An active and independent non-governmental sector is an essential element of any truly democratic society.

Participation in the democratic life of any country, region or locality is about more than voting every few years, it help citizens to be involved in and influence decisions and actions on an ongoing basis. Therefore it is crucial that young people are encouraged and supported to participate in associative life in their communities.
Majorities of the non-governmental organizations are working with young people mainly as beneficiaries, target group or directly involved in the development and implementation of the activities.
While young people send us a clear message: they want to shape their environment and society actively, the specific of the youth organizations is the use of non-formal education approach, which aims to involve young people and empower them to take an active role within the community life.
In most of the cases, the biggest challenge is to reach all categories of youth within a specific community or society and to make sure that everyone has equal opportunity to participate in our activities.
This leaflet is dedicated to those of us who are willing to improve our efforts to involve the marginalized groups, to bring their needs to the surface and to build our activities with a maximum of participation and inclusive character involving marginalized youth in the activities of our organisation. Empowering young people to take an active role in the community enables them to be responsible citizens.
We propose you some aspects to consider when you are designing youth activities that are aimed to strengthen the participation of young people.

- What are the most important aspects we should know about youth work?

- What's a marginalized group?

- How do we know that our organization has reached all categories of young people existing in our working field?

- How can we create equal possibilities for all young people to participate in community's life?

- How do we involve marginalized groups of young people in our activities?
We believe that marginalized groups of young people can make their voice heard when we pay attention to a diversity of needs young people have in society and we use our creativity to develop activities that gives equal access for active participation.

CONTENTS

1. BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF YOUTH WORK


2. IMPORTANT FEATURES OF YOUTH WORK

2.1 involvement

2.2 participation

2.3 empowerment

2.4 multiculturality

2.5 intercultural activities

2.6 who are the marginalized young people

2.7 marginalisation brings exclusion


3. OUTREACHING MARGINALIZED GROUPS OF YOUNG PEOPLE

3.1 what can we do with marginalized youth?

3.2 what to keep in mind when working with marginalized youth?

3.3 mapping of participatory youth activities

3.4 how to involve marginalized groups of young people in our activities


4. USEFUL LINKS

1. BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF YOUTH WORK

Popular use of the word youth refers to a person who is neither an adult nor a child, but somewhere in between, scientifically referred to as an adolescent or teenager.
It is important to remember that there is no universal definition of youth, nor a general accepted age frame. Each country has it's own definition of youth, that you can find in the Youth Action Plans on national level.
On the European level the same discussion exist between the European Commission and the Council of Europe when it comes to the definition of youth. Until 2006 European Commission defined youth between 15 ­ 25 years old whilst the definition of Council of Europe on youth goes up to 30 years old.
Such difference in youth definitions creates difficulties for participation of young people at European level and development of international activities.

Youth workers are people who work with young people in a wide variety of non-formal and informal contexts, typically focusing on personal and social development through one-to-one relationships and in group-based activities. Being learning facilitators may be their main task, but it is at least as likely that youth workers take a social pedagogic or directly social work based approach. In many cases, these roles and functions are combined with each other.

Youth Work is the activity conducted by and/or for young people, either on a professional or a volunteer basis. It involves any kind of project initiation, management, formulation or implementation. It does not imply in any way that there is a framework within which young people should act excluding other aspects of civic and social life. It by no means includes only activities that are for entertainment under a 'serious' theme. On the contrary, youth work should be a stepping-stone for young people to enter confidently the sphere of serious work on social issues. They should proudly struggle for values of life, as they are the most powerfully, pioneering and dynamic population group of a society, as well as one of the most vulnerable to the consequences of misjudgment and wrong doings.

Youth Activities are actions initiated from and for young people, with the main target group being the youth population. They may be educational activities (conferences, symposia, workshops), leisure and sport activities (out door activities, sport competitions, festivals) or any other activities that answer the needs of young people.


2. IMPORTANT FEATURES OF YOUTH WORK

2.1 involvement
Involvement is the characteristic of youth work and it stimulates the empowerment of young people irrespective of socio-economic, ethnic or cultural background, physical situation or status in becoming involved in a youth project/ activity or generally in youth work from the early steps of it. It involves young people's participation at all levels of delivering a youth activity/ project as a means to create ownership and commitment, as well as empowerment and encouragement for democratic involvement in the civic life of young people. Volunteerism is an example of active youth involvement.

