The 2nd day of the InterCity Youth Conference

The 2nd day of the InterCity Youth Conference was opened by diving into the world of digitalisation, the various impacts it has on society and more importantly, the impact it has on youth work, presented to us by Lasse Siurala, Adjunct Professor (Aalto University), Lecturer at Tallinn University (Youth Work) and former Director of the Youth Department of the City of Helsinki

»If digitalisation decreases democracy, shrinks civic space and violates human rights, the core of youth work is threatened.«

During the day’s two seminars and ten panels the following topics were discussed: participatory budgeting, youth friendly cities, theoretical approaches to participation, Europe goes local – what do municipalities need, youth work in Ljubljana, improving youth work through networking of local authorities, creating youth policy, school of politics for young people, how does youth perceive public participation and the new generation of eu youth programmes. During the interactive panels the participants came to fruitful discussions and shared experiences from their local environments.

In the afternoon it was time to see the theory be put into practice. Participants, divided into five groups, left the hotel to explore good practices in Ljubljana as part of the study visits. They visited the the Kinodvor City Cinema to see young people in charge of the cinema screen, experienced local youth work in the Vič borough, visited the place to find innovative answers to the challenges of the city in the Borc Community Center, he Vodnik Homestead, which is a place of critical thought for youth, with its festival of critical writing and finally, the Ljuba and Drago mobile youth center transformed into a cozy mobile youth center from an old public bus.

The evening was concluded in a pleasant atmosphere with the reception and dinner at Cukrarna, a new contemporary art venue on the riverbank, hosted by The City of Ljubljana. Association Impro, a youth organization, performed a short cultural program with some theater improvisations, and evening gathering was accompanied with music by DJ Madam Tu So.