Successful kick-off of the project “Strengthening the role of youth work in contesting dynamics of shrinking cities”

With a kick-off meeting from the 25th till the 28th of November n the Human Rights House in Zagreb, the project “Strengthening the role of youth work in contesting dynamics of shrinking cities” was successfully launched.

Partner organizations from 4 European countries met to discuss the challenges connected to the phenomenon of “shrinking cities” across the European Union and how to deal with it through youth work. The project aims to contribute to building of new strategies of social inclusion and civic engagement for youth residing in Europe’s “shrinking cities”. The project is coordinated by “Documenta – Center for Dealing with the Past”.

Through the set of different project activities, the partners will focus on good practices of youth work in shrinking cities in Croatia, Spain, Portugal and Germany. The project will focus on studying the shrinking cities through collection, analyses, and comparison of both the similarities and differences in policy and development, related to youth work in these 4 countries. The foreseen publication will be based on the mapping and analysis of best practices of youth-work in the partner countries, with the geographical focus on shrinking cities and regions. The results will be disseminated as an online toolkit for youth workers in shrinking cities (and beyond) with the purpose to strengthen the competences of youth workers through sharing of new and innovative approaches.

Through the set of different project activities, the partners will focus on good practices of youth work in shrinking cities in Croatia, Spain, Portugal and Germany. The project will focus on studying the shrinking cities through collection, analyses, and comparison of both the similarities and differences in policy and development, related to youth work in these 4 countries. The foreseen publication will be based on the mapping and analysis of best practices of youth-work in the partner countries, with the geographical focus on shrinking cities and regions. The results will be disseminated as an online toolkit for youth workers in shrinking cities (and beyond) with the purpose to strengthen the competences of youth workers through sharing of new and innovative approaches.
In addition to the kick-off meeting in Zagreb, the participants will meet again in January 2019 in Weimar, with a purpose to discuss the methodology of the forthcoming mapping activities. The closing conference in April 2020 in Zagreb will offer a chance to participants to present the outcomes of the survey to the wider audience and discuss future cooperation steps.

The project brings together eight partner organizations: Documenta – Centar za suočavanje s prošlošću (Croatia), Mreža Mladih Hrvatske (Croatia), Culture goes Europe (CGE) – Soziokulturelle Initiative Erfurt e. V. (Germany), Stiftung Europäische Jugendbildungs- und Jugendbegegnungsstätte Weimar (Germany), UMAR - Uniao de Mulheres Alternativae Resposta Associacao (Portugal), YouthCoop - Cooperativa para o Desenvolvimento e Cidadania crl (Portugal), Asociación Caminos – Asociación para el intercambio educación y desarrollo social (Spain) and Colegio Oficial de Doctores y Licenciados en Ciencias Políticas y Sociología de Andalucía (Spain). The project "Strengthening the role of youth work in contesting dynamics of shrinking cities" is implemented with the financial support of the European Union through the Erasmus + program.