This is a seminar to explore deeper the concept of youth initiatives and how youth work can become more participative and co-owned if young people are empowered to implement their own ideas.

We have observed that not only in international projects, but also in local youth work more and more youth workers and young people tend to have consumeristic relationship (youth workers offer activities – young people consume them). We are proposing this seminar in order to explore this dangerous tendency and find out approaches in order to give more responsibility of contents and “form” of youth work to the young people.

Youth initiatives could be micro-projects at a local scale that do not require almost any resources – this we see as a good beginning for young people to start taking the responsibility and ownership.

Contents of the Seminar

• Discussing how consumerism affects youth work in our youth work realities and how to diminish consumeristic tendencies in youth work;
• Exploring essence of youth initiatives, how to support them and sharing good practices;
• Trying out to implement some local initiatives in Georgia and thus learn from this experience;
• Work on youth initiative ideas for future projects in local communities and implement them.

Profile of Participants

This seminar has been designed for 25 youth work specialists from municipalities, youth workers, teachers, social workers, youth leaders, youth leaders, youth club activists, scout leaders, etc., working with young people (as volunteers or paid workers) at least once a week, interested in youth work innovations and ready to share them with their communities through follow-up activities – YOUTH INITIATIVES and activities that contribute to young peoples’ greater involvement.