On April 22, 2024, the “Rural youth work 101: Advancing the inclusion of rural youth in Europe through volunteering and rural community-building”, organised with Rural Youth Europe kicked off at European Youth Center Budapest. The study session gathered 37 youth workers from 14 countries and 17 rural youth organisations to address and rediscuss youth work in rural areas (rural youth work) and volunteering as tools for promoting and advancing the socio-political inclusion of rural youth in Europe today.

 On the first day of the study session, the participants got to know each other, learned about the work of Council of Europe Youth Department and Rural Youth Europe and explored key concepts around youth work and volunteering. Moreover, the participants got to share their expectations from the study session to promote rural youth work at their organisations.

 ‘‘This study session is very valuable in terms of learning more about different ways of approaching rural youth work in Europe. In the same room we have well-established and relatively new organisations, thus the study session can help us to learn from positive examples and success stories that can guide us in implementing the good practices in our own organisations.’’ - Redi Asabella, participant from Rural Youth Hub Albania

 On the second day, the participants got to identify and explore the rural dimension of youth work at local, regional, national, and international levels, identify key challenges and opportunities for rural youth work. Moreover, they discussed the vision of their organisations for rural youth work in the upcoming 10 years.

 In the upcoming days the participants will learn from good practices of involved organisations and jointly create a toolkit of those practices which aim to overcome the challenges identified earlier in the study session. Additionally, the draft CM Recommendation on social, economic, and political participation of rural youth will be presented by the representative of the Advisory Council on Youth.

 On the last day, the participants will work on proposing recommendations to tackle rural youth work challenges at all levels, which will be translated into a policy paper by Rural Youth Europe.

 The programme of the study session is developed based on the Youth Sector Strategy 2030 priorities, particularly on youth work.

 More information about the study session can be found here.