The Foyer des Jeunes des Marolles in Brussels, Belgium, organised on 22-26 November 2021 the first training course based on Compasito, the manual for human rights education with children.

The course brought together participants from a variety of practitioners committed to education and social work with children and young people.

The training programme was structured on three pillars: basic notions of human rights, historical evolution and the current context; human rights in the Council of Europe, resources and standards for human rights education such as Compass, Compasito and the Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education; and practising Compasito by preparing and running activities from the manual with children and young people of the centre Foyer des Jeunes des Marolles.

Bringing the concept of universal human rights close to issues encountered in their neighbourhoods, away from abstract legal or political concept, was considered by the participants the main added value of the course. 

The alarming rise of disinformation linked to the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasised the importance of building public resilience and ensuring right to information. Media and Information Literacy (MIL) encompasses the ability to interpret, critically understand and express one’s own creativity through digital media, as well as the practice of meaningfully engaging with media and information channels.

With accelerating increase in information and communication due to rapid technological developments and the rise of social media comes a range of questions and among them “How can youth information work support young people’s MIL skills?” and “Which tools and resources would be essential to ensure that youth information workers are well equipped to respond to young people’s needs?”

This webinar aimed to explore how MIL permeates all facets of youth information work and the role that the services play to support young people’s MIL. It featured the perspective of youth information providers, youth workers and different experts in MIL.

FEANTSA (the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless) addressed “A Gendered Approach to Youth Homelessness”: how to develop services that can respond to the needs of young homeless women?

LYMEC (European Liberal Youth) worked on ways to strengthen youth activism by removing barriers to their civic participation; the activity offered spaces to exchange, build capacities and leadership to prevent discriminations, based on Council of Europe's standards.

The Solidary Action Movement Europe worked on enhancing the democratic and participatory elements of the Solidarity Action Day in their local communities, and also at national and European levels.

The aim of the Local Youth Peace Camp (LPC) was to raise awareness of peace-building processes for young people from conflict-affected regions of Azerbaijan, to explore peace-related concepts as well as to increase the participation of young

Representatives of 22 Youth Houses and 52 Youth Development and Career Centres in Azerbaijan participated in a seminar dedicated to developing participatory, needs-based and youth-centred approaches for these facilities. The seminar is a first step of a longer process of strengthening the role of youth houses and youth centres in promoting Council of Europe standards on youth work and youth participation, not least through the implementation of quality standards for youth centres and youth reflected notably on the Committee of Ministers Recommendation on Youth Work and the Quality Label for Youth Centres.

The first training course for teachers and trainers using the newly published Hungarian edition of the Compass manual took place at the European Youth Centre Budapest on 26-28 November 2021; 12 teachers took part in the training course.

The course was the first in a series that aim at equipping interested teachers, trainers and others in the formal or non-formal education fields with the skills and knowledge required to effectively use the manual in their everyday work. The two-day course is part of the EYCB’s local outreach programme.

The Enter! expert group on youth work and youth policies for access to social rights for young people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods has been established to support local youth structures, authorities and other partners of the Enter! project in their efforts to create accessible services and participation spaces for young people.

Its first meeting took place on 18-19 November as a space to produce proposals for supporting local practice projects of the Enter! training course participants, as well as reflect on ways how the Enter! Recommendation can be further implemented in member States.

In November, the team of the European Youth Foundation visited two international activities and a pilot activity to monitor the implementation of the activities and meet beneficiary NGOs to discuss about future cooperation.

The EYF attended a training of trainers on intercultural education and digital tools, in Mollina, Spain. “IMPACT 2.0”, an international activity of European Educational Exchanges Youth for Understanding focused on capacity building of 22 participants on human rights and intercultural education in the online environment.

The second visit brought the EYF to Messina, Italy, to a pilot activity ran by the local association The Rising Stars in Messina: “Recognize and help gender-based violence victims” which gathered 18 young social workers and youth workers to explore how to recognise and support victims of gender-based violence. The participants ran two workshops in the local school to raise awareness of the topic, using the manual ‘’Gender matters’’.

Thirdly, the EYF visited the international activity of the European Youth Parliament, "Training and Capacity Building for Young Europeans on Equity, Inclusion, and Harassment Prevention". The project aimed to equip participants with knowledge and skills to provide welcoming and inclusive learning environments for all, realised as a hybrid activity.

Representatives of youth centres at local, regional and national levels took part in a meeting to explore and analyse the experience gained during March-November 2021 within the project of the Council of Europe "Youth for Democracy in Ukraine".

The participants developed an understanding of the approaches and standards of the Council of Europe in the field of youth participation and non-formal education, and got acquainted with the international experience of the Vilnius (Lithuania) and Paikuse (Estonia) open youth centres in implementing inclusive, non-discriminatory and gender-sensitive approaches.

The meeting provided a space to discover the impact of the project “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine” on the work of the youth centres in their communities, in particular the expansion of the target audiences of youth centres and solutions to community problems. The Council of Europe provides mentoring, advisory missions, and practical workshops to support 14 youth centres to implement their projects on strengthening youth participation.