The “Growing Youth Work” SNAC held its third Project Lab on Wednesday 18th June 2025. These Labs are a space for the community of practice to come together and pitch ideas for youth work developments to other practitioners. It is also a space for forming alliances and partnerships. This Project Lab was themed on some initial reflections on the 4th European Youth Work Convention. These reflections were provided primarily by Miriam Teuma, one of the leading organisers and host of the Convention.
Written by Nik Paddison
The Project Lab
The idea behind the Project lab concept is for people to pitch concrete project ideas to other interested youth work practitioners. The Lab is designed for people to come up with ideas, be inspired by each other’s ideas, create new alliances and partnerships, and to be encouraged to turn the ideas into reality - with support of the EU Erasmus+ Youth and European Solidarity Corps. The basis for this Project Lab was to provide an opportunity for participants to come up with ideas based on reflections on the Convention.
Convention Inspiration
Miriam Teuma, Chief Executive of Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, Malta’s national youth agency and one of the lead organisers and host of the 4th European Youth Work Convention, was invited to present her initial thoughts and reflections on the Convention.
Miriam was clear that these were her personal reflections based on her experience of the two days of the Convention. This included conversations with tens of delegates, listening to the speeches, inputs and panel discussions, and the opportunity to see some of the more than 80 plus reports from the thematic and project sharing workshops. She has also received feedback from many delegates after the Convention and has been observing the social media of those who attended.
One of the main messages that Miriam felt came from the Convention is that youth work is becoming more grounded and less “airy-fairy”! There is a sense of motion that shows the sector is not asking the same questions and starting from the beginning again – as it has done many times in the past. It is moving forward based on what has gone before. Miriam felt that the question we now need to answer is, “how are we going to strengthen this position”.
Miriam then presented her thoughts in relation to the three thematic areas of the Convention.
The Youth Work Core
Miriam expressed that this thematic area might not have flashing lights, but it is what holds up the entire house. Some of the main elements of the youth work core are about ethical values, the dignity of youth work, and its quality. She recalled that when people discussed values, recognition, quality, and ethics at the Convention, they did so not in an abstract way, but through concrete examples.
She felt that recognition specifically, as a topic and a concern, was something fundamental to the people at the Convention. She emphasised that recognition can no longer be a topic that the youth sector whispers about; it has to be structural, visible and supported.
Some countries need support for the recognition of youth work because their governments are doing little to support youth work. However, the question of how to get governments to support youth work better remains. Some answers from the Convention were around strengthening the community of practice at the grassroots level to lobby and use the funding framework at the European level for this purpose.
The Youth Work Environment
This theme was very important in Miriam’s input. As a former youth worker herself and someone who stays very much in contact with day-to-day youth work, she was particularly interested in this core theme because it is about the reality of young people.
The Convention touched on the many topics affecting young people including AI, war, climate change… One of the things that was repeated a lot, in both informal discussions and workshops was, “if youth work does not adapt, are we still relevant?” The discussion around this included questions like, “what does this mean for youth work today?” Or “is it different from the youth work of yesterday?”. Miriam felt that the general response she was hearing was that youth work needs to be shaped by the lived realities of young people, not by what is convenient or funded or expected.
One of the key outcomes of the Convention, from Miriam’s point of view, is that this theme calls for flexibility, courage and uncomfortable questions!
Youth Work Systems
Under this theme, Miriam shared that she heard a lot about funding, national strategies, stakeholder collaboration, and questions about the future of European youth policy. She felt that under this theme, people were very grounded and realistic. For example, she heard people saying that “systems are only useful if they hold us up, not hold us back!”
It was felt that this youth work systems theme is not only about more resources, it is about smart sustainable and collective development. However, in the words of Miriam, “we need to stop reinventing the wheel and start sharing the vehicle.”
This theme, as with the others also raised many questions. Miriam shared some that she heard, “How are we going to move forward collectively?” “How do we share the funding and resources equitably?” and “how do we move from projects to embedded practice?” Miriam picked up the feeling that the sector is saying, “We need to think big, but stay real, we need long-term vision and commitment.”
She also highlighted the strong imbalance that exists in Europe regarding the recognition and support for youth work. It is necessary to identify where support is needed and give more focus to those regions, for example, Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, and some of the Southern parts of Europe.
Miriam closed her input with the words:
“The convention brought so much energy, it must move forward with a bang.”
Hearing the inspiring thoughts and reflections from Miriam, the participants were asked to enter breakout rooms to explore ideas for youth work development.
Project ideas on Ministerial Peer Learning, rural youth work and a tool fair
One of the groups responded with thoughts and ideas based on a concept that had come up in the Convention – peer learning amongst ministries and decision-makers responsible for youth. The aim would be to increase the understanding of the value of youth work and the needs of youth work among decision-makers at different levels.
The group exchanged ideas about how they thought different ministries would want to engage and what formats might be fruitful, such as events, study visits, exchanges, the sharing of good practice… Participants voiced that this is something the SNAC Growing Youth Work could support next to the support from a group of national youth ministries that would be needed.
The group felt that this approach could have numerous positive spin-offs. For example, it could inspire cross-border projects and see a rise in the development of youth work strategies and policies. The Ministerial Conference for ministries responsible for youth, which will take place in Malta in October 2025, could be the perfect place to promote or even start the process. Those interested proposed having further meetings to clarify the aims and approach and to make initial contact with their respective ministries.
Another group focussed on youth work in rural areas, wanting to see a boost in the outreach work of youth work and find more support for youth workers in smaller communities.
A third idea that was explored was for the development of a “tool fair” concept for developing the community in practice. A space for sharing expertise, to learn from one another and to showcase best practices in youth work. It was noted that this could be beneficial for strengthening rural youth work, too.
What’s next?
The different ideas that came out of this Project Lab are now in the hands of those who developed them collaboratively. This Project Lab was a unique opportunity to get some personal and unofficial reflections on the Convention and a space to work with others on the development of youth work based on those insights. New editions of the Project Lab series will be announced in the news section of the Growing Youth Work Website and social media channels of Growing Youth Work (Facebook and Instagram).