2.2 participation
Youth involvement and youth participation are 2 terms that are always connected and used together. Anyway, participation is not an aim in itself, but an approach to becoming active citizen like 'taking an active role both in the development of one's own environment and on European level'.
Participation is about having the right, the means, the space and the opportunity and where necessary the support to participate in and influence decisions and engage in actions and activities so as to contribute to building a better society.
Any policy or action designed to promote youth participation must ensure that the cultural environment is one of respect for young people and must also take into account the diverse needs, circumstances and aspirations of young people. And it must involve some element of fun and enjoyment.

2.3 empowerment
Youth empowerment is a process that happens on the level of culture and attitude of young people, where they gain the ability, authority, and possibility to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people, including youth and adults. There are a variety of activities that may affect youth empowerment, including formal education, community-based training, governmental policy-making, and development of social awareness.

2.4 multiculturality
Multicultural activities consist of presentation of the culture or aspects of the culture of more than one group. They usually aim at the celebration of diversity, as well as the acceptance of differences among people and promotion of tolerance.

2.5 intercultural activities
Besides presentation of different cultures of different groups of young people, intercultural activities promote and celebrate the exchange and interaction between the people from those cultures, as a means to raise awareness and cultivate a spirit of equality, equity and fairness.

2.6 who are the marginalized young people
Groups of people who are not involved, represented or accepted in the mainstream society for any reason are considered marginalized.
They differ from society to society, from community to community. The marginalized groups may be hip hop or punk youth groups, refugees and migrants, non ethnically similar to the dominant group, groups that made different choices from the mainstream, i.e. sexual orientation, drug abuse, single parents or with different religious and cultural practices.
It is important to mention that exclusion from the mainstream can be a result of the social status of an group or a result of the social choice, which sometimes make such groups feel proud to be excluded.
For example right-wing youth groups attach to a political ideology and a specific expression of their identity, which brings both self-exclusion and rejection of the mainstream.

The groups that are excluded because of their social situation are the most marginalized ones, because they don't have a choice.
For example Roma communities all around Europe face extreme social exclusion because of their often, unclear social status, very poor living conditions, low education, different ethnical background, etc.
In the field of education, secondary school enrollments in South Eastern European countries are considerably lower than in southern European countries such as Greece, Cyprus, and Malta. Dropout rates are increasing, and are higher among young men than young women.
Youth with little education, youth with disabilities, and youth from certain minorities like the Roma are disproportionately affected.
Lack of economic opportunities establishes conditions in which young people are vulnerable to trafficking. Moldova, Romania, and Albania, followed by Bulgaria are the major countries of origin of trafficking in South Eastern Europe.

The marginalized groups are the most vulnerable ones, as they do not have or denied access to decision making mechanism and policy making, thereafter they are further excluded from the right to participate in democratic structures, and for this reason their rights are suppressed.

It is difficult to quantify how many young people are marginalized because it depends on the local reality, economical development of the country, social environment and the availability of specialized services for the needs of the young people. The most important thing is to remember that in every society there are always groups of young people that are not reached by youth activities.

2.7 marginalisation brings exclusion
Social exclusion could be defined as the combination of a lack of having (e.g. poverty) and not taking part in essential processes of society (e.g. employment). When defining exclusion, it's important to consider:
- Social exclusion has to be addressed from a multidimensional perspective, including among else income, work, family, ethnicity, housing, culture and power.
- Social exclusion has to be related to the social inclusion of society, which means that we need to know about the structures, systems and cultures of society in order to understand the appearance and causes of social exclusion.

Prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination and violence on the basis of ethnicity, gender, social class, disability, and sexual orientation are major causes of social exclusion. Policy initiatives should challenge these barriers within 'mainstream' society, in order to foster social inclusion.


3. OUTREACHING MARGINALIZED GROUPS OF YOUNG PEOPLE

3.1 what can we do with marginalized youth?

Providing services
Many of them live in situations characterized by violence and distrust so programs need to establish an environment of respect, acceptance, and stability. Some programs use creative ways of helping youth express themselves.
To help these youth develop opportunities to the low-skill occupations they are engaged in, many programs offer formal and informal education, providing training in literacy, life skills, as well as job training and internships.

Mechanisms to reach
To make initial contact, outreach activities find youth in places where they spend most of their time.
Telephone hotlines are another strategy employed because they offer information to youth and respect anonymity. A hotline is defined by the functions it has: helping victims, organizing lobby/political campaigns, mobilizing and involving the community, spreading information, monitoring and reporting over the specific field of activity.
In more structured and intensive settings, drop-in centers and shelters provide a place to rest and protection from violence and abuse, as well as food, clothing, medical care, and recreational activity.

