WHAT DOES YOUTHS' WORK MEAN ?

What are youth organisations doing?

Youth work is a separate field of education next to school and family. It offers young people free space needed for the development of their personality, which is not available to the same extent in school, family or on job.

What is the profit for the young people?

Youth organisations are self- organised representations of interest, which offer a platform to realise wishes and needs. Further, they give the opportunity for voluntary institutional learning and the development of abilities, to argue with young people at the same age and also with adults within the organisations. This fosters integration inside the organisations, but also emancipation outside. The voluntary engagement of the young people active in youth organisations is the foundation of their work. Through taking over general, often social tasks, the volunteer makes the issue to his personal one. This engagement offers a perfect opportunity to participate, also in creating society.

The right of the volunteers to get involved in all internal decisions of the organisation keeps them active. To live democracy within the organisation means to regularly start processes of agreement about specified and general aims of the organisation. This includes discussing traditions, objectives and their realisation between the members and member groups. These processes must become tradition and need to be constructive from the whole group and every single member needs to develop social competence.

Within the scope of what is offered by the youth organisations and statutory bodies involved in youth work, international youth work is a classic field of activity. European co-operation and integration is ever expanding, both in terms of the countries taking part and the intensity of their partnership. This stresses the need for regional co-operation within Europe and with its closest neighbours. Baltic Youth Forum - a loose co-operation between the national/regional youth councils in the Baltic Sea Region - aims at promoting and supporting regional co-operation in the youth field that

• bridges the gap between countries of different traditions,
• gives all partners mutual influence,
• co-ordinates mutual interests without tying its partners up (using the principle of consensus),
• is organised in a non-bureaucratic and flexible manner,
• opens up the European networks to all countries in Europe,
• gives youth a stronger voice towards European institutions.

What is the goal of youths work in the Baltic Sea Region?

The aim of the Baltic Sea youths' cooperation is to develop among young people a common regional identity and understanding of our common cultural heritage, while respecting the cultural diversity of the region, for improvement of young people's living conditions and development of their potential. The aim is also to promote an active participation of young people in the development of democratic and pluralistic civic societies in the States of the Baltic Sea Region.

What happened so far in the Baltic Sea Region in the field of networking?

Since March 1999 the Baltic Sea Secretariat for Youths Affairs (see article further down) is connecting different actors in the field of international youth co-operation in the Baltic Sea Region:

Via the Secretariat the youth ministries in the Baltic Sea Region co-ordinate their work, exchange experience and develop a Baltic Sea youth policy.

10 national youth councils around the Baltic Sea are forming the Baltic Youth Forum. They organise the Baltic Sea Youth Project with youth group leader training courses, contact-forums and an exchange of multipliers for a more intense and qualified youth work in the Baltic Sea Region. More than 2.000 young people get in contact with each other through this project and receive informal education.

The programme YOUTH gives European funding to youth projects not only in the EU member states but also in the associated countries and to a certain extend in Russia. National Agencies in all the participating countries support youth organisation in their applications and initiate processes in the region.

International organisations like the Council of Baltic Sea States (CBSS), the Baltic Sea States Subregional Co-operation (BSSSC), the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC) and UBC develop their own youth policies to improve the conditions for young people in the Baltic Sea Region.

Many projects start on a grassroots level and their organisers are regional authorities or any kinds of networks on top of the above-mentioned institutions. Within this category we can find different forums, festivals and assemblies. Networking organisations exists for the handicapped, minorities, youth centres, youth branches of political parties, for environmental, ecumenical, artistic and Internet activities. Seminars and work camps on social, ecological, musical topics take place every summer.

What do we need for the future cooperation?

National governments and political authorities in the Baltic Sea Region must recognise the importance of young people in the society and give young people in the region the opportunity to influence political decisions that affect them, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

National governments in the Baltic Sea Region must increase the exchange of information on youth policy issues in order to strengthen this policy area in the whole region.

Political authorities should especially support projects of co-operation in the Baltic Sea Region that are initiated and implemented by young people.

Young people must be seen as a resource, not as a problem. This must also be reflected in the area of youth policy.

• Youth should be considered as a partner, a valuable resource and potential for the social development as a whole.
• The governments are asked to pursue the youths policy with a comprehensive approach and to make youth issues a cross-sectional topic. In this context, "good practices" should be considered as examples.
• There is a need to create favourable framework conditions for multilateral cooperation between young people in the region. All actors involved must be committed to this objective.

by Ina Werner
e-mail: balticsea.youth@gmx.de