related to racism, inhumane and anti-democratic attacks. Such instruments range from information services about obligations and rights of sports clubs and volunteers to legal advice.
This distribution of tasks between a national umbrella organisation on the one hand and local, often volunteer organisations on the other could be a promising strategy and a useful division of labour also in other contexts. Local organisations may concentrate on their main goal to keep their door open for all youth and their educational work. National organizations may be better equipped to develop guidelines and inform about best practices on how to deal with challenges. This could be one way of implementing what Director for Democracy Gruden reminded the participants to do:
“If we want to defend democracy, we have to agree on what we are defending.”
As confident as the participants were about the relevance of youth work for democracy, as thoughtful and careful they were regarding the political claims youth work should make. In various formats, participants were given a ‘carte blanche’ to brainstorm the future of youth work, summarise their wishes as campaign slogans, and similar. Many statements and visions centred on affirming the inherent value of youth work. A few written statements addressed structural issues like the need for funding or cooperation at the European level - a contrast to working groups and informal discussions, where structural challenges were vividly discussed. This may indicate that youth work, much like civil society, often finds itself in a defensive position in today’s context. In this climate, youth work needs advocates and allies willing to step forward.
11
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs