YEAH: “Youth workers exchanging and experiencing initiatives aiming to help troubled children and youth”

YEAH  is a three day project, the aim of this project is mutual learning and exchange of experiences and good practices in order to find new ways to work with youngsters within their life space and their context. We have to search for innovative ways to connect with the most vulnerable youngsters. Experiences in the daily practice with this at risk population have shown that the significant actors in the own ecology are best placed partners to relate to these children and youth. We are specifically interested in experiential and non-formal learning activities, such as can be found in youth work activities and community work with vulnerable youths. The program displays the search for different methods which optimally meet the needs of the vulnerable youngsters. During these three days we will focus on strategies within Youth welfare work, Time out projects and Experience based programs.  We aim to inspire the participants by organizing visits to different youth work projects, such as “Zorgboerderij Laarne”, “Kruiskenshoeve  Sint Laureins” , “Buiten Beeld Vinderhoute”, “Graffiti Jeugddienst”  and “Lejo / POT”. The activities take place in and around the city of Ghent (Belgium). In this way youth workers will be challenged to take part in activities within the ecology of the youngsters themselves. The participants represent different European countries, namely: Portugal, Scotland, Hungary, Romania, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium. They are coming from regional and international organizations, including education, youth care, government, management, academic research and universities. Throughout this project week, we also organize moments of informal discussion and reflection. Searching for future cooperation and working on the group dynamics will strengthen, and possible broaden the European network. Exchanging knowledge and experiences within a European network will help us to gain insights beyond borders.