Final Report
Outreach
May 2011
My Generation has been co-financed by the European Regional Development Funds
MY GENERATION: FINAL REPORTS
Through the URBACT II Operational Programme
OUTREACH
Introduction
Europe’s disaffected young people hit the streets just as My Generation got started. Our initial
network meeting in Greece came hot on the heels of the first wave of riots across Europe as the
scale of the crisis became apparent. In December 2009 Patras was still raw, with ATM machines
vandalised and bank windows boarded up. Greek youth was angry – still is angry – and over the past
two years their cousins across the continent have joined them. And with much good reason.
The crisis has hit young people disproportionately. Across the EU today, youth unemployment is
almost 21% with 5 million people under the age of 25 looking for work. NEET (Not in education,
employment or training) figures in many member states are at record levels whilst competition for
opportunities – in education and employment – has intensified. In this climate there is a serious risk
that the most disadvantaged get pushed further back in the queue and fears about a ‘Lost
Generation’.
The crisis brings enormous challenges as it questions the basic principles of the established
economic model. For young people it may be legitimate to ask what the point is in working hard at
school, getting a first degree, increasingly a second degree, then still having no guarantee of a secure
employment opportunity. Those on the fringes of society might feel vindicated about opting out – if
that is the choice they have made – and may conclude that there is little incentive to actively engage
in the mainstream labour market.
But this tough new situation also brings opportunities. