial links between

youth practice and information provision with the school system and support to NGOs and conditionsthat can create long-term co-operation between the educational system, employers and the privatesector.

Can a triangle be solid if there is no communication and co-operation between its corners? This wasquestion that bothered all the interviewees and my curiosity drove me to nd some answers on wha

could be done.

Policy, especially in the region, needs to come down from the ivory tower, said Ante and added thathe only way to do it is by establishing an i nclusive, sustainable and participatory process that involvthe practitioners, otherwise policy is only created to provide a framework for a portion of the populatio

to enjoy their rights, while the ones dealing with i mplementation or working with a certain target grouknow best the technical and content needs when i t comes to youth information and counselling.

Ante commented that in Croatia there is an eort to connect research with policy and practice. Th

engage researchers in dealing with strategic and legal documents. They also did extensive research oyouth needs and they based the new national youth programme on the results. But as Ante noted, theare some limitations to research outcomes, especially when it is ordered research, it depends whcommissioned it, he said. Another problem that he identied is t hat research needs to be inclusive of th

real population it examines and that if there are no satisfactory data, then the research is not completIn recent decades, every ve years the dierent is huge, therefore we need full insight and updated dat

we cannot rely on selective ones, he added.

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Just before the symposiums end, I nally managed to put them all

four of them together (with the help of Marlies) on white chairs,hopefully not only for a photo opportunity. We had four peopleinterviewed but only three chairs available because a trianglehas only three corners. If I asked the four of them to play musicalchairs, they should all be able to win because a golden triangleonly works when all its three corners are held together: research,policy and practice in youth work should be interconnected. So,dont be surprised if Jan and Zoran (who were both interviewed tobring in a perspective from youth work practice) are sharing the

same chair we had to apply the pigeonhole principle as it iscalled in mathematics.3We could still spend hours thinking whereto place young people in this photo if we wanted to represent thegeometry of the youth sector, but I think we can leave this questionfor a future mathematical problem-solving exercise.

Zoran thinks that youth research is one of theissues to be included as a permanent practice inyouth work in order to ensure real information onthe needs of young people. In that direction, inmy country there is no youth i nformation research

and having information on the topics, the qualityand type of information that young people needwill allow us (practitioners) to better dene the

approach on how to deliver it to them, he said.

For Zoran, what practitioners need from policymakers is strong political commitment for youthinformation and allocating the specic budget for

youth information support. But he underlined thatthe issue of how to put youth information on thepriority list of politicians, since they are the peoplethat take decisions remains one of the challengesfor practitioners. Zoran considers that the supportof the Council of Europe and other internationalinstitutions could be valuable in order to involvedeeper the politicians through recommendations

to the government.

A research project done by the UN, The voice ofyouth, was an example of how we occasionallyneed concrete, evidence-based statistics andanalysis. It is interesting to see from a researchpoint of view how they access this informationand with a quality analysis we can decide whichapproach is more suitable, said Jan. However,what he pointed out was that, there is nostructured approach to research, it happens ad hocand its pretty improvised, thats why I am not surethat this type of ad hoc information exchange canreally have any impact.

Evidence-based decision making is super

important, the role of research in this directionis super important, but what is most important isthe communication between the famous triangle,underlined Sladjana. Luckily, symposiums like thisone try to promote of this kind of communicationthat is so needed.

For Ante, the ideal information and counsellingservice would be a space with little or noboundaries, a welcoming place where youngpeople would come and get what they needwithout administrative burdens. A youth-friendly

place with peer communication, liberated fromprejudice. It cannot be a place where you arejudged. Its place where people can nd shelter

from their own worries. And of course it needsto be well equipped in technical terms and with awell-trained sta.

Zoran said with a smile that he wishes thatsmall villages have a youth information point as astructure especially for those young people whowant to have a future to live in the village.

Jan foresees that youth information in the nextyears will be inuenced by new technologies just

think that ve years ago in 2008, almost no one in

Bosnia was using Facebook, therefore it is dicult

to predict. For him, youth information needs tobe immediately looking and updated towards newtechnologies and in close co-operation with youngpeople, but what will stay the same is the need fora youth-friendly language and approach.

