Youth cooperation YOUTH program

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Youth cooperationYOUTH program

• Cross-border Cooperation Summer School
• Värska, Estonia 22 Aug 2006

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Piret Talur

• From 10.2004 - Persona ngo, trainer-consultant
  (youth, education and social affairs)
• Earlier Estonian Ministry of Education and
  Research, youth department project manager in
  youth sector
• Education BA in social work

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Todays topics

• VERY short introduction to the Estonian youth
  work ?
• Reasons for international youth cooperation
• Hot (hmm, cool...??) issues in European youth
  sector
• International youth cooperation tips and
  must-s
• YOUTH program some observations

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Youth work is the creation of conditions for
young people for activities which facilitate
their development and enable them to be active
outside their families, formal education and work
on the basis of their free will. (Estonian Youth
Work Act)
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Basic documents

• 1999 Youth Work Act
• 2001 Estonian Youth Work Concept and
  Development Plan 2001-2004
• 2006 Estonian Youth Work Strategy 2006-2013,
  Youth Workers Professional Standard

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Some statistics, 1.

• 14 regional and several local youth information
  centres
• 31 summer camps for 28 000 youngsters
• 130 open youth centres
• 200 so-called hobby-schools or hobby-centres for
  60 000 youngsters
• 3 higher education schools to teach youth workers
  (Tallinn Pedagogical Seminar, Viljandi Cultural
  Academy, Tartu University Narva College)

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Some statistics, 2.

• 4 international cooperation protocols on the
  state level Finland, Germany, Belgium (Flemish
  Community), Latvia, Lithuania
• Program YOUTH since 1998
• 60 active youth organisations (information from
  Estonian National Youth Council Estonian Union
  for Youth Organisations, www.enl.ee)
• Youth work is coordinated and analysed by
  Estonian Ministry of Education and Research
  (www.hm.ee)

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Reasons for international youth cooperation

• Learning of new methods
• Motivation for the youth workers, youth leaders,
  all the young people
• Personal development tolerance, identity, world
  citizenship...
• Better visibility of sector
• More positive imago of youth
• etc

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Whats in fashion?

• Political and social participation
• All different, all equal cultural awareness
  and tolerance
• Voluntary work
• UF youth information
• Environmental issues
• etc

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Tips and musts in international youth
cooperation

• Be specific and up-to-date
• Organise prelimenary meeting virtual meeting
  is reasonable (MSN, video conference or sth)
• Prefer methods which do not expect good language
  skills
• Avoid competition between country delegations
• etc.

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Eurobarometer 2003. Youth in New Europe.
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Eurobarometer 2003. Youth in New Europe.

• The survey show that CC13 youngsters
• work more at home, go less to cinema and theatre
• believe more in information campains to encourage
  youth participation
• travel less
• are more financially dependent on their parents
• tend to be less tolerant to sexual minorities,
  pre-marital sex, euthanasia more open to tough
  penalties for crimes
• are much more tolerant to foreigners
• then EU15 ones.

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Help for international youth cooperation

• United Nations http//www.un.org/
• European Union http//ec.europa.eu/youth/index_en.
  html
• Council of Europe http//www.coe.int/T/E/Cultural_
  Co-operation/Youth/
• Council of Baltic Sea States http//www.balticsea-
  youth.org/
• etc

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Program Youth

• European Union program to develop international
  youth cooperation
• Non-EU countries can participate as well
• Non-formal youth groups can apply
• Traditional activites are not supported
• 5 different actions (types of support programs)

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Youth cooperationYOUTH program

• Cross-border Cooperation Summer School
• Värska, Estonia 22 Aug 2006