Tbilisi, 27 November 2019

Strengthening the potential of youth work in Eastern Europe

Ekaterina Nekit (National University “Odessa Academy of Law, Ukraine), Oleg Zhyvotovskyi (European Choice, Ukraine) and Nukri Kvelashvili (Movement – Youth Alliance, Georgia) have extended civil society’s network in the field of youth work at the Conference “Strengthening the potential of youth work in Eastern Europe – Peer learning event on support to youth work development in the region”.

During the conference, the Forum representatives Nekit, Zhyvotovskyi and Kvelashvili profited from presentations of best practices in youth work in the EU member states, and from speeches by Georgian experts and state officials on youth work: On behalf of the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) of the Council of Europe, Kristina Kapanadze talked about the development of a supportive policy framework. The newly established Youth Agency of Georgia is currently working on the creation of Professional Standards and Certification Criteria for Youth Workers. Rati Cheishvili (Tbilisi State University) stressed the importance of youth involvement in decision making processes at local and national levels in Georgia.

In his role as EaP CSF Georgian National Platform coordinator for Working Group 4, Nukri Kvelashvili showed readiness to involve his team in the working process of establishing qualification courses for youth workers. The courses are to be launched in 2020 as civil-society contributions to the field of youth work. The Georgian Government has expressed interest in further cooperation with the civil-society sector on this; building on the 2015 memorandum of cooperation between the Georgian Government and EaP CSF Georgian National Platform. Following active disscussions, the conference participants decided to organise sectorial meetings with the Agency starting as of end-January 2020.

During the conference, the Forum representatives Nekit, Zhyvotovskyi and Kvelashvili had the opportunity to compare the Georgian context of youth work with the one in Ukraine, share their experiences and knowledge across EaP countries, and extend their professional networks.

 

Available for download

Presentation Slides Georgian National Platform, 2019