Youth work is value based and its core principles are that it needs…

to strive to enhance young people’s self-determination, autonomy and access to rights.

The process of personal and social development is directly linked to and interdependent with the gradual increase in self-determination and autonomy. It is through having self-determination and possibilities to act in an autonomous way that personal and social development is tested and confirmed in practice. Without self-determination and autonomy, you will never be able to “try your wings and start to fly”.

Due to various reasons, young people often have limited access to their rights. It is therefore a crucial task for youth work to make young people aware of and able to execute their rights. This will at the same time make clear that young people are full-worthy (not “to become” or conditioned) citizens to be respected for who they are and not being in debt to society for services offered.

Discuss & assess
Here you find the questions you need to ask yourself to know if you need to develop and the assessment function
Set objectives
Here you describe what you want to achieve.
Needs
Here you describe what you need to acquire, develop or change.
Actions to take
Here you describe the actions you plan to take.

Remember! Development is far from always a linear process! It needs to start with discussions, but the first ‘Action to take’ might be to gather more knowledge before setting aims for development and deciding on further actions to take. Dare to be both flexible and to take one step back before taking two steps forward!

References & tips

Youth work helps young people “to navigate pathways to autonomy and define their position in developing surroundings, providing them with opportunities to reflect on challenges and helps them to make the most appropriate choices for themselves.” Resolution of the Council and of the representatives of the governments of the Member States meeting within the Council on youth work policy in an empowering Europe. (C/2024/3526)
“Youth organisations and youth work have a critical role to play in ensuring young people’s access to rights and supporting young people to be active citizens;”
Council of Europe, Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)7 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on young people’s access to rights, 2016
In order to promote the work with young people’s rights the European Youth Forum has developed an online youth rights info tool.