6 Country Reports on Youth Work - Jugendpolitik in Europa
6 Country Reports on Youth Work - Jugendpolitik in Europa
6 Country Reports on Youth Work - Jugendpolitik in Europa
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A different picture arises from the <strong>in</strong>terviews with the youth workers <strong>in</strong> the NGOs. It is not<br />
clear whether young people work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> youth NGOs are <strong>in</strong>terested <strong>in</strong> hav<strong>in</strong>g youth work<br />
qualified or recognised as a professi<strong>on</strong>. They see this as be<strong>in</strong>g important for people work<strong>in</strong>g<br />
<strong>in</strong> the state <strong>in</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>s resp<strong>on</strong>sible for youth work. The NGO sector and the people work<strong>in</strong>g<br />
there seem to be more <strong>in</strong>terested <strong>in</strong> the projects they can develop, how to get fund<strong>in</strong>g for<br />
them and how to reach as many young people as possible. They are very proud of their<br />
achievements <strong>in</strong> terms of years work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the area, numbers of young people participat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong><br />
their activities, networks created and young peopled tra<strong>in</strong>ed. They know a lot about local<br />
youth issues, about the situati<strong>on</strong> of youth organisati<strong>on</strong>s at local level and the relati<strong>on</strong>ship with<br />
local and nati<strong>on</strong>al authorities for youth. As they are usually certified by different <strong>in</strong>ternati<strong>on</strong>al<br />
<strong>in</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>s, their <strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> hav<strong>in</strong>g youth work certified as a professi<strong>on</strong> at nati<strong>on</strong>al level is not<br />
particularly high.<br />
The youth workers at the County <strong>Youth</strong> Departments are, <strong>in</strong> most cases, the <strong>on</strong>es <strong>in</strong>terested<br />
<strong>in</strong> hav<strong>in</strong>g their positi<strong>on</strong> clarified as a professi<strong>on</strong>. As most of them have a l<strong>on</strong>g experience <strong>in</strong><br />
work<strong>in</strong>g with young people, their certificati<strong>on</strong> as “professi<strong>on</strong>als” might come a bit too late.<br />
<strong>Work</strong>er certificati<strong>on</strong> and recogniti<strong>on</strong> of youth work as a professi<strong>on</strong> will be more important for<br />
future youth workers or young people start<strong>in</strong>g to be <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> youth activities and youth<br />
organisati<strong>on</strong>s, as it will give them more professi<strong>on</strong>al stability.<br />
With regard to fund<strong>in</strong>g of youth activities: the nati<strong>on</strong>al representatives menti<strong>on</strong>ed that youth<br />
activities and youth policies, <strong>in</strong> general, do not get a lot of attenti<strong>on</strong> and c<strong>on</strong>sequently too<br />
little public fund<strong>in</strong>g. Young people and policies for youth are promoted and supported, but not<br />
enough or not so much as not to have compla<strong>in</strong>ts about it. At the local level, youth workers <strong>in</strong><br />
both public <strong>in</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>s and NGOs compla<strong>in</strong>ed about “under-fund<strong>in</strong>g” and also about lack of<br />
staff for activities <strong>in</strong> the public sector.<br />
A problem regard<strong>in</strong>g youth activities and youth acti<strong>on</strong> <strong>in</strong> Romania was the politicisati<strong>on</strong> of the<br />
field and bad management of funds <strong>in</strong> the past, th<strong>in</strong>gs that put youth activities and some<br />
youth <strong>in</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>in</strong> a bad light. As a result, NGOs had little trust <strong>in</strong> the state <strong>in</strong>stituti<strong>on</strong>s and<br />
also difficulty <strong>in</strong> communicat<strong>in</strong>g with them to promote legislati<strong>on</strong> or other important issues. In<br />
short, the problem of state-NGO collaborati<strong>on</strong> <strong>in</strong> the area of youth activities still exists and it<br />
shows how problematic the relati<strong>on</strong>ship is: <strong>in</strong> some areas and some parts of the country it<br />
works well, <strong>in</strong> other there are misunderstand<strong>in</strong>gs and lack of cooperati<strong>on</strong> and trust. This<br />
would be <strong>on</strong>e of the important issues to be managed differently <strong>in</strong> the future.<br />
With regard to visibility of the field and activities: especially youth workers, both from public<br />
organisati<strong>on</strong>s and NGOs, saw this as an important result of their activities and were eager to<br />
menti<strong>on</strong> that every time they were successful <strong>in</strong> help<strong>in</strong>g a new organisati<strong>on</strong> to be formed or<br />
br<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g <strong>on</strong>e difficult project to an end, see<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>in</strong>terest and satisfacti<strong>on</strong> of the young<br />
people tak<strong>in</strong>g part <strong>in</strong> the activities and programmes made up for all the difficulties they had to<br />
face <strong>in</strong> secur<strong>in</strong>g m<strong>on</strong>ey, putt<strong>in</strong>g up proposals to different fund<strong>in</strong>g bodies, or lack of resources<br />
and sometimes time. They also menti<strong>on</strong>ed the problem that rural young people do not have a<br />
lot of facilities or programmes dedicated to them, opportunities to start voluntary work or be<br />
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