Join us for the first episode in 2025
Neighbouring partner countries’ cooperation: impact and future needs
Our Youth Research Dialogues series continues in 2025 and we kick it off on 20 February.
Join us for our episode on ‘Neighbouring partner countries’ cooperation: impact and future needs’. We will share key findings from our RAY NPC study (in cooperation with the Strategic National Agency Cooperation ‘Beyond Borders’ and the regional SALTO Resource Centres) on the impact and potential of cooperation projects with neighbouring partner countries in the European youth programmes.
We will explore and discuss the impact, potential, added-value and challenges as well as address recommendations for policy, practice, research and future needs.
Andrea Horta from the RAY transnational research team will join us for this episode. We warmly welcome our guest speakers from the SNAC Beyond Borders/regional SALTO Resource Centres, Sonja Mitter Škulj and Tomasz Szopa.
WHAT?
Neighbouring partner countries’ cooperation: impact and future needs
WHEN?
20 February, 15:00 – 15:45 CET
WHO?
>> Sonja Mitter Škulj, SALTO South East Europe Resource Centre
>> Tomasz Szopa, SALTO Eastern Europe and Caucasus Resource Centre
>> Andrea Horta, RAY transnational research team
WHERE?
Livestream, which can be followed
Here: bit.ly/YouthResearchDialogue20 (link is not accessible yet)
Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jklH5WN9eFg
Moderated by
Tomi Kiilakoski and Domagoj Morić
SPEAKERS
>> Sonja Mitter Škulj, SALTO South East Europe Resource Centre
Sonja Mitter Škulj has facilitated international youth work and cooperation since the late 1990s, first at the Council of Europe Youth Directorate, then in the frame of the EU youth programmes. Personal intercultural experiences and her M.A. studies in history with a focus on migration and social integration convinced her of the value of people-to-people contacts and intercultural exchange. As coordinator of the SALTO SEE Resource Centre in Ljubljana and the European Academy on Youth Work, her focus is on actively supporting youth work and cooperation involving the Western Balkans within Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps as well as innovation in youth work.
>> Tomasz Szopa, SALTO Eastern Europe and Caucasus Resource Centre
Tomasz Szopa is an expert in international youth work and non-formal education. He is turning his master knowledge of sociology and social anthropology into active support for youth work development, especially in cooperation with the Eastern Neighbours of the European Union. Tomasz had been coordinating over a hundred of international trainings and seminars for few thousand participants coming from Europe and its neighbourhood. Throughout this experience, he had actively facilitated captivating processes of intercultural exchange, fostering innovation and structural development across several generations of the European youth programmes.
>> Andrea Horta, RAY transnational research team
Andrea Horta works for Youth Policy Labs, a small research agency and think tank in the youth sector. She has a research background in neuroscience and psychology and currently works as part of the transnational research team of the RAY network.
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Thank you and looking forward to seeing you there!
What are the Youth Research Dialogues?
The overall aim of the ‘Youth Research Dialogues’ series is to not only to make RAY research findings more accessible but also other European youth research studies and create a dialogue between researchers about their findings. The ‘Youth Research Dialogues’ series promotes different topics, e.g. inclusion and diversity, pandemic and youth work, digitalisation etc. In addition to researchers from the RAY Network, the ‘Youth Research Dialogues’ series features research colleagues from different global and European contexts and networks.
What is the RAY research project on the impact and potential of cooperation projects with neighbouring partner countries in the European youth programmes (RAY NPC)?
In 2024, the RAY Network, together with the long-term strategic activity on neighbouring partner countries, Beyond Borders, and the regional SALTO Resource Centres, undertook the task of exploring cooperation projects by using available data from the RAY Monitoring surveys and complimenting it with a dedicated thematic survey and three focus groups.
The exploration focused on the specific characteristics that distinguish cooperation projects from other projects within the programmes, their effects on participants and teams, their accessibility for beneficiaries and young people in partner countries and the specific needs of beneficiaries, teams and participants involved in them.
More information HERE.