Together forward

Join school-based youth work project!

The Erasmus project YWIS – Youth work in schools develops youth work in schools and educational environments. The aim is to define the role and opportunities of youth work in schools. Another aim is to incorporate informal education opportunities to formal education and to integrate the objectives of youth work and curricula. YWIS further increases the quality of youth work through four themes:

1. Sustainable development.
2. Democracy education.
3. Student wellbeing work.
4. Strengthening the sense of community.

YWIS starts by collecting good practices from different countries.

Transferring a good practice from one place to another is not easy. Petri Paju (2008, 3) illustrates the transfer of good practice to changing a light bulb. It is not enough to replace a burnt-out bulb with a new one on the same threads. Good practice does not work like a spare part but requires effort and work to transfer from one place to another.

Have you been able to establish a specific practice in your region and in your schools to strengthen the sense of community and participation? How do you develop student well-being and promote young people’s faith in the future? Who are the professionals involved? How are young people are involved and how do they benefit?

Tell us about a good practice in school-based youth work that you have found out. Share it as a part of European co-creation through the Google Forms Practices Survey. The questions are in English, but translation assistance is available if needed.

Link to the survey

Good practices are being collected across Europe, in particular in the YWIS project partner countries Greece, Portugal, Estonia and Finland. All responses will be reviewed by the YWIS and compiled into a Handbook. The collection of good practices won’t only serve as spare parts but will continue to provide perspectives to the further YWIS activities and for any new innovations in school-based youth work around the world.

Source: Nuorten valtakunnallinen osallisuushanke. Kehyskertomukseen linkitetyt dokumentit: Hyvästä käytännöstä.  Nuorisorisotutkimusverkosto/ Nuorisotutkimusseura. Verkkojulkaisuja 18. Available online.

Come and help us to find our new logo!

Competition lasts 26.09.2022- 07.10.2022. Upload your visual logo idea using this form.

The purpose of this contest is to design a logo to be used by the YWIS – Youth work in schools.  The logo’s design should reflect the values of YWIS. The YWIS logo should also capture our mission and objectives.

Key words are: Youth work, non-formal learning, team work, participation, young people, innovation.

The objectives of the YWIS are to:

1. empower youth work in schools, define the role and the opportunities of youth work and support the design of school-based youth work content.
2. develop the cooperation between formal and informal education, to root informal education opportunities within youth’s formal education and to integrate the objectives of youth work and the curriculum.
3. increase the quality of youth work in schools and develop special guidance practices at youth work in schools (4 themes):
   • sustainable development and faith in the future of young people, sharing of the facilities in the school buildings for pedagogical use and for youth work,
   • democracy education and participation,
   • the holistic student wellbeing work, individual work and digital tools of the guidance,
   • strengthening the sense of community: supporting group dynamics and a sense of community in everyday life at schools and attachment to the studies, as well as actions against loneliness and bullying.

Partners of the YWIS are:

• South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences Xamk – Youth research and development centre Juvenia (Kaakkois-Suomen ammattikorkeakoulu Xamk – Nuorisoalan tutkimus- ja kehittämiskeskus Juvenia
• Thessaly University – UTh (Panepistimio Thessalias
• Saaremaa Youth Work Center – SYWC (Saaremaa Noorsootöö Keskus
• Freguesia de Vila Boa do Bispo