The Importance of Global Youth Work
Youth Work is an educational process which supports young people to see themselves as part of a story of change both within their own lives, and with the world around them. Global Youth Work is explicit about linking local and global stories in order to provoke consciousness and to support young people in identifying and understanding the root causes of injustice and inequality which exist locally and globally. In this way, Global Youth Work supports young people to analyse and take informed action on inequality, injustice, and key global justice issues like climate change, while also building solidarity with communities both locally and globally. It is characterised by participative, creative approaches that seek to nurture the imaginative capacity of young people. It encourages young people to make their own connections with issues of injustice, so that they can be agents of change, in their own lives, and in the lives of young people in the world around them.
We are living in challenging times, with societies and economies around the globe more closely connected than ever. Today, global events are also local stories. Many of these are era defining issues. Global conflicts have been at the centre of our home news agenda, and the fallout from these events continue to be felt through households and communities in Ireland, with a persistent cost-of-living crisis and refugees finding sanctuary here. We have also seen the effect of globalised culture wars through Ireland’s growing far-right movement. We have seen anti-LGBTQI+ and anti-migrant rhetoric as part of that. The overheating of the planet is a crisis that is also not limited by borders. These global events shape the local news, the environments we live in and, importantly, the consciousness of the young people we work with.
Youth Workers as Educators
As youth workers and educators, we have a responsibility to equip ourselves with the tools to respond to a turbulent and changing world. We do not need to be subject experts, but we do need to question and reflect on our own approach to learning, and to consider our approach to education, in the non-formal education sector. We need to challenge our own thinking, to talk about uncomfortable topics that we may want to shy away from, to check our bias, and to educate ourselves on the world around us. Importantly too, we need to create space for young people to speak up and speak their truth in learning environments; to build spaces of curiosity and exploration in partnership with young people. Our work is in supporting young people to navigate issues, to hold difficult conversations and to support the development of critical thinking skills. We do this, so that the young people we work with can develop their own personalised toolkit for challenging inequality and injustice.
Youth Workers and Global Competency (what is it?)
- An inclination to inquire about the world (for example, seeking information beyond familiar environments, describing, explaining and developing a position about the world, engaging with questions of significance, exploring local-to-global connections).
- An inclination to understand multiple perspectives-others’ and their own (for example, considering cultural contexts, being aware of personal bias, resisting stereotypes, and valuing our shared human dignity – especially as young people interact with others whose paths differ greatly from their own).
- An inclination toward respectful dialogue (communicating across differences, listening generously, sharing courageously, openly and appropriately).
- An inclination toward taking responsible and informed action (being inclined to see and frame opportunities to improve conditions, and collaborating with others, and encouraging action).
Start Your Global Youth Work Journey Here
The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) has a long tradition of supporting and delivering Global Youth Work. NYCI’s current Youth 2030 Global Youth Work programme is run in collaboration with Concern Worldwide, Trócaire, and the Centre for Youth Research and Development at the Department of Applied Social Studies in Maynooth University and is supported by Irish Aid. Youth 2030 provides ongoing opportunities for the youth sector community of practice to engage with global justice issues such as Climate Justice or the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. This is done through activities such as One World Week and Global Youth Work workshops and training throughout the year. Supported learning and action is done through the Global Youth Work Learner’s Network and the Young People’s Committee, by granting initiatives, a Seed Fund and an Innovation Fund, and by providing training and professional development for youth workers and educators.
NYCI’s Good Practice Guidelines in Global Youth Work (2024) are designed to support the youth sector to continuously deepen the quality of Global Youth Work practice. The youth sector community of practice includes youth workers and youth leaders, youth work managers, youth work organisations, volunteers, trainers, researchers, educators of youth workers, boards of management, local communities and local government, the National Agency for Erasmus+ Youth, young people, youth work partners, and policy makers at all levels of governance.
Informed by the Good Practice Guidelines in Global Youth Work, the downloadable Global Youth Work Self-Assessment Tool is a 15-indicator tool designed to support you at whatever point of your youth work journey you are on, and whatever context you are working in. It’s important to remember that your journey is about continuous development rather than reaching conclusive endpoints. The tool allows you to self-assess your Global Youth Work practice at any given time, so that you will be able to see where you feel your practice is stronger or may need further development. It will also facilitate the NYCI Youth 2030 Global Youth Work team to work in partnership with you and other youth organisations to identify strengths and areas for development and support. If any of the 15 indicators in the Global Youth Work Journey seem particularly challenging to you, or you would like support in undertaking the self-assessment overall, please contact NYCI.
Across youth organisations, the results from these self-assessments will provide an overview of the numbers of organisations engaging in Global Youth Work, and their sense of their level of engagement. These combined results will be used to illustrate the overall progress of youth organisations on their journey to embedding GYW, including for the reporting mechanism to Irish Aid.
A note on language: Where we previously used the term Development Education in Youth Work, Development Education is now widely referred to as Global Citizen Education. Overall, we now use the term Global Youth Work as it supports a better understanding of the topic by those working in the youth sector.
Glossary
GLOBALISATION
is a process by which the interaction between people and nations is much closer; where time and distance are no longer constraints; and which gravitates towards a global order.
GLOBAL YOUTH WORK
is about discovering global issues with young people through non-formal education. The aim is to explore a young person’s role in their local community, and within a globalised world. Global Youth Work aims to empower young people to develop the knowledge and skills to engage with these issues and explore their own values, beliefs, and connections with the wider world. Connecting with Global Youth Work is simply identifying the significance, relevance or potential within your existing practice and linking to that.
COLONIALISM
is the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with people from other countries, and exploiting the people and resources for economic, social, legal, and political gain.
COLONISATION
is the action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area.
DECOLONISATION
is the reclaiming of peoples’ identity, language, knowledge, culture, traditions, and nation, where colonialism (through powerful and mainly western countries/groups) took control over these. It is about undoing and removing harmful systems, and their long-term effects, put in place by colonisation. This undoing or unlearning includes reviewing systems, like education, and development in countries of the Global North. It also includes centring voices, opinions, expertise and experiences from the Global South in the work of addressing inequality, and discrimination, and promoting diversity.
GLOBAL SOUTH
refers broadly to the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. It refers to regions outside Europe and North America, mostly (though not all) low-income and often politically or culturally marginalised.
GLOBAL NORTH
consists of the so-called richest and most industrialised countries, which are mainly in the northern part of the world.
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Contact Information
If you would like to support undertaking the Global Youth Work good practice journey, support is available from NYCI’s Youth 2030 GYW team. For more information, please contact Sally@nyci.ie.