Youth information should be put on the agenda.I mean seriously. I am not sure how, but the EUand other international institutions can help topressure governments in order to prioritise theissue. Then we should seriously analyse existingresources, see what public institutions oer and

what they can oer it is the only way to become

sustainable and visible, said Sladjana. Ante fromhis side also made this point clear when he said thatno matter if you are an activist, or a researcher or

a policy maker, no matter on which side you stand,you contribute somehow to the improvement ofthe lives of young people; the ideal situation isnot an antagonistic one and all actors should beworking together instead of on opposite sides.

3. In mathematics, the pigeonhole principle states that if n items a re put into m pigeonholes with n > m, then atleast one pigeonhole must contain more than one item. So, imagine that four pigeons need to be placed i nto threepigeonholes. Can it be done? The answer is yes but there is one catch. The catch is that no matter how the pigeonsare placed, one of the pigeonholes must contain more than one pigeon. The idea is simple, isnt it ?

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by Evaldas Rupkus

The right to information is so self-explanatory and such anintegral part of our everyday life that one could wonder whywe need specic information services for youngsters. In the

same way, for me, an urgent need for youth informationand counselling is just too obvious to be ignored. I observedmy classmates and friends who were having a lot of troublemaking decisions about what to do with their lives afterschool, or to nish it at all. It was especially hard for them

because of their background: living in a small town, distantfrom all economic, academic or cultural centres in a post-Soviet country which has just joined the EU. Therefore theyfelt the change only because a lot of EU ags were around

but they were not experiencing the opportunities the EUhad to oer. Some of them were facing nancial obstacles

or social problems in families which meant they were notable to make their own lives better than their parentsmanaged to. Now some of them have managed to nd their

place in society and to create their own businesses andfamilies here, others are doing this successfully outsideof Lithuania mainly in the UK. Sadly, a couple of themhave not managed to nish their education because of early

pregnancy or a lack of motivation they still cannot seewhere they are heading.

There are some success and failure stories, however

most of the time those who are doing what societyexpects them to do and who belong to the so-calledmiddle class are not doing just ne or even OK.

They are gaining education, however only onethird of them are sure about their choice of studies,most of them are still unemployed or poorly paidand very dependent on circumstances that willnd them on the spot. Most of them still do not

know how dierent things function; how to solve

nancial, social, health problems (lets not forget,

that Lithuania is still a leader in suicide rates);what opportunities in general are open for them.During a couple years of work as a Eurodesk relayI noticed that something more holistic in terms ofgeneral youth information and counselling wasneeded for our youngsters. They do not need to

be in the worst possible, vulnerable situation forevery youngster the transition period to adulthoodis a crucial time of their li fe, where parents cannothelp in every case, because in their time most ofthe things we have today worked in another way.So they need some professional and youth-friendlysupport.

Setting up structuredinformation services in LithuaniaWhen I started working as the Eurodesk Lithuanianational co-ordinator, I noticed that youngsterswere searching for information in very dierent

ways. They needed some down-to-earthcommunication in language they understood so

we established the I know it all programme forrenewed online services a revamped portal andsocial media. Together with the national agency

for the Youth in Action programme we establishe

a young journalists network, which still works aa peer-to-peer network and provides content foour portal by youngsters themselves. Howevthis was not enough, because quite a lot of younpeople still do not know about us or do not havaccess to Internet or ICT skills. Therefore wmade a pilot of youth information centres aEurodesk representations in regions of LithuaniThe main task for them was to implement worthat could be done outside Vilnius, reach out tyoung people where they are and let them knoabout us and answer their questions directly othe spot. It works, it is needed, but there is a neefor a bigger second step: establishing generaliyouth information services with trained youtinformation workers.

Thinking about the structure of youth informatioand counselling at national and local levels startein 2011 after a Nordbuk seminar, where therwas a small working group on youth informatioby Finnish colleagues and representatives froERYICA. While sharing experiences and seeinwhat generalist youth information actually is,got the feeling that this is exactly what we werstill lacking and had been looking for. Just aftethis we organised an international seminar on thstructure of youth information with our regionpartners from neighbouring countries anERYICA. The Lithuanian Youth Council (LiJOThas attained the goal of establishing nationand local structures for youth information an

counselling (YIC) in the national programme development of youth policy, which now is thmain starting point for further work on this topic

