Youth work is constantly evolving, because young people’s everyday lives are continuously changing too — as are their communication habits, their communities, and the spaces where they can genuinely be reached. For this reason, one of the most important questions for us in recent months has been how we can get even closer to those who are part of this field every day: young people and the professionals who work with them.
As part of our Erasmus+ accreditation, we launched a nationwide project that took us to all seven regions of Hungary, where last autumn we had the opportunity to learn from the experiences, opinions, and ideas of nearly sixty young people and youth workers. These occasions went far beyond a traditional needs assessment. We encountered personal stories, local challenges, and questions that concern many people regardless of where they live. In some places, the lack of opportunities for community engagement came to the forefront; elsewhere, difficulties in accessing information were highlighted. There was also a great deal of discussion about how young people can be reached, engaged, and motivated over the longer term. The experiences gathered at the different locations all pointed in the same direction: young people want to connect, express their opinions, and play an active role, but to do so they need environments, methods, and professionals that are genuinely adapted to the realities of their lives.
The feedback collected in the autumn did not remain at the level of conversation; instead, it became the foundation for our professional programmes during the spring semester. As part of the project, we organised four workshops for youth workers, involving more than thirty participants in total. The training sessions focused on topics that are directly relevant to everyday youth work.
One of the workshops focused on the digital space and the conscious use of social media. With the involvement of media experts, we explored how to communicate with young people authentically online, how to create content that is genuinely interesting and relevant to them, and, through practical exercises, participants were also introduced to the basics of creating “vox pop” or street-interview-style videos.
Another workshop focused on youth work in schools, providing professionals with tested methods and practical tools that enable them to facilitate engaging, accessible, and developmental processes even within already established classroom communities.
The third workshop explored how young people can not only be reached, but genuinely activated and engaged over the longer term. Participants worked with approaches that support authentic connections, help maintain motivation, and contribute to building communities that extend beyond one-off programmes or events.
The fourth workshop focused on mental health first aid, providing participating youth workers with practical tools and methods for supporting young people who may be experiencing a crisis or struggling with mental health difficulties.
Although the four training sessions addressed different topics, they were connected by the same underlying idea: work with young people can be truly effective when we do more than simply try to reach them. We need to understand the environment in which they live, create space for their participation, and offer experiences that they will want to remain connected to in the future.
Alongside the professional workshops, our nationwide tour also continued. We met young people directly at more than thirty locations across Hungary, held information sessions and training programmes, and introduced them to national and international opportunities that can help them gain new experiences, build connections, and discover new paths for personal and professional development.
We considered the nationwide tour particularly important because our previous experience — reinforced by the feedback gathered during the project — shows that a significant proportion of young people in Hungary simply do not come across these opportunities. In many cases, the problem is not a lack of motivation or openness; rather, the information itself simply does not reach them. This made it especially valuable for us to be able to bring these programmes and opportunities to them in person — opportunities they might otherwise never encounter through other channels.
In recent years, as an organisation, we have become best known primarily within the international youth sector through our programmes. For us, therefore, it was both a new and important experience that this project enabled us to step outside our usual professional circles and familiar locations. We were able to reach towns, institutions, and communities with which we had previously had less direct contact. These encounters not only helped more young people learn about the opportunities available to them, but also gave us a clearer understanding of the questions, barriers, and needs that exist in different parts of the country.
In this way, the process developed in two directions at once: while we reached more and more young people in person, we also supported the professionals working with them by providing practical knowledge that they can take back to and apply within their own communities.
The three professional workshops, the more than thirty professionals involved, and the more than thirty roadshow locations represent important milestones for us, but these achievements mean far more than numbers alone. Every location brought a new encounter, every training session created new professional connections, and every conversation offered a new perspective.
Perhaps the most important lesson of the past few months has been that meaningful development begins with paying attention: listening to young people and the professionals who work with them, and then not simply collecting what we hear, but incorporating it into our next steps. This is how we progressed from the first nationwide conversations to concrete training programmes, new methods, and face-to-face encounters at more than thirty locations.
For us, this is what best demonstrates what a truly dynamic process of supporting young people looks like: continuously learning from one another, responding to changing needs, and creating opportunities in which both young people and professionals can find their own role. Because ultimately, the future of youth work is shaped not by programmes alone, but by the people, relationships, and shared experiences that emerge from these encounters.
