Hoofdstuk in The history of youth work in Europe and its relevance for youth policy today. Youth work in the Netherlands goes back a long way and since the 1970s has taken on a rather strong professional image. During the last decades, it went through some hard times, but recently it has undergone a revival and revaluation. (Griensven & Smeets, 2003). The first section of this paper is about how the characteristics of the Dutch affect social work and youth work concepts. The second part discusses the Dutch framework for youth work: definition, fields of activities, core tasks and the ambiguous relationship between youth work and social work. The third section deals with the history of youth work. The paper concludes with a reflection on the future directions that youth work could take. The article is based on Dutch historical research, some by the author, and the author’s involvement in youth work, both as a youth worker and editor- in- chief of the semi-scientific journal Jeugd en samenleving.
The online environment, where the boundaries between the domains of home, school, work, and leisure are blurred, poses new challenges for youth work practice. Due to limited research on this subject matter, the theoretical underpinnings of the online youth work practice are constrained. The fulfilment of youth work’s aims online, the position it can take in the online context, and its relation to its partners in the online lifeworld need a theoretical base. This paper seeks to analyse the role of youth work in the online lifeworld according to adolescents and youth work’s partners. The research was conducted in the Netherlands in collaboration with 14 youth work organisations. A qualitative research design was used: group conversations with young people and semi-structured interviews with youth work’s partners (i.e., parents, schools, informal networks, neighbourhood support teams, police, and municipal officials). The findings indicate that youth work in the online lifeworld, according to the respondents, is part of the general youth work practice, with a primary role of addressing the developmental needs of young people and creating new developmental opportunities. This role is expected to be fulfilled by engaging and connecting with young people in the online lifeworld and providing them instrumental, informational, socioemotional, and cognitive support. To do so, according to the partners, youth workers can make use of their vantage position in the online relationship with adolescents in order to access online information relevant for support and prudent prevention aimed at adolescents’ development. This vantage position may potentially encourage a collaboration between young people and partners, and between the online and offline youth work practice.
Erasmus project about training cultural workers for facilitating rural youths culture
In line with the ‘Natuur- en milieubeleidsplan Caribisch Nederland 2020-2030 (NMBP)’ the consortium intends with this research proposal to contribute to a prosperous society with a resilient population and healthy natural environment. The Caribbean Netherlands are dealing with a situation where imported vegetables and fruits are mostly imported and hardly affordable. This leads to consuming unhealthy food and high obesities rates as a consequence. A lack of good agricultural practices with regard to water-smart and nature inclusive agriculture, as well as limited coping capacities to deal with hazards and climate change, results in very limited local production and interest. Initiatives that focused only on agrotechnological solutions for food resilient futures turned out to be ineffective due to a lack of local ownership, which jeopardizes sustainability. Moreover, the ‘green’ and ‘blue’ domains are not seen as attractive career perspectives among youth, hampering a bright future for those domains. The aim of this research is to contribute to water-smart and nature inclusive food resilience embedded in a local participatory perspective in the Caribbean Netherlands. To address the above challenges, a living lab approach is adopted, where youth will be trained as (co)-facilitators (WP1) who will contribute to a participatory envisioning process and an articulation of food resilient futures (WP2). Finally, based on the envisioning process local stakeholders will select and implement experiments for food resilient futures followed by dissemination of results among key stakeholders as well as children and youth at the BES islands (WP3). This project strategy will lead to a network of a living lab where professionals and youth work together on food resilient futures. Training manuals and the results of experiments with regard to water and food system alternatives will be used actively to encourage youth to be involved in sustainable agriculture and consumption.
Meidenwerkers menen van grote waarde te zijn voor het realiseren van de transformatiedoelen die voortvloeien uit de grootschalige stelselvoorziening in het sociale domein. Voor het werkelijk realiseren van hun ambitie hebben meidenwerkers hulp nodig. Meidenwerkers willen aan gemeenten, managers en collega-professionals kunnen laten zien wat concrete resultaten zijn van het meidenwerk voor het versterken van de eigen kracht. Daarvoor willen meidenwerkers meer weten over de werking van het meidenwerk. Ook willen meidenwerkers op specifieke onderdelen hun methodiek verbeteren. Meidenwerkers en hun organisaties door heel Nederland hebben lectoraat Youth Spot gevraagd om middels deze RAAK- Publiek aanvraag vast te stellen of en hoe het meidenwerk bijdraagt aan het versterken van de eigen kracht van meiden en op welke manier het meidenwerk beter ingezet kan worden op het gebruik van de groep, de familie en het netwerk. Consortium: In het consortium participeren de organisaties die investeren en meewerken aan de uitvoering van het project. Deze bestaat naast de Hogeschool van Amsterdam uit 9 publieke organisaties: ContourdeTwern, JoU, Dock, IJsterk, Streetcornerwork, Participe, Combiwel, Stichting Jeugd en Jongerenwerk Midden Holland en Dynamo. Deze organisaties zijn aanbieders van meidenwerk in grootstedelijke, stedelijke en landelijke omgevingen uit het midden, westen en zuiden van het land. Ambitie: De ambitie van meidenwerkers en hun organisaties is om met dit project aan te tonen wat de werking en het resultaat is van het meidenwerk voor het versterken van de eigen kracht van meisjes en jonge vrouwen en de methodiek meidenwerk zodanig te verbeteren dat die aansluit op hedendaagse ontwikkelingen in jeugd- en sociaal beleid. Dit opdat gemeenten blijven investeren in het meidenwerk en meisjes en jonge vrouwen in kwetsbare posities toegang houden tot ondersteuning bij het ontwikkelen van hun eigen kracht. Resultaat: Handboek: ?Kracht van meiden 2.0? waarin de met empirie onderbouwde methodiek meidenwerk beschreven staat. Nieuw ontwikkelde instrumenten worden opgenomen in de herziene methodiekbeschrijving. Ook wordt er een online platform ontworpen, waar professionals en studenten door middel van blended en sociaal leren de gelegenheid krijgen om zich de ontwikkelde kennis en instrumenten werkelijk eigen te maken. Projectplan: Het projectplan bestaat uit drie fases waarin vijf werkpakketten centraal staan. Fase 1 beslaat het onderbouwen van de methodiek (WP1), fase 2 het doorontwikkelen van de methodiek (WP 2,3 & 4) en de 3e fase kenmerkt zich door kenniscirculatie en disseminatie (WP5).
