Towards the 4th European Youth Work Convention

We were also going to be interviewing Miriam Teuma, head of the Youth Agency (Agenzija Zghazagh) of the Department of Education. Unfortunately, due to ill health she was not able to be present for the interview but has contributed to the article.

Can you introduce yourself and say a little bit about yourself and your role in youth work?

I am Marvic Debono and I am the head of the youth sector with the National Agency in Malta responsible for the Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps. I am a youth worker by profession, though in this job I do not do face to face youth work anymore. My role, and my team’s role is to manage the EU funding for mobility projects based in non-formal and informal education and that support the mobility of young people and youth workers. We support and guide the organisations at local level and support the international partnerships they develop for their projects.

Next year, 2025, we will have the 4th European Youth Work Convention. Can you explain a little bit about what the event is?

Yes, so first to say, it is the Government of Malta who is hosting the European Youth Work Convention in May 2025. The Convention concept is an initiative of the EU Council, the Council of Europe, and the EU-Council of Europe Youth Partnership. This is an opportunity to invite key stakeholders, practitioners, policy makers, representatives of youth organisations, voluntary and non-voluntary service providers, and researchers and others, to come together and engage in discussions which contribute to the strengthening of the field. A time to take stock of what has happened in the last five years, and identify necessary actions to be taken for the future.

Why did Malta take on this responsibility?

In the first half of 2025, Malta will be the chair for the Council of the European Committee of Ministers. Malta was approached and was asked to host this activity on behalf of the other Member States and we accepted. We felt it is important to have this as a follow-up from Germany in 2020 and Belgium in 2015 and 2010.

While the on the ground organisation is being done by the Malta National Agency for Erasmus+ and Solidarity Corps and the Youth Agency (Agenzija Zghazagh), a steering group has been formed to guide the content. The steering group is made up of representatives coming from the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the EU-Council of Europe Youth Partnership. Of course myself and Miriam are there representing the NA and Agenzija Zghazagh.

There are also NA colleagues from Germany and Belgium – specifically these two NAs because they organised the previous versions and we need their guidance. Then there are representatives from the Alliance of the Youth Workers Associations, of the European Youth Forum, the Advisory Council, the Quality Label for European Youth Centres, and the International Youth Work Trainers Guild. There are around 20 people in total in the steering group.

And what has happened so far in terms of the organising?

As I said we have set up the steering committee, and we have had our first physical meeting, and just in the first week of July the second one happened online.

At the first meeting the main aim was to do a bit of stocktaking from the perspective of every representative, what has happened since the 3rd Convention and where youth work is at currently in Europe. From this point we started to look forward to see how this 4th Convention can meet the needs we have identified and to start coming up with the aim and objectives, and the possible outcomes. For the second meeting we had developed a concept note that we presented to the Committee, this concept note includes a suggested framework for the Convention.

Is there an overall theme for the Convention?

Not specifically yet, and there is no official title, but we know what we want in a broad sense. We have identified three vertical themes: the youth work core; the youth work environment; and the youth work system.

Can you tell us more about these vertical themes?

When we talk about the youth work core we mean what is the common vision for youth work in the future. This is also based on what has been done so far, taking into account the three last editions of the Convention, especially linking to the Bonn Process and the European Youth Work Agenda.

How are we going to keep on moving like we envisage, we need to talk about definitions and descriptions, quality standards, recognition (which came up as a very important feature), and work ethics…

The youth work environment is about where and how and who is doing youth work? Who is involved? For whom? Why are we doing it? Who are the young people? What are their needs, their aspirations?

Here we also talk about inclusion, participation and empowerment. What is being done? What is still to be done? Also associated factors such as the different types of youth workers, paid professionals and non-professional volunteers. How is the youth worker defined? By training? What type of recognition do we have on European and on national levels? Do the roles of a youth worker vary in different realities?

The youth work system refers to everything which deals with policy and strategy at the different levels, from State to local level. This is basically anything being decided which is relevant to the sector. Here we also need to talk about advocacy. We also need to link to other policy areas like for example, climate change, and mental health.

How is youth work supported, what funding is there and what resources are available to support mechanisms for youth work? What exists already and what more needs to be done?

The vertical themes seem to encompass many fundamental questions. They will probably give a lot of food for thought to fill the Convention programme?

Yes, the Convention will be structured in a way that the three vertical themes are addressed over the two days but every vertical theme needs to take into account the horizontal theme!

The core of the horizontal theme are the concepts of ‘noise’ and ‘silence’.

Noise, meaning what is being said too much? And silence meaning what is not being said? (What are we not discussing? What are we withholding? What are we afraid to say? What do we need to be saying?).

How can the 4th Convention create this unique momentum and build the Conventions legacy?

The Convention itself will be a time to stop for a moment to meet, to take stock of current developments, and to discuss possible ways forward. Exploring what noise we are causing and what silence is there. Then what are we going to do after the Convention? Well, the task then will be to transpose all the information gathered and create concrete actions!

This is one of the most important events for youth work in Europe, so we want to encourage everyone in the youth work community of practice to look out for and follow updates as they become available.

(Written by Nik Paddison on behalf of JUGEND für Europa)

Marvic Debono

Marvic Debono is head of the youth sector with the National Agency in Malta responsible for Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps.