About In March 2021, IJAB launched its new format DIY² Lab: Do-it-Yourself in Digital International Youth Work for experts, project managers and team leaders who want to explore the possibilities of hybrid and digital settings in international youth work. Today the DIY² Labs have evolved into an opportunity for experts and team leaders to try out innovative tools, ideas and methods and discuss practical as well as more fundamental issues associated with international youth work. The DIY² Lab takes place 3 to 4 times a year on Thursdays and is usually held on ZOOM. What is Futures Thinking all about, and why is it becoming increasingly important for (international) youth work? The European Academy on Youth Work (EAYW) has conducted research on Futures Thinking in Youth Work and recently launched a Futures of Youth Work Toolbox. In the international DIY² Lab on December 11th 2025 IJAB in cooperation with the European Academy on Youth Work explored together with over 30 practitioners, youth workers, and educators from 13 different countries what Futures Thinking can contribute to international youth work – and vice versa. Together with Anita Silva in Portugal and Sonja Mitter Škulj in Slovenia, we dove into both the theory and practice of Futures Thinking in international youth work, discovering simple and creative tools that can easily be integrated into practice with young people, colleagues, or partner organizations. Together, we played and reflected on the game Window to the Future, a freely available tool developed by the European Academy on Youth Work (EAYW). It’s designed to spark meaningful conversations about the futures we want to imagine and co-create. About the trainers Anita Silva is the author of the game Window to the Future, a Portuguese creative trainer, consultant, and clown. She has extensive experience in non-formal education, international youth work, higher education, and community work. She studied Creativity and Innovation and loves to take people and organisations on a journey outside their own boxes. She is the founder of Clowncare, an NGO that organises clown visits to eldercare settings, and the director of Team MAIS, a consulting company that helps organisations take learning, creativity, and innovation a step further. Sonja Mitter Škulj has facilitated international cooperation in the field of youth since the late 1990s, first at the Council of Europe Youth Directorate, and later within the EU youth programmes. Her personal intercultural experiences and her M.A. studies in history, focusing on migration and social integration, convinced her of the value of people-to-people contacts and intercultural exchange. As coordinator of the SALTO SEE Resource Centre in Ljubljana and the European Academy on Youth Work, her focus is on supporting innovation and quality in international youth work. About the European Academy on Youth Work The European Academy on Youth Work (EAYW) is a Strategic European Partnership of 14 National Agencies of the Erasmus+ programme, youth field, the European Solidarity Corps and SALTO-YOUTH Resource Centres. EAYW aims to promote the development of quality youth work and to support its capacity to react to current and future developments. To this end, it focuses on supporting innovation in youth work, as a
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