Conference: Youth Work – The lessons from the crisis

The Corona pandemic is still full on course! While the number of new infections in Europe has dropped and many countries are reducing the restrictions, uncertainty is still the only constant. What we do know, is that the consequences of the crisis are far-reaching in all areas of life and are especially affecting children and young people. At this point, only a vaguely estimate is possible. Youth work has faced a gigantic challenge in the past months. On the one hand, because the restrictions came very quickly, the situation changed drastically, sometimes even within hours. On the other hand, because the traditional channels for youth work were simply unavailable. With a society in physical isolation, only the digital tools were available: from webinars to online leisure activities, youth work had to rely on the digital world for a continuation of its activities. The flexibility and resilience from everyone in the field have been put on a hard test. On some aspects, the youth work managed remarkably, while on others, there were unexpected limits!  

Many questions arise from this perspective: Which lessons have we learnt out of this challenge? How will youth work function after this crisis? Should we just try to go back to how it was before, or will we see a radical transformation of youth work in our communities and across Europe?

This conference aims to:

Provide a platform to reflect and analyse the ways in which this crisis has affected the lives of children and young people, as well as our work.

Discuss the new challenges that the crisis has created and the way how we can best approach them.

Explore the new possibilities (methods, tools, etc.) that we have developed and/or improved

Exchange best practices examples from methods and projects.  

Contribute with your own experience to an improvement of youth work in Europe.

Provide a space for networking.

This Conference will bring together about 120 youth workers and experts on the field of youth work in Vienna and in Europe. Together we will exchange our experiences from different cities across Europe during this pandemic. The crisis is not over yet and we are all still evaluating how to move forward, therefore this is just the right moment to exchange our ideas, our best practices and to discuss how to create a sustainable and modern new path for the youth work in our communities and in Europe!

COVID 19 Information: The meeting is planned face-to-face, all rules and regulations by the Austrian Authorities are being respected. We will of course monitor the situation and offer guidance depending on changes to the current situation. An overview of everything related to COVID-19 in Austria can be found on the Website of the Austrian Minsitry for Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection: https://www.sozialministerium.at/en/Coronavirus/New-coronavirus-(COVID-19).html