How is the experience at the Exchange Forum in Skopje, North Macedionia? What are participants' perspectives on the whole event? What have they gained, and what are their key takeaways? We’ve launched a short blog from the Exchange Forum, giving voice to various participants to share their insights and reflections. Curious to learn more? Read our blog for highlights from the second day of the Exchange Forum!
Written by: Miriam Teuma, Snežana Klašnja, Tina Kosi and Domagoj Morić
The second day of the Exchange Forum on the European Youth Work Agenda brought together inspiring perspectives, sharing practices and motivation for strengthening youth work across Europe. Our three participants - all coming from institutions - shared how the Exchange Forum helped in creating a shared sense of purpose, solidarity, and responsibility toward young people.
For Miriam Teuma, CEO of Agenzija Żgħażagħ, Malta, the Exchange Forum was a reminder of the duality at the heart of youth work: “Yesterday reminded me why youth work is both noisy and silent and why it must be both. Strong in its conviction, its values, its cross-border solidarity. I could hear the noise: the energy, the passion and the demands and also the silence: the gaps, the inequalities, the young people we still don’t reach.”
Miriam also expressed hope, especially in the joint effort behind the Roadmap of the 4th European Youth Work Convention: “We know what youth work needs. We know what young people deserve. And the Roadmap is our chance to finally act with unity, structure and purpose.”
Snežana Klašnja, Youth Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Tourism and Youth, Serbia, highlighted the energy and engagement that shaped the day. She noted that after the warm and interactive welcome on day one, participants were greeted by a rich programme of conversations and expert inputs: “On the second day we were greeted by an inspiring opening by Ana Mihajlov and conversations with great speakers: Miriam Teuma, Fatmir Sabiru and Marko Pritržnik. The energy, enthusiasm and dedication to youth work and the implementation of EYWA carried us away so we did not stop with questions.”
What stood out to Snežana were the diverse examples of youth work in practice: “Inspiring practices at the national and local level gave us double insights into the diversity of youth work and innovative ways of implementation in practice.”
The research inputs and reflections in the national groups also played a key role: “We were able to hear about trends in research on national EYWA processes from Dr. Frederike Hofmann-van de Poll but also to give recommendations for improving it.”
Tina Kosi from the Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Youth emphasised the Exchange Forum’s importance as a platform to connect and deepen understanding: “Participating in the Exchange Forum is important to me because it allows us to share valuable insights and practical guidance on how the European Agenda for Youth Work is being implemented across different countries - and to address specific challenges directly.”, she emphasized.
Also, Tina shared with us that Slovenia has a well-developed youth work sector, and therefore the key national documents that reflect Slovenia’s long-term commitment to structured and quality-based youth work development were presented as an example of good practice. They include National Framework for Quality Youth Work, publications on National Competence Model for Youth Workers and ABC of Youth Work, and a large-scale research project ‘Youth Sector 2025’.
What stood out across all three reflections is that the Exchange Forum is a place for being together and sharing good practices, as well as getting inspired in implementation of EYWA on the national level.
The noise, the silence, the enthusiasm, the challenges, and exchange all came together in Skopje, reminding us why youth work matters and why we should invest more in national processes.