Images provided by LiJOT - Lithuanian

Images courtesy of LiJOT

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Compendium: to produce

arguments for policy makersThe compendium has been divided into fourparts: concept and development, state of the artand impact as a policy measure, ERYICA andits services, establishing youth information andcounselling structures at national level. The rst

part of this publication outlines the denition

of YIC through a brief presentation of youthinformation history major developments,determinants in which the concept has emerged.For this purpose not only existing documents wereanalysed, but also pioneers of the concept of YICin dierent European countries were interviewed,

they are contributing to the publication with theirown articles and insights. Since the compendium

should be universal in all European countries,a short overview of international institutions,organisations and documents has been prepared.The Council of Europe and the European Unioninput into YIC and other European networkssuch as Eurodesk or the European Youth CardAssociation (EYCA) will be introduced to readers.Probably the best way to understand how YICworks, and what the dierent models of structuring

it on national levels are, is to present functioningmodels in dierent national realities. Looking

at descriptions of Austrian, Finnish, French,Portuguese, Croatian as well as Scottish, Welshand Flemish YIC structures by the same criteriaallows the reader to compare dierences. It will

include short comments not only from pioneers

who are most often youth workers, academics orrepresentatives of NGOs, but also from poli ticianswho have supported this new way of working withyoung people from the beginning. Therefore it willhelp todays initiators to see arguments which havehelped in the past to promote the establishment ofYIC services.

Impact of youth information

Is it possible to measure?The compendium is not only a compilation documents on YIC which have already beecreated by dierent actors, this tool also aims t

make YIC more concrete and to provide initiatowith information on the impact that YIC hfor youngsters, the society and state. Every daduring all these years of work in thousands youth information centres in dierent countrie

youth information workers see that their work needed and what impact they have on the lives young people. So the key to demonstrating thlies in the method. Meanwhile there is an ongoinYIC services users survey, which will provide uwith some very concrete quantitative data on th

impact of YIC services. The second part of thcompendium will include a summary of interviewwith co-ordinators of national YIC structures analso academics will explain their research, whicshould be transferred into a qualitative analysiWe will provide readers with a list of problems thYIC services can solve. Today, youth unemploymeis one of the biggest obstacles for successful youintegration into society, which is why we will gmore into detail on YIC and possible synergiewith youth guarantee and youth employment general. To sum up, if the rst part of the rst-a

kit for initiators of YIC on national level is mointroductory and provides an overview of YIC, thsecond part aims to give some quantitative anqualitative data and arguments which should he

initiators and lobbyists to explain and defend thidea of YIC and show its impact.

Generalist youth information and counselling amain concerns of the European Youth Informatioand Counselling Agency (ERYICA), which hbeen dealing with this t opic since 1986. ERYIC

A first-aid kit for initiators

While we are moving along with the creation process, thereare still plenty of European countries which still do nottake this existing pillar of youth policy and a great tool forworking with young people into consideration. Especiallycountries with the same historical past as Lithuania donot see the need to have a clear system of how to provideyoungsters with more than specialised information services(most of the time for employment only). However youngpeople are moving on without this help and struggle withdierent decisions which are important for them, and

should be for the state. As I started thinking and collectinginformation on the establishment of youth informationand counselling structures in my country, I noticed alack of them. It is great to have the opportunity for yourown innovation and creativity, however there are someexperiences in other countries that are better to avoid.

Of course, many good practices could be adjusted rightaway to your national context, you just need to know them.A general overview of the history and determinants of youthinformation in Europe is also where everyone interestedshould be starting his or her research. Another veryimportant aspect for initiators of YIC structures is havinga list of arguments and some empirical data on the impactof YIC, when it comes to lobbying and the policy-makingprocess, where it is very easy to get lost. Thats why ERYICAcame up with the idea of having a publication a kind ofcompendium on national YIC structures, which would behelpful for initiators of youth information and counsellingstructures at the national level and for youth policy expertsand politicians who are making decisions on this issue. Arst-aid kit is a practical tool, which I also needed when

I started working on explaining what generalist YIC is, andwhat it is not. The compendium also aims to gather themost important facts and gures and to put some structure

to the essence of generalist YIC to make it more clearand concrete for everyone. Let me show you what arewe preparing and how helpful it could be if you arethinking of starting a YIC structure in your country.

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is still actively helping countries which areconsidering the establishment of YIC services andpromoting this actively at European level. ERYICAoers a wide range of services, which can be very

helpful when starting a YIC structure at nationallevel. That is the main reason why the thirdchapter of the compendium will present dierent

methodologies of training, good practice sharing

platforms (such as SHERYICA), publications andprojects created and oered by ERYICA. This

should help interested organisations or even policymakers in the debates on how YIC should look intheir countries and provide them with a packagefor a successful and easier start, preparation of therst professional youth information workers and

international co-operation.

