Youth participation is still is a challenge across Europe. Participation often happens in cultural, leisure spheres or school environment. Aiming to develop stronger civic society, assisting young people in integration processes, youth participation and consultation in decision making processes has to be strengthened through creating platforms for youth to contribute to solving issues of society and communities. This project has created manuals, online tools, and recommendation on how municipalities (local governmental bodies and institutions) or organisations can involve young people in the decision making process. This project has developed toos that decision makers could use, not only consult with youth, but to assure that the ideas of youth would get priority status and provide young people with power, legitimacy and tools to insure that their ideas are being implemented. With this project we hop that we can aspire to shift youth participation from the concept of tokenism to active participation in advocating youth needs. The project provides a overview of local realities from Norway, UK and Lithuania in the field of participatory decision making. We provide known and tailored tools which are suiting for different realities, and we provide recommendations on how these tools could be used in different environments involving other social groups (senior citizens, young parents, unemployed, migrant background, disabled and etc.).This project can help civil servants, youth workers, community workers, NGO members to develop cooperation competence. Municipalities and organisations can get tools for efficient cross-sectoral and cross-departmental cooperation. The webpage recomends tools and theories that can be used as a mean to assure efficient youth participation and will give support how to consult with youth on important issues, decision makers will be able to shape the future of their communities with help of youth. These tools can in the future can be used to involve other groups of citizens.This project has developed models and guidelines in addition to specific tools on how to involve youth in political decision making. The partners have been reviewing and developing academic theories, dialogue processes, organized participatory research and local consultation processes. We hope that the result of this project will help the strengthen the existing structures sufficiently link to decision making process. Many of the tools and theories presented can suppport marginalized and excluded groups ex. youth with low socio-economic background and give them opportunity to provide input to decision making process. Our project aims to:1. Share expertise in cross-sectoral cooperation and youth participation processes in project countries.2. Create tools on how to make youth participation a part of political decision making process.3. Develop guideline for comprehensive participation.4. Develop a tools to enable and supervise cross-sectoral, cross-departmental cooperation.5. Create space to share and gather good practice within existing cooperation structures and various methods and tools used in participatory processes in project countries.6. Develop an Online tool which could be used to strengthen youth participation in the decision making processes.The beneficiaries of the project are: young people with various backgrounds, youth workers and policy makers at the local level and other social groups.

The project was set around the trend of youth work recognition, which is enhanced both on European and national, level. The idea of youth work recognition often can be seen as a two-fold process: on one hand, directed to the youth work providers aiming to make their work effective and to provide space for real and meaningful support for young people, while on the other hand, ensuring that youth workers are competent for the job. The project was coordinated by Opportunity Global, with partners from Lithuania (Institute for policy research and analysis) and Macedonia (Center for Intercultural Dialogue).The project's main aim was to strengthen the recognition of youth workers competences and assessment of the quality of youth work providers by capacity building of youth workers and evaluators based on the principle of self-assessment and peer-assessment. Objectives of the project:1. To build capacities of youth workers to be able to provide peer-review of their work and self-assess their competences within a given competence framework for youth workers (portfolio)2. To raise awareness on the need to develop learning to learn competences within youth work and motivate youth workers for lifelong learning3. To develop and try out specific recognition tools for youth work providers (quality label tools) and for youth workers (recognition portfolios) as examples of non-formality in the recognition of youth work4. To develop participants’ understanding and knowledge of various forms of youth work systems and discuss their applicability in different contexts5. To exchange good practices of youth work recognition between youth workers and their associations from the 3 participating countries but also at European level The project addressed the following questions/issues:1. How to ensure youth workers are learning and developing within the youth field in a meaningful way2. How to make peer-reviews and self assessments in the youth field among youth workers as a tool for personal and professional growth3. How to ensure youth work providers (organisations, institutions) are following some minimum quality standards when delivering their youth work programmes4. How we can learn from the different processes that take place in the 3 corners of Europe which will enhance our work back home (UK for its tradition in youth work and its well structured system, Lithuania with its peer-based recognition and youth work development and Macedonia with its non-formal accreditation systems of youth work) Key project activities included:Training course on assessment of youth workers competences (C1): the training aimed to build capacity of youth workers and decision makers in the youth field about the need for quality assessment and provide ideas of assessments.Creating tools for assessment of youth work providers and self assessment and peer-review of youth workers. Within the preparation of the tools initial testing will be done to minimum 5 youth work providers and minimum 20 youth workersYouth Work material – overview of tools and practices of youth work recognition and assessment of youth workers in UK, Lithuania and Macedonia.Study visit on youth work recognition (C2) in Lithuania in order to share examples of peer-reviews in youth work.A training course on quality label for youth work providers (C3), aimed to build capacity of youth workers and decision-makers to conduct assessment of the quality of provided youth work in a specific entity.Dissemination workshops for national youth work recognition (E1) which were held in UK, Lithuania and Macedonia.Seminar “Assessing the assessment – where next?”(C5) aimed to provide an overview of the process and to draw conclusions related to recognition tools developed by the project and their applicability in youth work and beyond.”Overall, the project attained a semnificative impact at local, national and international level throughout the long term process of dissemination and the activities we implemented during and after the project. Youth workers at local level and international level shared with us their expertise and good practice and contributed to the building of our final output. They tested new tools to help them assess their own experience, but they also gave us ideas about methods which helped them increase the confidence in themselves, as youth workers and develop in order to help the young people they work with, to find they own way to grow and develop.

