Youth Policy Manual

The EU-CoE youth partnership stems from the close relations that the Council of Europe and the European Commission have developed in the youth field over the years since 1998. The overall goal is to foster synergies between the youth-oriented activities of the two institutions. The specific themes are participation/citizenship, social inclusion, recognition and quality of youth work. What is youth policy, and what major elements should a national youth policy strategy include? How can young people be consulted and otherwise involved in developing youth policy? How do institutions such as the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations address youth policy, and how can this work be concretely linked to the efforts of a national government to develop a youth policy agenda? How is youth policy organised in specific countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region? These are some of the essential questions addressed in this publication. The Youth policy manual should be considered a source work, a tool and a helpful guide both for policy makers in the youth field and for non-governmental organisations and other stakeholder groups who advocate improved youth policy at the national level. This manual proposes one possible model for how a national youth policy strategy can be developed. It is a revised version of the Youth policy manual (2009) and takes into account relevant specificities of the MENA region.

A reference tool for initiating youth policy and learning about the diversity of national and international governance and about the infrastructure available for youth policy, its implementation, review and evaluation Today, we know much more about national and European youth policy, the role of research, participation of young people and monitoring and evaluation of youth policy than we did when the first Youth policy manual was published in 2009 by the EU–Council of Europe youth partnership. The concept of youth policy can be very narrowly or very broadly constructed. This volume positions youth policy in the context of public policy and reflects on the complex, cyclical nature of policy making, bringing together the results of knowledge gathering and debates central to the European agenda in the field over the last 15 years. Thematically, the manual focuses very specifically on those areas of youth policy that have been formulated and developed through European consensus-building – participation, information, volunteering, social inclusion, access to rights, youth work, mobility and digitalisation. We hope that the five parts of the manual, from the conceptual to the practical, and through a range of examples and questions for reflection, will help you to explore, understand and engage with the youth policy framework in your context, from your own perspective, and will provide you with a sense of all the stages of youth policy making. Most importantly, the manual includes a wide range of standards, tools and resources developed by and for the benefit of youth policy makers, youth work practitioners, youth researchers and young people across Europe. It is About Time! we strengthen the youth sector further to develop a new generation of positive and purposeful youth policies in Europe!

Empower youth, transform policies: From concept to action Participatory youth policy implies that young people are involved in policy making at all stages, from inception to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The main feature of participatory youth policy is a mobilised effort to promote co-creation of youth policy with young people and to include strengths and talents from the field, making sure that youth olicy is built on democratic principles, support for solidarity, inclusion, equality, openness and outreach. Across Europe, meaningful youth participation in dialogue and mutually respectful work in policy implementation are understood to be prerequisites for effective and efficient policy making. Knowledge, understanding and commitment to knowledgebased participatory youth policy has increased exponentially following the publication by the EU–Council of Europe Youth Partnership of About time! A reference manual for youth policy from a European perspective in 2021. This T-Kit complements the manual and provides educational support for building youth sector capacity for participatory policy making. The knowledge developed in the sector over the past few decades, on which this T-Kit is based, will benefit youth leaders, workers, trainers and organisations advocating participatory structures, especially at local and national levels. Youth policy makers will be able to launch participatory processes by using the activities contained in this T-Kit. Organisations and experts developing training and development strategies on youth policy may find the T-Kit to be a useful resource. It is structured to enable users to find a wide range of resources in one place for successful educational processes on participatory youth policy. The T-Kit provides conceptual, methodological and educational frameworks and offers a set of educational activities and a toolbox to help address the themes of participatory youth policy making, enabling its users to learn, grow and importantly – to engage.

A reference tool for initiating youth policy and learning about the diversity of national and international governance and about the infrastructure available for youth policy, its implementation, review and evaluation.Today, we know much more about national and European youth policy, the role of research, participation of young people and monitoring and evaluation of youth policy than we did when the first youth policy manual was published in 2009 by the EU-Council of Europe youth partnership. The concept of youth policy can be very narrowly or very broadly constructed. This volume positions youth policy in the context of public policy and reflects on the complex, cyclical nature of policy making, bringing together the results of knowledge gathering and debates central to the European agenda in the field over the last 15 years.Thematically, the manual focuses very specifically on those areas of youth policy that have been formulated and developed through European consensus-building - participation, information, volunteering, social inclusion, access to rights, youth work, mobility and digitalisation. We hope that the five parts of the manual, from the conceptual to the practical, and through a range of examples and questions for reflection, will help you to explore, understand and engage with the youth policy framework in your context, from your own perspective, and will provide you with a sense of all the stages of youth policy making. Most importantly, the manual includes a wide range of standards, tools and resources developed by and for the benefit of youth policy makers, youth work practitioners, youth researchers and young people across Europe.It is About Time! we strengthen the youth sector further to develop a new generation of positive and purposeful youth policies in Europe!

OUR DEAR YOUNG MEN AND YOUNG WOMEN, we have great confidence in you. You are beloved sons and daughters of God and He is mindful of you. You have come to earth at a time of great opportunities and also of great challenges. The standards in this booklet will help you with the important choices you are making now and will yet make in the future. We promise that as you keep the covenants you have made and these standards, you will be blessed with the companionship of the Holy Ghost, your faith and testimony will grow stronger, and you will enjoy increasing happiness.

Why do we need evidence based youth policies? International in scope, this book presents a systematic and interdisciplinary reflection on what has been termed the “magic triangle”, i.e., the relationship between youth policies, youth research and practical youth work, based on the necessity of organising knowledge exchange between different actors in the youth field. On this basis, researchers from across the globe analyse and discuss youth policy development, the theories that underlie youth policy, as well as the models and impact of youth policy in different societies. They respond by: - Analysing the impact of economic, social and cultural change on young people in different world regions, locations and social contexts; - Presenting and explaining theories of youth; - Discussing strategies for the development and implementation of youth policies in different world regions; - Evaluating the impact of current youth policies at regional, national and international levels; - Analysing and discussing applied models of cross sectional policy and practice in the youth sector; - Discussing contributions of youth research to the development of evidence based youth policies in areas such as values, employment, participation, citizenship, migration, social exclusion and vulnerability.

This prescient Research Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges that young people from across the globe face as they navigate the transition from adolescence to adulthood.