Guidelines for the beginner:how to start?Another important goal of the compendium on YICnational structures is to enable beginners to plantheir own model YIC structure in their nationalcontext based on experiences of countries where i talready exists. With input from dierent national

co-ordinators the compendium will presentpossible ways to provide youth information atnational level. It includes all the main steps ofthe process starting with a situation analysis ofyoung people needs, nding a suitable role for YIC

in the national context of youth policy, awarenessbuilding and lobbying policy makers, getting YIC asa part of youth policy in national and regional law.A very important point is to decide which modelof governance of the YIC system will be chosen,so readers will have the possibility to see thecomparison of existing models with their strengthsand weaknesses. Ensuring stable nancing in a

time of restructuring of public nances is a timely

aspect, so some links to existing nancial schemes

will be provided. Hiring and training sta, quality

of services and how to measure it, together withsome ideas on how to set up the regional networkand how international co-operation helps ensurequality will enable initiators to see very practical

aspects of the establishment process. Nowadays itis not possible to avoid the online part of YIC work,so an article on planning and implementing onlineservices, communication and branding of onlineand oine services will give some basic guidance.

More general overviews on methods of YICservices, breaking down and explaining dierent

types of services, paying special attention to the

youth participation and peer-to-peer method andalso having a list of topics currently covered byYIC in Europe should help as a source of ideas ora good starting point for those who are planningand taking decisions. Moreover, the EuropeanYouth Information Charters principles and howthey are being implemented will help to evaluatework and is meant to set a framework, which helpswhen there is no other reference available. A listwith contacts of YIC structures and experts acrossEurope will be also provided. Finally, the fourthchapter of the compendium is a practical step-by-step toolkit with further referrals for those startingsomething like YIC in their country.

Since the compendium by its nature is a collectionof dierent views and the variety of dierent

models of how YIC works in European countries,we are not aiming to show one best way of how YICcould function in your reality. It is too complexand every situation must be taken as an individualone. Therefore the Compendium on nationalstructures of youth information and counsellingwill be a good starting point for explorers of thevery fascinating world of youth information.We are doing our best to provide initiators andpolicy makers with some empirical quantitativeand qualitative evidence on the impact ofyouth information work, provide practical toolsand show some dierent experiences in other

countries, with further guidance. However youneed to be passionate about youth information

and counselling and believe that every youngstershould have the best possible knowledge on howsociety works in order to create his or her life andbe an active, happy, healthy, critical, open-mindedperson and national and European citizen.

Needforyouthinformationandcounselling

Preparedinitiatorforasmoothstar

Enthusiasticinitiators

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encesUnderstandingcontext,ideas,historyandactors

Collectingarguments:userssurvey

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ERYICA

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Listofproblemsyouth

informationcansolve

analysisandevaluationof

importantactorsandstakeholders

youngpeoplesneeds

definingrelevanttopics

roleofYICinthenationalcontextofyouthpolicy

awarenessbuildingandlobbyingwithpolicymakers

havingyouthinformationasapart

ofyouthpolicyinnationallaw

structureandgovernance

fundingandstaff

qualityofservices

settinguparegionalnetwork

planningandimplementingonlineservices

communicationandbrandingofservices

internationalco-operation

Step-by-step:h

owtoestablisha

nationalyouthi

nformationstr

ucture

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by Fiona McIntyre(with a comment by Mika Pietil at the end)

A small country on the edge of Europe, Scotland is

renowned for its rugged mountainous landscape.

And the Scottish Government has lofty ambitions

too, saying it aims to make Scotland the best place

in the world to grow up.

So here, especially for Coyote, well investigate how

they will make that happen and the role that youth

information and counselling services can play.

With a population of 5.3 million and almost one million

young people aged between 10 and 24, the complex range

of needs is startling. Never daunted, the underpinning

national strategy is called Getting it Right for Every

Child. And they mean every child.

The entire concept of Getting It Right for Every Child

(GIRFEC) is based on addressing the needs of the whole

child/young person, with their overall well-being as the

ultimate priority. The move toward achieving this goal

started with a change of government in 2007. There was

a fundamental shift in policy from focusing on process to

working toward outcomes.

