YOCOMO - Networking and Advocating skills - European Training Strategy

Networking and advocating

…involves developing and managing partnerships with other relevant actors. Youth work does not happen in isolation from the rest of the world. Youth workers facilitate networking with others (in their community and outside it) and advocate for the value of youth work. They are conscious about (political) values and beliefs at play in youth work and support young people in developing a capacity for independent political thought.

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

It is crucial for networking to find partners and to understand the systems in which it can take place. + -

In detail, this means an ability to:

identify relevant partners in different environments (especially in an international setting)
network with a variety of external systems and actors
identify and name the European/international dimension in their work
research and access relevant information

Advocacy needs communication in order to reach out to the community, stakeholders and potential supporters. + -

Corresponding skills are:

to transfer/communicate and share the learning potential of international mobility experiences
to include other community members during or after the project for a wider impact
to create and disseminate digital contents such as videos, podcasts, memes, and digital presentation formats

Within networks, power relations between partners are of importance. + -

For youth workers, this means being able to:

identify privilege and power relations and mechanisms
assess the consequences of privilege and power relations and their potential for acts of solidarity

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