Ka2 project “Baltic youth research(ers) up-graded: long term impact on youth field” is an innovation project in the fields of youth policy development. The project was developing innovation in field by using research methodologies to assess policies and tools in the field of youth emigration. The project was implemented by partner consortium *LAB DRG sp. z o.o. (Poland), Youth leader coalition (Latvia) and Institute for Policy Research and Analysis (Lithuania). Project was implemented from 26.10.2016 till 25.10.2018.The aim and objective of the project:Using youth researchers as a measure to reach cross – sectoral cooperation and openness of all areas in thematic of youth (-e; re) migration:- Preparing common methodology to evaluate efficiency of implemented measures/ taken actions and analyzing certain measures (correspondence to the needs, satisfaction of target group; impact);- Involvement in planning new measures by participating in working groups;- Preparing or reviewing situation analyzes (clarification of existing data) of legal documents and giving feedback to politicians and practitioners (strategies, programs, etc.);- Preparing an external annual report of implemented national measures (focus – not blaming, but bringing up findings what is missing in order to meet the “burning” data).While implementing the project partners have:Developed 7 intellectual outputs: research methodologies, implemented research and analysis, developed research reports from all 3 countries, created recommendations for researchers.Implemented 2 international training courses “Evidence based advocacy” (2017) and “Quality cross-sectorial cooperation” (2018);Implemented 6 national dissemination seminars on project outputs (2018).Implemented “International Emigration Hackathon” (2018).

"<< Objectives >>Project ""Mental health of youth: Non- formal education to improve the mental health"" is KA2 exchange of good practice strategic partnership project. This project will last for 12 months and will enable partners in Norway, Lithuania and Latvia to share good practices in the field of youth work and psychology. Aim of the project is:To share good practices and methods between youth work, non-formal education and clinical psychology.<< Implementation >>We plan to implement 3 main activities during the project:- 5 day Study visit in Latvia ""Youth work in Teenage resource center of Liepāja"" gathering 20 participants from 4 organisation in 3 countries.- 9 day Training course ""Mental health of youth: Non- formal education and psychology"" in Lithuania, gathering 20 participants from 4 organisation in 3 countries.- development of a handbook ""Non-formal education and psychology"" that will combine non-formal education methods and youth psychology.<< Results >>Expected results:1 To improve existing non-formal education methods with the help of clinical psychology to work better with troubled youth;2 To share good practices of non-formal methods to clinical psychologists;3 To create a handbook that would help youth-workers and psychologists to work with troubled youth4 To develop participants competencies based on international youth work experience;5 To help develop competences of youth workers and clinical psychologists working with youth;"

"Erasmus + KA2 project ""Cross-sectorial cooperation for reaching out to the youth"" will be implemented for 15 months, from 1st of August 2020 to 1st of November 2021, with the aim of developing the competences and tools needed for cross-sectorial cooperation in order to improve the quality of youth work. The project will be implemented by partners from Latvia, Germany, Norway and Lithuania. With the support of the Erasmus + program, the project will provide support to those involved in youth work, strengthen and maintain high-quality and sustainable cross-sectorial cooperation. There will be organized two transnational meetings, a study visit to Germany and two trainings, providing a basis for developing and raising the quality of youth work in Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Germany. It is important for effective cross-sectorial cooperation at municipal level that local authorities, politicians and NGOs are able to learn from each other, share perspectives on how they see local realities, and jointly develop tools to improve the quality of youth work at local level and serve as a resource for the EU level. Sharing expertise and developing competences at international level is important for improving the quality of youth work, so that innovative solutions can be implemented at local level. Project participants will have the opportunity to learn and develop their competences, improve existing cross-sectorial approaches to co-operation, share their good practices and, overall, improve the quality of youth work in their area. The project will enable partners to develop quality youth work and recognition of youth work. Target audience of the project: youth workers, youth specialists, representatives of social services, representatives of educational institutions, culture and sports, representatives of non-governmental organizations, representatives of municipal management (decision-makers) and business sector, youth center managers and employees, municipal security services and migration authorities staff, youth leaders. The results of the project will have a significant impact on young people in these countries and on a wider scale, through results that will be made publicly available online.Objectives of the project:- To provide participants with knowledge of cross-sectorial cooperation for youth policy .- Share and develop cross-sectorial cooperation tools and identify good examples from different European countries.- To learn to use different approaches to analyze the well-being of young people.- Develop evaluation tools for existing cross-sectorial cooperation models to assess their quality and use the results to improve the quality of youth work.- Establish an international platform for the development of quality youth policy tools and exchange of experience on cross-sectorial cooperation at youth sector.- Promote the opportunities offered by the Erasmus + program for developing cross-sectorial cooperation at European level, through project publicity and dissemination activities.- Develop a set of educational and informative materials on cross-sectorial cooperation at youth policy .- Strengthen project partners' capacity and cooperation in transnational projects, providing wider development opportunities and innovative solutions to local problems in the youth field.Project results: a compilation of methodological and good practice examples on cross-sectorial cooperation in youth work in Germany, Latvia, Norway and Lithuania; training kits on basic principles, methods, strategies, tools for evaluation of cross-sectorial cooperation, tools for evaluating cross-sectorial cooperation and approaches to improving the quality of youth work; a summary of study visit; more than 80 project target group representatives will have participated in training and study visits, developing their competences in cross-sectorial cooperation; at least 50 members of the target group have upgraded their competences in providing and developing youth services according to the needs and interests of young people, and have developed their competencies in different cross-sectorial cooperation approaches that promote the inclusion of young people with fewer opportunities; a developed partnership network for cross-sectorial cooperation in youth work at European level; Testing and integrating 4 different cross-sectorial approaches in youth work practice in Latvia, Germany, Lithuania and Norway; the competences of at least 70 target group members have been developed, which will help to improve the quality of youth policy planning and implementation at local level, impacting at least 10 municipalities in which the project participants work daily. A tool for evaluation of cross-sectorial cooperation in the field of youth will be developed, a set of criteria that will help participants identify strengths and weaknesses and provide a basis for further development of youth work."