A national performance framework states the ve strategic objectives along with

16 national outcomes. These are further broken down into national indicators.GIRFEC is all about the Scottish Government, youth services and agencies, andyoung people working together to promote children and young peoples rightsand support their well-being. One of the desired national outcomes for GIRFEC shared with the Curriculum for Excellence in schools is that Scotlandsyoung people are successful learners, responsible citizens, condent individuals

and eective contributors.

The GIRFEC approach is to encourage services for children and youngpeople to work together to meet the needs of those they support. Allthe main public bodies in Scotland support the GIRFEC principle.At the heart of this approach is the well-being of children and youngpeople. This is dened as when they are:

safe

healthy achieving nurtured active respected responsible included.

This is not a short-term x but aims to inspire long-term cultural change at

individual level for all children and young people in Scotland. There is a seriesof clearly dened indicators at national level and the government are looking

at developing indicators for each child. Already, all school children do a self-assessment of their well-being, based on the categories above, which is regularlyrepeated and recorded throughout their school life.

Youth information and counselling services contribute to young peoples well-

being by giving them access to information and support which enable them tomake positive life choices. In 2009, a cross-sectoral working group developed

a national youth information framework for Scotland using a model adaptedfrom the Finnish youth information network. This dened three broad areas of

need. Its worth noting this is not a rigid categorisation young people move upand down and between groups as they grow and develop, or as circumstanceschange.

by

Fi

ona

McIn

tyre

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Young people who areable to find informationindependently

They know what they need/are looking for andcan nd it on their own or with a little (perhaps

exploratory) help. Increasingly they are digitallyagile and nd this information online. Youth

information services play their part in guidingthem toward trusted and ever more impressiveyouth information/youth-card/youth-portal websites.They, in turn, can become involved in peer youthinformation initiatives in and out of school.

Within youth information centres, professionalsta can help young people explore beyond any

initial query with examples of possibilities andnew directions.

Young people who feel theyneed/want something

Some young people need support to clarify theirneeds and/or assistance to access the information/services they want. There are often unidentied or

unarticulated needs which require the interventionof trained, skilled peers or youth informationworkers.

Young people who haveproblems and facechallenges

Here the key is to identify information to help

them access the services and support they need.This may be counselling for those who have chaoticlifestyles, dicult life circumstances, or emotional

or physical health issues. Youth information andcounselling services will work with other localagencies and departments to co-ordinate anddevelop relevant support.

A report out in July from The Childrens Society found the happinessof children in the UK is in decline, with 15% of young teenagersreporting low well-being. The Good Childhood Report says well-being has dipped since 2008 after a period of i mprovement from1994. Although four out of ve can be described as ourishing,

teenagers aged 14 and 15 are said to have the lowest self-satisfaction.Psychologist Linda Papadopoulos said it was important not to dismissthis dip in well-being among 14 and 15-year-olds as inevitable andjust teenagers being teenagers.

We really must talk to this generation and listento what they have to say.

Children and teenagers deserve proper support, choicesand a decent say in their own lives. Being unhappy isdenitely not an inevitable part of growing up. We owe itto our children to help them ourish as much as possible.

Those last two statements underline the role of youth informationin equipping young people to be active participants in theircommunities and societies. Not only does every young person needaccess to relevant information, they need to build their capacitiesfor interpreting that information, making positive life choices andtaking their place in society. In Scotland, at national level, severalvoluntary organisations are working alongside the government

and local authorities to deliver just that. Young Scot is the nationalyouth information and citizenship charity for Scotland. It providesyoung people, aged 11 to 26, with a mixture of information, ideas andopportunities to help them become condent, informed and active

citizens. This is done in a variety of formats, including magazines,online, phone, etc., so young people can access information in a waythey are comfortable with.

AnimatedvideosbyMarlie

sPschl

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The aim is to provide information which willenable them to:

make informed decisions and choices;turn their ideas into action;take advantage of the opportunities availableto them in Scotland and the rest of Europe;

have the condence and knowledge to take their place as active citizens in their communities

locally, nationally and globally.

Young Scot also works with other agencies toinvolve young people in the co-design of serviceswhich aect them as well as working with hard-to-

reach young people to inuence change. Members

of the Scottish Youth Parliament are elected inevery constituency, by young people, in someareas using their Young Scot youth card to voteelectronically.

