Town Twinnings
Face-to-face meetings during the pandemic Feedback from participants reflects the importance of international exchanges especially during a pandemic. Participants welcomed the opportunity to forget about the demands of everyday life for a while and gain a broad- er perspective, but also to see they were not the only ones facing the impacts of the pandemic. Although they are no substitute for personal meetings, online formats have proven they can effectively com - plement face-to-face formats. This experience will serve the organizers well as they continue to strengthen inter- national youth work ties with Chicago (and Birmingham) both for youth work experts and children and young people, and to exploit their inherent benefits. Digital for - mats should enable interested parties to regularly discuss selected topics in an informal setting without requiring too much time or organizational effort, and to forge pro - fessional and personal ties throughout the year. Ideally, this will help make international youth work an integral part of youth work experts’ everyday practice and encour- age them to organize international activities for young people. There are certainly enough things to talk about.
discussed alongside new concepts in social work, such as Signs of Safety or social space orientation. Not just a good network: What makes expert exchange programs successful? Planning and organizing exchanges, however, can be a challenging undertaking. Their success depends not only on the commitment and personal relationships of the organizers. In addition to language barriers (the working language is English), which can be intimidating for young- er German youth work experts, resource issues also play a major role. This is particularly true for US-American youth work experts. Unlike the German participants, who are supported by Federal Child and Youth Plan and local Senate funds, the youth work experts from Chicago not only have to pay for the ten-day trips out of their own pockets, but they also have to organize them in their free time. In the absence of government funding, the suc- cess of incoming projects ultimately depends on finding enough sponsors to fulfil the host principle, whereby the host organization covers the costs incurred by the pro- gram in its own country. Consequently, it is sometimes difficult to recruit committed youth work professionals for the duration of a ten-day exchange. It is therefore especially gratifying to see that a viable network of committed supporters has nevertheless emerged in and between the three cities over the years, in partnership with policymakers and universities. The network has even managed to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the tri-city exchange appears to have lost none of its appeal under the changing conditions. The digital formats of 2020 and 2021 even seem to have encouraged the participation of both German and US youth workers who might not have taken part under "normal" circumstances.
Gabriele Scholz, Head of National Support and Counselling with Hamburg’s Social Security Authority − State Youth Welfare Office in the Office for Families, Hamburg Social Security Authorities.
Web: hamburg.de/jugend/engagement/inter- nationale-jugendarbeit
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