Counsellings in the field of Professional Open Youth Work

Background Open Youth Work in German-speaking countries has become significantly more professional in the last decade. From a more leisure and experiential educational orientation, the field has mostly developed towards social pedagogy and social work with young people. This is not least because of the increased demands and needs of the young target group and society in general. With the increasing professionalization of the field of activity and the better qualification of specialists, the topic of counsellings in Professional Open Youth Work has gained great importance. The demand and need for counselling from young users of Open Youth Work is increasing and system partners and funding bodies are expected to have technical and professional know-how. The corona crisis also increased the need for professional, low-threshold interventions. Although counselling in Professional Open Youth Work is provided every day and is in great demand, there has been little research on it. There were hardly any professional concepts regarding forms and requirements for counseling and counseling theories in open settings. There were no definitions or quality standards. Objectives The project aimed to further professionalize Open Youth Work by researching und forther developing the important issue of counselling in Open Youth Work. Essentially, the focus was on 4 target areas: I. Research into counselling practices in Professional Open Youth Work II. Creating innovation in counselling methods in Professional Open Youth Work III. Creating a (new) understanding of counselling in Professional Open Youth Work and thus a (new) positioning within Social Work IV. Further development of the profile of youthworkers At the field of action level, the project results should lead to improved quality of advisory services within Open Youth Work as well as further professionalization of the field of action. At the level of the practitioners, it was about promoting professional self-confidence and individual self-efficacy expectations. The oganizations of Professional Open Youth Work involved in the project were given the opportunity to reflect on and further develop their everyday counselling practices. Implementation Over a period of 2.5 years, consulting practices were researched and described in three successive project phases, possible development potential was identified, new practices were tried out, evaluated and documented, and a guide was created that describes the knowledge gained, quality standards and competencies. Meetings and conferences took place with practitioners, representatives of training centers and system partners from related fields of activity. Specifically, the following measures were implemented: a. Case studies in 4 organizations in Austria b. Qualitative interviews in Germany with practitioners c. Quantitative survey d. International online conference for validation and discussion e. 5 steering group meetings f. Preparation of a basic paper, a location paper and 2 specialist articles g.Technical support for institutions in Austria and Germany to test new practices j. Full-day transnational workshop in Austria on qualification issues k. 2-day international conference in Austria on the project results l. Creation of a guide with quality criteria, digital and in paper form, translated also in english Achievements • Guide for practitioners on counselling practices in Professional Open Youth Work, german and english; in german digitally and in paper form, in english only digitally • Survey results on counselling practices in Professional Open Youth Work in Austria and Germany • Internal basic paper • Internal location paper • Conference documentation of the international conference on counselling practices in the OJA • Documentation of the expert workshop on counselling skills and qualifications