Measuring impact in youth work- mission (im)possible!

"<< Background >>Youth work is crucial for the development and support of young people in local communities, offering various opportunities, including international mobility. To justify its importance, it is necessary to understand and demonstrate the impact of youth work on different levels. This project aimed to address this by creating a new segment focused on measuring the impact of youth work, leading to better recognition. Meetings with partners and other relevant actors in the youth field revealed that existing tools and mechanisms for measuring the impact of youth work at the European level are either used only nationally, focus solely on Erasmus+ project impacts, or are not well-promoted and accessible. This project aimed to map existing tools, mechanisms, and practices, and package them for the youth sector. It will create a mechanism to measure the impact of youth work on individuals and develop new methods to assess the social impacts of youth work. These new mechanisms are tested and will be offered to the youth work sector across Europe. By starting with these significant steps, the project paved the way for future advocacy efforts.<< Objectives >>The overall aim is to develop a mechanism that will prove the importance of youth work in Europe, create a legacy for future advocacy activities in order to ensure recognition and quality of youth work programs.Specific objectives of the project ""Measuring impact in youth work- mission (im)possible!"" are:1. to conduct mapping of existing practices, mechanisms tools, instruments at EU, national, local levels related to the impact of YW on youth;2. to develop mechanism and instrument(s) related to the impact of youth work on youth and its usage for advocacy purposes;3. to develop and test mechanism and instrument for measuring the social impact of youth work (economical aspect incorporated) and its usage for advocacy purposes (with a segment which implies how to translate data for advocating).4. to foster multi-sectoral cooperation in the field of youth.<< Implementation >>Implemented activities are: conducted research with complex design in 4 countries (Serbia, Italy, Portugal and North Macedonia) on measuring the social impact of youth work, involving directly 120 young people and 40 peers; mapped existing studies/tools/methods on youth work impact on youth across 4 countries and at EU level; organised training for 12 youth workers and researchers on increasing skill for research and advocacy in relation to impact measurement; produced Recommendation paper on measuring impact; organised 4 national multiplier events, gathering 126 youth workers, researchers and decision makers and 2 virtual international multiplier events involving 61 representatives of European and national institutions, academia, researches and national youth work associations; 3 partners meetings; disseminated results of the project to over 15 European and national events, informing directly more than 300 youth work community members across Europe and 229 in involved countries. << Results >>Recommendation paper on measuring impact of youth work on personal level of young people, containing analysis of 13 methods and tools, reflecting Serbian, Portuguese, Italian, North Macedonian and EU level. Developed and tested mechanism for measuring youth work impact on youth, along with instrument(s).Research study containing mechanism and instruments for measuring social and economic youth work impact, along with a report of implemented mechanism in 4 countries involving 120 youth and 40 peers.Capacity building training in Serbia for 12 partners employees for the implementation of the mechanism for measuring the social impact of youth work and translation of data into advocacy arguments.Multiplier event “How to measure youth work impact on youth” for 126 youth workers, organisations and representatives of national and local institutions from Serbia, Portugal, Italy and The Republic of North Macedonia.International Multiplier event - “How we can measure youth work impact?” for 34 participants from EU and CoE institutions, international organisations and researchers.International Multiplier event – “Creating a plan for measuring the impact of youth work across Europe” for 27 participants from National associations of youth workers and European Network of Youth Work Associations.Visibility and promotional actions reaching directly 300 youth workers, researchers, academics and policy makers across Europe, 229 in involved countries and up to 200.000 people of the wider public."