Advocacy and awareness-raising activities
There are many complementary educational activities developed to help youth understand and assert their rights and in the same time mobilize the society to protect them. At the national and international level there are initiatives promoting and enforcing legislation that fosters well being of young people and development, such as laws against exploitative labor and trafficking of youth and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

3.2 what to keep in mind when working with marginalized youth?

Need assessment and involve youth in program planning
Too often, youth workers who are not familiar with the real needs and concerns of young people when establishing services for them, therefore, it is necessary to consider youth as the key source of information. In addition, when identifying needs and services for young people we should also try to see any protective factors that help youth avoid risks. After identifying the needs, youth should play an active role in program design and planning. Programs seeking to empower youth find it necessary to invest time and resources training staff to interact in a participatory way and avoid authoritarian manner.

Attracting community support
As previously noted, activities should try to win community support for these youth and the activities serving them. Program staff will need patience and hard work to win this support, but they will find it hard to operate without it. For example, programs may be prevented from establishing drop-in centers or shelters if people living in the area do not want it established near their homes. Furthermore, youth may avoid going to programs if people in the area treat them poorly.

Measuring progress and results
Activities should establish measurable indicators of their progress and results. The progress of the activities should be measured on a regular and constant basis in order to register the results. The impact of the activities needs time to be visible and is difficult to measure it. Anyway the impact of an activity is based on the results registered. Close measurement of results and impact are necessary for follow-up funding.

Influencing the larger context in which these youth live
Perhaps the greatest obstacle programs face is their limited ability to influence the larger social, political and economic context in which these youth and their families live. Discrimination against girls and women, homosexuals, and ethnic minorities contribute to marginalisation and exploitation. A lack of basic services and social safety nets forces families to rely on the economic contribution of their children to survive and forces youth to accept potentially dangerous working conditions.

3.3 mapping of participatory youth activities



3.4 how to involve marginalized groups of young people in our activities

Steps that help you work with marginalized youth

1. Identify the marginalized groups
How much does the mainstream include different groups of youth? Which groups are outside the mainstream and are excluded socially, politically and economically? The groups that have difficulties to be visible in the society are usually the marginalized ones and need special attention.

2. Identify the needs and the problem they have
What is the problem? Problems shouldn't be taken for granted, but very carefully defined, preferably in co-operation with those affected by them. The definitions are crucial for which solutions the projects tend to look for.
Defining the problems should be regarded as an ongoing process, which becomes a part of the solution.

3. Understand the context where marginalized youth live
What does the context mean? Every problem and way to solve it depends on the context. Often, what appears to be the problem is only the symptom and effect of underlying causes. Such hidden causes could also make solutions difficult and even prevent them.

3. Involve stakeholders in establishment of the objectives of the activity
When addressing the needs of marginalized groups, different youth structures, social workers, bodies that work with marginalized groups and young people in particular must be given opportunities to take part in working out objectives and aims.

4. Develop reliable partnerships
What kind of partnership does the project rely on? Partnerships between representatives from different parts of society have turned out to be fruitful, not only on a local basis but also internationally in a network. Partnerships have to be constantly questioned and challenged. There has to be openness to renew them.

5. Involve marginalized youth directly into implementation of the activity
How does the process build on the potentials and participation of young people? In order to avoid a problem-oriented treatment of young people and thereby run the risk of deepening the problems, the potentials of young people have to be used and combined in multiple ways.

6. Give priority to empowerment of the youth involved in the activity
Has the project managed to result in structural changes? Instead of forcing the young people to change, it's important to carry through structural changes, in particular aiming at empowering young people.


4. USEFUL LINKS

White Paper on Youth Participation of Young People -European Commission
In 2001, the European Commission published the White Paper as a position statement to guide youth policies. This document emphasizes the linkage between the role of young people in public life and in democracies with participation and social inclusion. http://ec.europa.eu/youth/whitepaper/index_en.html

Human Rights Education Associates
Dedicated to quality education and training to promote understanding, attitudes and actions to protect human rights, and to foster the development of peaceable, free and just communities.
www.hrea.org/

Inclusion Resources
http://seriweb.com/inclu.htm

Center for Studies on Inclusive Education
http://inclusion.uwe.ac.uk/csie/csiefaqs.htm

Soros Foundation ­ The Decade of Roma Inclusion
www.soros.org/resources/articles_publications/publications/osn_20051011

Monitor Racis & Extremism
www.monitorracisme.nl/content.asp?PID=60&LID=1

Salto - Youth and Inclusion - A network of Resource Centers within the European youth field
www.salto-youth.net/inclusion/