YOUTH WORK PRACTICE

Youth work is present for decades in Europe. During this time the practice and profession of youth work have developed significantly. This chapter covers the research findings of the youth work practice in Ljubljana. To be more precise I will write about aims, purpose, approaches, methods, models, and target groups of youth work. Moreover, I will also write about evaluation, networking, quality standards, and recognition of youth work in Ljubljana.

Youth work practice and profession concentrates on young people's personal development and strengthening the communities they live in. On the one hand, youth work aims to empower and strengthen young people to be active and responsible members of society. Moreover, youth work helps young people reach their full potential through different supporting programmes.

On the other hand, youth work focuses on supporting community change in which young people would be appreciated and supported through different services.

The asset-based and the needs-based approaches to youth work practice are the most dominant in Ljubljana. Both strive to support young people's personal development and strengthen their position in society. However, they have two different starting points. The asset-based approach builds on the experiences, skills, and talents young people have and works towards supporting youngsters in identifying and further developing them. In the needs-based approach, youth workers first conduct a needs assessment where they try to identify specific needs of individuals, groups of young people, or communities and later try to offer activities to respond to these.

Youth work organizations in Ljubljana are organized in specialized networks where they meet and exchange experiences, implement educational and qualification programmes for youth workers as well as collegial meetings.

Evaluation and self-reflection are important aspects for ensuring quality youth work. When working on streets youth workers experience challenges with the evaluation of their activities

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mainly because of the principle of voluntary participation, where young people participate in activities only if they want to.

"Just because young people come and go as they want. So, it's hard to have an activity and then when somebody decides "OK, now I will not participate in this activity anymore; I will go there and talk to my parents" at that moment you cannot just stop the complete processes to ask him about what he thinks could be better." (A, 191-195)

However, youth workers organize team evaluations after activities or projects have been concluded. They see evaluation as an important part of their job which is crucial for ensuring higher quality in activities and strengthening the personal and professional growth of the staff.

"... we had the evaluation in different periods of the year, we do this all the time. It's part of the job. It's essential for improvement, better work, personal growth and everything." (B, 338-340)

One of the indicators is the frequency of young people's visits to different activities.

Team building is as important as evaluation, so youth workers from Ljubljana organize team-building trips. The focus of these trips is enhancing team communication and cohesion, education, and skills development as well as evaluation of activities.

"We have usually this weekend, it's like training and team building. Besides gaining some additional skills, one goal is also to evaluate the work you have done in the previous year and maybe what you want to do in the next year." (D, 182-185)

Youth workers apply different methods when working with individuals and groups of young people. These methods may vary from organization to organization. Some youth workers also have personal preferences about methods they tend to use. Young people in Ljubljana visit youth centres to spend quality free time or to get individual guidance and counselling as well as infrastructural support to organize events and meetings on their own.

When working with young people in public spaces, youth workers make use of their equipment to animate and motivate young people to participate in activities or to simply start conversations. This ranges from different balls to board games. Moreover, on some occasions, youth workers may use special concepts to transmit knowledge and skills. Youth workers in Ljubljana use Fotball3, a concept for a football game, where the focus is rather on fair play than

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on competition. The players discuss their own rules and award the opposing team with fair-play points.

"Football 3 is an activity with football, where the young ones who are playing are setting the rules. So, before we start playing, they discuss the rules, and then you stop the game and do the reflection. Oh, they also establish the punishment for not following the rules. I was there just standing and listening and being like, OK. They had to agree about everything." (B, 223-227)

One of the authentic methods to the practice of youth work is working with young people in a big circle i.e., sitting in a seminar room in a chair circle. This is predominantly used to ensure a high level of participation and communication among participants.

Youth work methods must be appealing to a broad spectrum of young people. Therefore, the used methods and activities are chosen based on the preferences and needs of the participants the youth workers work with. Hence, they approach youngsters very differently on the streets of Ljubljana.

Youth workers normally work outside of institutions based on different models. The first model is outreach youth work, where the main aim is to invite young people to visit the youth centre:

"... we also do a little bit of outreach, so we invite them to come to our youth centres."

(B, 11-12)

The second model is detached youth work where the main aim is to support young people in organizing events and activities in their local communities:

"... we were not working around our youth centre, but farther away from it, the model we used was detached youth work. Hence, we were implementing sports activities or different free-time activities or helping help people learn and organise events with the young people at their local primary school playground." (B, 7-11)

With the help of mobile youth centres (in form of bicycles, vans, or buses) youth workers visit communities in the suburbs of Ljubljana, where young people experience a lack of infrastructure and activities.

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The purpose of youth work is to support young people's personal development by giving them support and guidance in becoming independent adults and help them become active members of society. Moreover, youth work ensures that the wellbeing of youth is put in the centre of political discussions.

"Core principle in youth work is to plan activities with young people and for young people." (F, 65-66)

and

"As a youth worker, it's essential that you give the space, in the way that they are proactive; that they get self-initiated. You know, and I don't do the job instead of them."

(B, 90-92)

Another purpose of youth work is to support the development of young people's ability to critically analyse recent political events and developments. In this process youth workers also transfer democratic values to the youngsters. Equally important is simply "being there" for young people, which is understood as being available for the youngsters in their local communities when they need support or guidance.

"You as a kid were there, in your own environment. And you didn't have to go somewhere else, you know, like, really, because it can be sometimes tricky for kids to go somewhere." (D, 125-128)

Besides this, ensuring that young people have opportunities for spending free quality time is also one of the purposes of youth work. Youth workers in Ljubljana focus as much on the suburbs as on the city centre. In the suburbs, they implement detached-youth work activities.

They visit the suburbs by walking, cycling, or with the mobile youth centre.

"We are not promoting but encouraging young people to behave responsibly in public spaces." (D, 15-16)

For youth workers, an important purpose they identify themselves with is establishing trusting relationships with young people which they later use as a resource for transformative processes in their local communities.

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"... youth worker can be somebody who gives advice, who is a mentor, who guides young people through the challenges in their life. But on the other hand, it can be simply somebody who listens." (F, 183-186)

Youth work organizations in Slovenia need to agree on a definition of youth work to be able to distinguish what is and what is not youth work. Accordingly, they would use different approaches.

"Competencies of youth work are part of the quality standards in youth work. We have to establish what is youth work and what is not. For me, a ten-year-old and an eighteen-year-old are very different, so the approaches are also very different. So, the target groups are very important to define." (B, 597-600).

The recognition of youth work is very poor and youth workers feel that their work is not valued enough. The public has a wrong perception of youth works practice and purpose:

"If you ask the public, they think that youth workers play only games with children, which is not true." (B, 319-320)

Part of the responsibility for this poor recognition is also on youth workers because the professionals are not working enough on its recognition and value in the public.

"I think a part of the responsibility is on youth workers, too. We don't work enough on recognition of youth work and the value of youth work so that it would be considered differently." (B, 319-320)

The main target group of youth work in Ljubljana are young people aged from 15 to 29 years of age. They also work more intensively with some specific groups of young people. Besides young people who are in education, pupils, and university students, youth workers recognize vulnerable youngsters and immigrants as one of the specific target groups they work with.

"The area where we were working is inhibited by immigrants, maybe the second generation of immigrants from parents who came to Slovenia" (B, 217-221)