Scotland also has its own Commissioner forChildren and Young People whose job is to makesure all children and young people in Scotland

have their rights respected, their voices heard andthat they can live safe and happy lives. The currentcommissioner was previously a youth worker.

Moving towards making Scotland the best place inthe world to grow up is not without its challenges,but youth information and counselling services

stand in an ideal place to meet these challengesnow and in the future:

they are seen to be safe/trusted/young peoplefriendly;

information on opportunities to participate is key;as are opportunities to be active citizens;

for instance, promoting and supportingvolunteering opportunities (seeCoyoteNo. 17);

they are egalitarian and holistic (as per theEuropean Youth Information and CounsellingAssociation Charter);

they already, by providing a broad range ofyouth information, practice cross-sector working a key factor in combating social exclusion andfostering well-being;they have developed innovative outreach

initiatives, especially in working with hard-to-reach young people.

In this years independence referendum, for therst time, 16 and 17 year olds in Scotland will be

eligible to vote. Whatever the outcome, Scotlands

government and youth services will continue tohonour its commitment to them.

Our young people need to be equipped to thrive not just survive. They need inspiration, notdesperation, and wherever they are to be the bestplace in the world to grow up.

It was very interesting to read how Scotland isworking for young peoples well-being. Finlandis also a small country, just as Scotland. It has a

population of 5.4 million with long distances,municipalities with relatively small populations aswell as young people who li ve in remote areas, faraway from youth services.

Hearing from young people, the current and futureusers of services, is very important, and not onlyin youth information and counselling services. Iwas glad to notice that this is such an importantpart in GIRFEC in Scotland. In Finland, we havethe Child and Youth Policy Programme which isadopted every four years by the government. Bothprogrammes are focusing on outcomes to supportyoung peoples growth and well-being, maybefrom dierent angles but both are based on young

peoples needs.

I was also delighted that Scotland could use themodel we are using in Finland when dening the

information and service needs of young people.I felt proud when I heard that this model is usedin Scotland. This happened in summer 2013, inCroatia, at the Symposium on Youth Policy in

South-East Europe, where Fiona was one of thkeynote speakers. In youth information there a very strong tradition of sharing good practice

based on experiences in the eld. It i s great thwork done in the Finnish network has been spreaaround. The division of information needs intthree levels was originally developed by the youtinformation workers in the youth informatiocentre Kompassi in Helsinki.

This kind of division has helped a lot when talkinabout information needs and the provision youth information and counselling services. would say that is used in much the same ways iScotland and Finland. I would also say that ouyouth information structures are similar in manways.

The discussion Fiona and I had after her speec

was amusing. I was of course i nterested in hothey had found our model, but at the same timealso had to try to remember how we had distributeinformation about it. After returning home, found out that the model had been published in report about youth information and counselling iFinland, which had found its way to Scotland.

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arliesPschl

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by Vera Hoogsteyns

In Petto is a youth information and prevention service.It is a youth service covering the whole of Flanders and isrecognised by the Youth Work Department of the Ministryof the Flemish Community. We work closely together with

the Youth Advice Centres (JACs) and youth work practice.In Petto is specialised in youth information and prevention,with a particular focus on peer education.In December 2013, In Petto will merge with two otherpartners in Flemish youth work: Zin-derin(g) and Jeugden Seksualiteit.1 Together we will become Jong & VanZin, a training organisation for children, youngsters andintermediaries (for example, trainers, youth leaders oreducators). We will produce informational products, withand for children, young people and youth workers or otherintermediaries. I addition to this, well focus on developingeducational games, training programmes on specic topics

(like resilience, communication, group dynamics, sexualityand relationships, etc.) and facilitating participative processesand peer support. Our main focus is to empower children,

young people and their trainers, to be stronger and moreresilient in their daily lives. In our work, we always take youngpeoples experiences and opinions as the starting point.

1. Zin-derin(g) and Jeugd en Seksualiteit are two Flemish organisations that areactive in Flemish youth work. Zin-derin(g) is specialised in interactive trainingcourses (on several topics) with young people and in non-formal education. Jeugden Seksualiteit is specialised in training and informational courses about sexuality,relationships and dierent topics related to this.

