European Charter on Youth Work by Carsten Adamsen | caad@kolding.dk
On 8–11 October 2018 representatives from youthful cities around the Baltic Sea met in Rostock, Germany. 21 participants (youth and civil servants) from 11 cities had made their way to Germany. Also, two youth board members from the Baltic Sea States Subregional Cooperation were invited. The main working themes of this meeting were: the Charter on Local Youth Work, EU Competence model for international youth work, the Youth and the UBC General Conference in 2019, and also the cultural experiences of Rostock. During the welcome dinner on Monday we were greeted by Steffen Bockhahn, Senator for Youth, Social Affairs, Health, Schools and Sports and Karin Wohlgemuth, Rostock International Relations Office. Their presence gave us the opportunity to talk about youth matters and the city. On 9 October the official opening of the Commission meeting in the premises of the “Rostocker Freizeit Zentrum” was followed by news from the Chairman of the Commission. Then the workshops on the “European charter on youth work” were held – a result of a project of 23 National Agencies of Erasmus+. In the afternoon, we had a wonderful tour of the medieval city with references to the medical practices in Rostock. The following day we first had a guided tour around our meeting place “Rostocker Freizeit Zentrum” and afterwards we split up into two groups: the youth and civil servants. The group of youth worked on ideas for the 2019 General
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Conference, while civil servants discussed the EU Competence model for international youth work. In the afternoon, our meeting moved to another youth centre “Peter Weiss Haus” and after a guided tour there was a workshop on how to creatively present our results during the City Hall mingle later in the afternoon. On the last day we did evaluation of the workshops and the cities had possibility to share information and inspirations.