The 10th InterCity Youth Conference will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, between 27 June and 29 June. The main topic will be Youth Participation. It is organized by Intercity Youth, the European network of local departments for youth work, in cooperation with Movit, the Slovenian National Agency for Erasmus+: Youth and the European Solidarity Corps programmes, and will be hosted by the City of Ljubljana. The conference, which will gather more than 100 representatives of municipalities all over Europe, aims to create a strong impetus for further development of youth participation as a central element of social development and support for young people to participate in their local communities.
Announcing the conference, Jonas Agdur, chair of InterCity Youth, stated that: ‘The Council of Europe Recommendation on youth work, the Declaration of the 3rd European Youth Work Convention and the European Charter on Local Youth Work provide all the support and guidelines needed to further develop and strengthen youth work. We, as municipalities, play a key role in this development, but if we are to be successful, our work has to be based on and support participation of young people.’
During the opening of the conference, participants will be welcomed by Mateja Demšič, head of the Department for Culture of the City of Ljubljana, as the host and by Uroš Skrinar, head of Movit, the Slovenian National Agency of the EU programmes Erasmus+: Youth and European Solidarity Corps.
The first keynote speaker, Mr Leen Verbeek, Chairman of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, will then address the participants under the title Youth work and participation – two words, one meaning.
The main highlights of this year’s InterCity Youth Conference will focus on the participation of young people in everyday activities and how to encourage and support them in the process of co-creating activities through youth work, including policy agendas and decisions. There will be several lectures and workshops presenting examples of good practice from various organisations and municipalities throughout Europe, serving as a basis for a discussion on how to respond to the needs and challenges of young people, and how young people can contribute to development and change in their local communities and to society as a whole. Through study visits around Ljubljana, participants will also be able to learn about good practices in youth work related to youth participation.