Our Youth Advisor project started in 1991

as a co-operation programme between ourorganisation (youth work) and the JAC (YouthAdvice Centre), which is part of the general welfarecentres (Centrum Algemeen Welzijnswerk (CAW)in Dutch). Since then, about 4 000 youngsters (15to 18 years old) have ocially been trained to be

Youth Advisors.The idea is simple: we believe in the power

of peer support and thats why Youth AdviceCentres train young people in their region incommunication skills, the ability to listen to theirpeers and the ability to recognise problems. Wetry to work within the informal networks thatexist between young people and to make youngpeople more resilient, while focusing on theirpersonal strengths. They are also informed aboutavailable support systems in the Flemish contextso they can refer their peers to the right servicewhen needed and provide them with qualityyouth information.

Making young people stronger

Jong & Van Zin focuses on the talents andstrengths of children and young people. We payclose attention to their capabilities. In everythingwe do, produce and organise, we focus on thethings theyre good at. Because of our expertisein training and informing, we have the possibilityto make children and young people stronger:

stronger in what theyre already good at, but alsostronger in their basic skills of communication,interaction, listening, etc. Through interactivemethods, they practice their skills and we expandtheir ability to be a good friend for their peers.

Making young people aware

By working in a group, we try to make young

people aware of signals which peers can send.We show them how to react when they thinkthere might be something going on in the life ofone of their peers. We believe that being awareof feelings, opinions and possible problems offriends and peers is a very important rst step.

Making sure they know their optionswhen support is needed

When we want to enable youngsters to refertheir peers to the correct information or supportsystem, its very important they know about theoptions and possibilities available. In this part ofour training, we work on their knowledge about

the Flemish support system, but also about specictopics. It can be about support for psychologicalproblems, but also nancial support, support for

studies, health care, youth information services,etc. The information we provide them can beabout dierent subjects, for example d rug (ab)use

divorce, sexuality and relationships.

Images courtesy of Jong & Van Zin

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Peer-to-peer is very important I think.Youngsters go most of the time to theirfriends when they have questions orproblems. Since I did the project, I knowbetter how to help my friends. It makesit easier for them to go to the youthinformation centre.

Being aYouthAdvisor is anopportunity and a learningexpe

recommenditto all young people whocare for theirfriends and want toexpan

horizonsin helpingothers. Not onlyis itsomething you takewith youfor the

yourlife, itcan also be of great useto theprofessionalswho might lose touch w

day-to-day environmentyoung peoplelive in.YouthAdvisorsare anexcelle

toanyYIC, connectedto their peersandifallowed, theycanfunctionas a

connection between professionals and the young people who arenotable to spe

TheycallitYouthAdvisors,butactuallyitsjustbeing

whoyouvealwaysbeen.Youjustkeeponbeing

yourself,andyoumakesureyouretherewhenothers

needyou.Nobodyexpectsyoutobeabletosolveall

problemsofyourpeers,butjustlisteningtothem

canbeabighelp.InthetrainingforYouthAdvisor,I

realisedhowbigmyinfuencecanbebyjustlistening

tomyfriendsandbybeingwhoIam.

SinceIdidthecou

rse,

Ialwaysknowwh

eretogo

whenIneedsomeoneto

talkto.Thesenew

friends

arealwaysnice.

Andeveryonekno

wsthat

itsalwaysnicetob

enice!

My experience as a young person of peer-to-peer work inyouth information dates back to when I was in secondaryschool. The form of peer-to-peer work we had in my schoolwas a scheme known as peer mentoring. The peer mentoringscheme helps student ease the transition between primary schooland secondary school. Starting secondary school can often be avery dicult change for some students and a lot of time they needthe dedicated support of another person to help them navigate

their way through the new environment.Peer mentoring covers a range of useful and supportive activities such as developmentof literacy and numeracy skills, improvement of attendance and classroom behaviour.My experience of this was that every morning before school started, I would sit downwith a student/peer and tackle one of the activities listed.

Peer mentoring makes a real dierence to students who have just started secondary school.It marks a turning point in their lives, helping them to build new networks of support,increase their self-condence, develop new skills and change their lives for the better.

Jong & Van Zin believes strongly in the importance of acknowledgement. This is why we organise a thankyou weekend for our Youth Advisors every year. When organising this weekend, we work closely with asmall group of Youth Advisors. In fact, this core group organises the event, with our help and support.During this weekend, the Youth Advisors meet each other and they can do things together in a group. Wereward them for their commitment with training courses on several topics. We pay attention to groupdynamics, information about sexuality and relationships, drugs, friendship and more. In addition to the

weekend, we try to give our Youth Advisors as many opportunities as possible. They get the chance toparticipate in Yintro training courses (on youth i nformation and counselling work, prepared by ERYICA)and in international projects for youth ambassadors for youth information. In this way, we hope to givethem the opportunity to be engaged in a broader area than only the Flemish context.

