to continuously exchange information about plans and activities with other local, national and European actors in the field of youth and actively engage in both cross- and intra-sectorial cooperation.

The trustworthiness of youth work and youth workers in the eyes of young people relies on that all forms of exchange of information and cooperation with other stakeholders is done in active dialogue with the young persons concerned and not “over their heads”.

This also means that youth work providers should have the knowledge and contacts needed in order to guide young people to various forms of activities and support provided by other actors, such as social services and labour market authorities. This is important also in order to secure that youth workers only act within their own sphere of competence and do not take over the tasks of other professions or try to compensate for the lack or incapability of such services.

Cross sectorial cooperation on local level is often, due to for example different cultures or budget rivalry, hard. Since youth work often is the smallest actor, compared to school and social services, it is important that its mission, role and possible contributions are well known to other actors so that they have adequate expectations.