Kristijan Orešković is working for the Croatian Youth Network and is a key player in the national process of the implementation of the European Youth Work Agenda in Croatia. He shares his view about the approach being taken in Croatia in making the good achievements visible. These include a mapping and analysis of Croatian activities within the Bonn Process resulting in a publication as well as an action plan.
Hi Kristijan, would you introduce yourself please?
OK, so my name is Kristijan and I am a project manager and programme associate at the Croatian Youth Network (CYN), recognised as National Youth Council (NYC). We are actually one of the few organisations in Croatia dealing with implementing the Bonn Process or rather implementing the recommendations from the “Signposts for the Future” (the outcomes of the third European Youth Work Convention).
My background in youth work started really early when I was 16 or 17 years old. I started going to youth exchanges and then falling in love with all of that and then starting to be a group leader on the youth exchanges. After that I naturally became a youth worker and then a youth work trainer.
The situation of Youth Work in Croatia is better than ever.
After some time I wanted to work on developing youth work and getting it recognised at the societal level more. I am now, for the last three years, working for CYN and as a project manager I am responsible for the topic of youth work in Croatia but also international as well.
What is the situation of youth work in Croatia today?
Well, today the situation is that youth work is to some extent recognised on the social level, right now it is better than ever, but it is still something that needs more work.
For now, CYN is the only organisation in Croatia that is systematically working on developments for quality youth work. However, we are also an umbrella organisation of youth and youth-led organisations in Croatia. We feel this gives us a broad overview of the community of practice and what is being done “on the street” with young people and gives us a national perspective of the development needs of the youth workers.
Most of the promotion for the social recognition of youth work is still being done by individual youth workers and there are some organisations doing it. We don't have any formal recognition yet, but for social recognition we are not doing too bad at although we have a lot to do in the future.
Having said this, the topic of formal recognition and the visibility and value of youth work in Croatia is better now than ever because we really started doing a lot of promotion, especially in cooperation with the National Agency for the EU youth programmes (Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes AMPEU). Fortunately for us they also recognise youth work as valuable.
Self-recognition among youth workers is steadily increasing, but there is still much work to be done in helping individuals who engage in youth work, often unknowingly, to understand the value of the work they do and to recognise themselves as youth workers. It is essential to work on creating clear standards and frameworks so that there is a common understanding of who can be identified as a youth worker and how they should be recognised.
At the same time, we need to continue advocating for the interests of the community and ensuring that youth work is acknowledged as a professional and valuable contribution to society.
How is the implementation of the European Youth Work Agenda in Croatia?
At the CYN we have been cooperating with the National Agency for Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps programmes for some time. We were included in the delegation of the 3rd European Youth Work Convention which began our connection to and involvement with the European Youth Work Agenda.
We are currently working on the idea of establishing a Youth Worker Association.
After the 3rd Convention our National Agency was one of the first in Europe to take the Agenda to the public and launch its implementation in Croatia. It was during the pandemic time, so it happened online and there were a lot of people in that Zoom launching event. Also, we wanted to inform the wider youth work community of practice of what is going on.
After lockdown we tried to do things more concretely and to involve more people. One of the first things we did was to create a new network. We developed a handbook on the implementation of the Agenda - the Bonn Process - where we explain about it and conducted a desk research to try to understand which of the eight key recommendations of the Agenda are actually happening or being implemented in Croatia.
We are currently working on the idea of establishing a Youth Worker Association, one of the aims is for the improvement of self and social recognition, but also formal recognition. Our ambition for this is to become part of the European Alliance of Youth Workers Associations.
We also coordinate a National Working Group which consists of all the relevant stakeholders. These include young people, youth organisations, youth experts, youth policy experts, youth researchers, and relevant universities. This group helps us map the implementation of activities which in turn guides us in the development of new projects.
The goal is to implement projects that support the Agenda recommendations and make the Bonn Process more visible.
What have been the highlights from the national process?
A conference on recognition, which took place in Zagreb in December 2023 was a big deal for us. It was titled “Value and Recognition of Youth Work”. We are very proud that the Croatian NA was hosting it, and we could be an active part of it.
We also are in the process of organising youth studies for youth activists and young people. This is also in line with the “Signposts for the Future” Recommendation, and we believe that the cooperation between the National Youth Council and the National Agency is an example of good practice. Together we are going to implement youth studies where we will train young people and youth activists about youth work, youth policy, advocacy and the European Youth Work Agenda.
We are also developing some sort of new ideas and programmes on how to include more youth organisations to realise that they are part of the implementation of the Agenda. People often think that these big European processes are far away from them, but they are actually contributing to the implementation of the Agenda with their activities and their projects.
I want to see us having formal recognition of youth work, based on a youth work qualification and people having properly paid jobs as youth workers.
In 2025 we want to develop more support and a bigger number of the youth organisations working together, realising that they are part of the EYWA implementation. This creates more visibility for youth work in general and shows them that what they do is supporting the implementation of the Agenda but at the same time the Agenda is supporting them and their activities.
What is your vision for five years from now? What will youth work look like in Croatia if the European Youth Work Agenda implementation continues in a good way?
I would like to see an established national youth (work) programme that is very focused and is based on a quality standards framework. That we would have people dedicated on advocacy towards decision makers and to the youth authorities in Croatia. Part of this would be a well-established National Youth Workers Association that would focus on advocacy for youth workers.
I want to see us having formal recognition of youth work, based on a youth work qualification and people having properly paid jobs as youth workers and that there will be more workshops, training and education for youth workers. I hope also that as a country we would be very internationally connected and recognised in the field, developing big projects that are innovative for the community of practice in general, but specifically with face-to-face youth work.