Eurodiaconia is a dynamic, Europe wide community of organisations founded in the Christian faith and working in the tradition of Diaconia, who are committed to a Europe of solidarity, equality and justice. As the leading network of Diaconia in Europe, Eurodiaconia connects organisations, institutions and churches providing social and health services and education on a Christian value base on over 30 European countries.
One of Eurodiaconia’s areas of work is to identify and to promote innovative diaconal youth work among our members. Therefore, Eurodiaconia conducted its Empower You(th)! Project collecting and assessing innovative youth work models & methods and to analyse them regarding their international transferability. The results were compiled in an Online Toolkit, which not only contains the collection of best practices but also an assessment of current challenges of European youth work, especially looking at excluded young people.
Following-up the findings of the project , Eurodiaconia is now looking to enlarge the collection of good practices and to further assess their role concerning specifically (1) youth unemployment, (2) marginalisation and (3) radicalisation prevention through social inclusion. Especially on the latter, Eurodiaconia recently published a study of our members’ work in field, also touching upon the role of youth work in this area. Diaconal youth work represents a unique approach to youth work in Europe and contributes significantly to increased education & employability, social cohesion and provides young people with a narrative of hope – beyond denominational environments. The requested piece of research will look into how our members’ best practices contribute to a positive development of youth empowerment in Europe and how this can contribute to successful European policy-making.
To learn more about the aim of this research, please have a look at the full call document or contact Eurodiaconia’s Policy, Projects & Research Officer Florian at florian.tuder@eurodiaconia.org