Urban Solutions Seminar

Aim: To reflect upon social challenges in urban areas and the role of the youth work in addressing/preventing them. Main Objectives: •To discus and reflect upon the main challenges in urban areas •To reflect on recent riots (their causes and consequences) in big European cities •To bring together different stakeholders and see how we can cooperate better and offer possible solutions •Getting to know local reality and sharing best practices •Analysing the role of youth work in urban areas and what youth workers can do •New forms of youth work in urban areas The discussions at the seminar will feed in to the publication/research, which will give an overview of current situation, policy documents, best practices and recommendations for ways forward. Questions addressed: •What are the main social challenges for young people in (sub)urban areas (poverty, unemployment, migration, ghettoization) and how can we overcome those. •What are the possible causes/consequences of the recent raids in London, Paris, etcetera. How can we prevent this in the future. •Has youth work an answer to urban challenges? Are we ready to deal with the situation? Whose problem is it? •What youth work interventions have been tried and what can we learn from them? •What can youth work do? And what are its limits? Profile of participants: •Policy makers – representatives of the cities and statutory authorities of the municipality’s youth services •Youth workers directly working with youth in disadvantaged (sub)urban areas •Police – community officers from disadvantaged (sub)urban areas •Researchers working on topic of youth in urban areas •National Agencies’ staff with experience and motivation to work on a topic