The Exchange Forum on the European Youth Work Agenda is the annual residential event for key stakeholders shaping the national processes within the context of the European Youth Work Agenda in their respective European countries.
It is an activity of the Growing Youth Work partnership, a Strategic Cooperation Project of the Network of National Agencies for Youth.
Place and date: 1 - 4 December 2025, Skopje, North Macedonia
Number of participants: 70 participants
The programme included vast opportunities for exchange, networking, reflection, co-creation, joint planning and exploring of funding opportunities.
During this event, participants have shared their views and perspectives related to national realities and future aspirations. Their main takeaways can be found below:
Recognition is multi-layered and needs work on all levels: many countries are still strugelling with recognition and visibility and are trying to work on creating stable structures for youth work;
A “window of opportunity” is open for youth work in Europe: participants and institutional guests described strong momentum created by recent European-level developments (incuding the 4th European Youth Work Convention outcomes and the forthcoming Roadmap), and encouraged national actors to align their planning to this direction;
European policy only becomes real through national implementation: a repeated message shared was that European institutions adopt frameworks, but implementation depends on national and local level: so follow-up, continuity, and pressure/advocacy at national and local remain crucial;
Impact and “social return” evidence is becoming more highlighted: participants highlighted the need to better articulate outcomes (including economic and social value of youth work) to defend youth work in a tough political environment and in a situation where they need to compete with other spending priorities on national, regional and European levels;
Youth work is more and more positioned as a response to crisis and prevention: participants noted that youth work is dealing with topics important for young people, such as mental health, safety, racism, etc. and this helps in strenghtening the arguments for better investment in the youth work field. On the other hand, we should also note that there are increasing workforce shortages and skills gaps;
Clarify and support the mandate of national contact points / national coordination: countries have different structures; participants called for clearer expectations, stronger coordination roles, and capacity-building (including lobbying and advocacy skills) for the national processes;
Broaden participation and knowledge across Europe: there was a clear wish to include more countries (and better understand what is happening in “missing” contexts), and to enable more sharing among contact points and key players;
European resources were treated as a practical toolbox, not just “information”: participants valued sharing of resources created at European level and they find them important for their practice, as they can apply these resources nationally (e.g. training strategies, quality frameworks, project labs);
Common national next steps can be clustered in the following main areas:
Impressions from the perspective of participants are available down below: