Seminar on Urban Youth 2007

The SALTO Inclusion Resource Centre is cooperating with the French NA (INJEP), within its strategy to promote the inclusion of a variety of specific target groups with fewer opportunties in the YOUTH programme.

Dates & Venue

• This seminar took place in Les Mureaux (a suburb of Paris) in France from 12 till 16 December 2007 = 3 full working days.

Aim

• Explore and analyse how international youth projects can be used to work with young people in disadvantaged (sub)urban areas

Outcomes and Impact

Resources for working with Urban Youth

A direct outcome of the Urban Youth Seminar is the Urban youth booklet called "Youth and the City" - which is a manual on how to set up international projects with disadvantaged urban youth.

• Download it here (right click and save it on your computer)
• At the Urban Youth Seminar we also gathered an overview of resources for international Urban projects: links to funding, educational material, special urban programmes, how the Youth in Action programme can support urban projects, etc.

The Urban Youth Seminar: reaching the objectives

The Urban Youth Seminar aimed to reach 4 objectives, all of which were reached to a large extent (as you can see from the evaluation graphs on this page)

• ALL (100%) participants that filled the evaluation form indicated they had the chance to exchange good practices of urban youth projects
• 79% of them also appreciated the possibility to get to know local urban realities in Les Mureaux (project visits)
• 95% of participants evaluated positively the possibility of sharing existing resources (funding, methods, publications, activities,...) for urban youth work
• 90% were convinced of the power of Youth in Action projects as a tool for change in young people's lives living in disadvantaged (sub)urban areas

The Multiplying Effect: one course leads to many projects

At the end of the seminar, participants were asked to reflect about what action they could undertake when back home, as a result of the seminar. They came up with the ideas for 34 projects.

When checking how it went with all their plans 6 months after the seminar, we got the following answers:

• 95% of the respondents to the follow-up questionnaire said that the Urban Youth Seminar has had an impact on their work: 25% judges it a big impact, 40% medium, 30% some.
• 70% of participants went on after the course to do urban projects. The 20 respondents were involved in no less than 38 projects (20 within the Youth in Action programme). 50% found partners for this project at the seminar.
• 75% of participants felt supported by their organisation and colleagues, 65% said they appreciated the support given by SALTO Inclusion and 50% could count on National Agency support in their future projects.

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Course Report

As for the Urban Seminar report, all different methods that we have used are made available in the SALTO Toolbox for Training at www.salto-youth.net/toolbox/. These methods and the seminar content have also been transferred into the Urban Youth educational booklet called Youth and the City, in the same series as the other SALTO Inclusion for ALL booklets www.salto-youth.net/inclusionforALL/.

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Participants

In total 188 participants applied. 34 participants from 15 different countries were selected. Amongst these 34 youth workers there were 15 men and 19 women, 4 came from 'pre-accession countries'.

Team of Trainers

The trainers team is composed of these 2 trainers, plus a representative of Les Mureaux, INJEP & SALTO inclusion.

Katrin Alban (F, Germany-Spain, Facilitator & Editor booklet)
Patricia Brulefert (F, France, Trainer/Facilitator)
Gilles Baccala (F, France, coordinationg team)
Tony Geudens (M, Belgium Fl, coordinationg team)