Lisas parents are going through a divorce. Lisa is struggling with her loyalty towards both parents.She lives with her mother and misses her dad. She hesitates to show those feelings to her mother.Luckily she can talk about all this with Nora, a friend from school and a Youth Advisor. Nora listensand helps Lisa to nd a way to deal with the situation. After a while Nora doesnt really know what

to do to help Lisa anymore, so she goes to the JAC for advice. The social worker, whom Nora knowswell from Youth Advisor training, gives her some tips to help Lisa. With this assistance, and with herown skills, Nora succeeds in helping Lisa with her problems. Nora also learnt in her training to noticesignals which indicate Lisa needs professional help. In that case, Nora wont hesitate to advise herfriend about professional support.

At this moment, Jong & Van Zin is extending the Youth Advisor concept to othersectors, like education, youth work and youth at risk. We believe this projectwill be highly valuable in these settings. Overall, we think its i mportant tounderline that Youth Advisors arent mini-social workers. They are trained tobe a good friend who knows where to nd support and advice when needed.

Dorien, 24:

Lise, 22

Jolien,19:Tom,18:

Robiu, 21:

SinceIbecameaYouthAdvisolikeIunderstandmyfriendsbImabletohelpthemeasier.Thaskformyhelpmoreeasilytha

Laurence,19:

Myexperience:fu

n,partofanawe

somegroup,

feelingoftrust,p

eers,dealingwith

issuesina

non-formalway,le

arningfromother

s,nobody

judgesyou,conne

ctedwitheachoth

er...itsju

anamazinge

xperiencethatIm

gladtobepar

Dorien,24:

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by Glesin Nemutlu Unal

MapofGeziPark,postvirtual.wordpress.com2

013CCBY-NC-SA Reliable information is a crucial precondition for

those who would like to enjoy their right to associationand freedom of expression. If you cannot get reliableinformation about what is going on in the streetsfrom the ones in charge of reporting, what do you do?You go out and report it yourself!

What had been going on in Istanbul since 27 May2013 had a lot to do with youth and it had a lot to dowith information. Yet one has to cross his or her eyesto see what it has to do with youth information.

The circumstances that led to what I choose to calla civic resistance were a series of events in whichpeople were asking for their right to participate. It

was neither the rst demand to participate norit will be the last. Yet here we are. I am trying toput this article together while jumping betweenscreens from several social media sites and thispage. Because it has been almost two monthssince it started and tonight as I write in July 2013 it is still going on.

Let me tell you the background story as briey as

I can. It started just before the general electionsin 2011. The governing party started to announcetheir development projects as the elections weregetting close. Out of many crazy projects1 forIstanbul (for some reason that year, journalistspreferred to refer to the major projects as crazy)one of them was about the renovation of TaksimSquare. This project2 would take all the vehicletrac underground leaving the square for the

pedestrians and re-build the long gone TopuBarracks in the place of Gezi Park.

Depending on your visions of life, city planning andeconomic growth, you could take dierent sides

on the value of these projects. And people did justthat. A group of architects and city planners arguedagainst the Taksim renovation project and formedan initiative called Taksim Soldarity. They alsocalled the project crazy but with a dierent tone

of voice. The craziest part for them was that at notime were people of the region3consulted aboutthis project. At the end of an unannounced non-participative process, the project was there on thetable, decided.

As an opposing initiative, Taksim Solidarity notonly took their case to several committees and thecourts, but also started to organise gatherings andfestivals in the park to spread the word. Meanwhilethe square was closed for construction and their

court case was accepted and then rejected severtimes. (Finally, in the last days it was accepteagain).

Then one night in May 2013, the constructiomachines start to take down some trees in GePark. A fairly small group of people rushed to thpark to stop this demolition, and they manageto do so. The day after, the machines approachethe park again and for the guardians/protestersbecame evident that they would have to stay theday and night. Even though, legally, the demolitiwas not allowed, the machines were there.

The response from the authorities quickescalated from municipality forces to the stapolice. The police int