What is youth work?

Youth work is a social activity as well as a field of profession that has different implementations. We propose to have a reference point for youth work based on the description by the Council of Europe:

“Youth work is a broad term covering a wide variety of activities of a social, cultural, educational, environmental and/or political nature by, with and for young people, in groups or individually. Youth work is delivered by paid and volunteer youth workers and is based on non-formal and informal learning processes focused on young people and voluntary participation. Youth work is quintessentially a social practice, working with young people and the societies in which they live, facilitating young people’s active participation and inclusion in their communities and in decision-making.Despite different traditions and definitions, there is a common understanding that the primary function of youth work is to motivate and support young people to find and pursue constructive pathways in life, thus contributing to their personal and social development and society at large.“

(Council of Europe Recommendation on Youth Work, CM/Rec(2017)4)

There are different stories about how this profession has been developed in Europe as well as there’s a diverse reality of how it’s implemented nowadays. What usually seems to be a common characteristic of youth work are the following ones:

• It focuses on young people and aims to build relationships with them, 
• builds on the voluntary participation of young people,
• aims to support young people to fulfil their potential. 

For a better understanding of the most essential information about youth work, you can check thefollowing publication Links to an external site. that is prepared by the Youth Partnership between the European Union and the Council of Europe.