YOCOMO - Being Civically Engaged skills - European Training Strategy

Being civically engaged

…means being aware of and taking a principled stance on political and societal issues affecting young people, challenging power dynamics, supporting value-based processes, co-creating with young people and encouraging their critical civic engagement in their communities, in Europe and beyond.

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The single skills are summarised in different headlines that illustrate what “being civically engaged” means for youth workers skills-wise. The “cluster headlines” do not name skills as such; these can be found through clicking on the lists.

Reflection is a core element of interaction with others and also of engagement. + -

For youth workers, this means being able:

to support young people in critically reflecting on their values
to support young people in reflecting on the values they are confronted with

Young people need to have opportunities for participation and to trust in their capacity for engagement. + -

Corresponding skills of youth workers are:

to encourage and empower young people to recognise the need to act
to encourage and empower young people to (inter)act constructively by raising their voices and/or taking action
to create and co-create opportunities for young people to meaningfully participate in and critically engage with socio-political processes

Civic engagement calls for knowledge about (political) issues and information that is reliable and trustworthy. + -

Important skills are:

to identify disinformation and misinformation
to support young people in acknowledging and dealing with disinformation and misinformation

Dealing with different stakeholders helps offer opportunities for civic engagement. + -

For youth workers, this means being able:

to interact with different socio-political actors constructively, for the benefit of young people and their civic engagement

It is important to be aware of personal limits and to ensure the wellbeing of everyone involved. + -

Corresponding skills are the ability:

to set boundaries
to take care of one’s own and young people’s wellbeing when engaging critically with issues

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