Latvian stakeholders brainstorming session

At the end of March 2024, the Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia (MoES), together with the University of Latvia (UL), hosted the final brainstorming session on youth policy ideas in Riga. As part of the event, various stakeholders discussed the needs and challenges in the field of youth, as well as the implementation of  youth work at the municipal level to create a favourable environment for the development and growth of young people, etc.

The youth policy brainstorming session was attended by representatives from various municipalities, a youth council, NGOs, and others. During the discussions, recommendations and opinions on measures for Youth Policy Implementation Plan for 2025 – 2027 were collected. The purpose of the Plan is to ensure the achievement of the directions of action defined in the Guidelines for Children, Youth and Family Development for 2022-2027. When developing the Plan for the new period, the MoES of Latvia prefers to carry out consultations with the industry. Previous brainstorming sessions were organised in Saldus, Cēsis, Rēzekne cities.

In the second part of the event, consultations were held on a tool for municipalities to better understand how to implement youth work—a common quality framework for work with youth in municipalities. This framework has been developed based on visits by the MoES to municipalities in 2021-2022 and the Guidelines for Children, Youth and Family Development for 2022-2027.

The UL Center for European and Transition Studies was also involved in the event, as it is currently participating in the INTERREG Europe project "Improving the role of youth policies for rural sustainable development" (Rural Youth Future, RYF). Representatives of the UL CETS presented the RYF project to a broader stakeholders’ group, provided information about opportunities for experience exchange in different regions of Europe, and shared the knowledge gained during the project’s implementation in the field of youth in Latvia. The MoES is also involved in the project as an associate partner.

Some of the points discussed during the event were:

• Facilitating the improvement of the mentoring system to involve a wider range of young people - both NEET (young people not in employment or education) and all other young people, with a focus on promoting  youth-to-youth mentoring opportunities.

• Training opportunities in basic digital skills should be promoted as a form of non-formal education. This could enable young people to learn in-demand and modern specialties in a short period of time and to work remotely from their place of residence (e.g., social media management; involvement of young people in the promotion of municipal social networks).

• Enhancing the youth worker system by strengthening networking opportunities, providing mentoring support, especially for new recruits (youth worker to youth worker), promoting team-building activities and awareness of the role of youth workers in municipalities, etc.

More about the RuralYouthFuture:

Denīze Ponomarjova, UL CETS Project Manager: [email protected]

RYF web: https://www.interregeurope.eu/ruralyouthfuture

RYF UL web: https://www.lu.lv/cets/research/euproject/rural-youth-future/

RYF LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rural-youth-future/

RYF Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ruralyouthfutureproject/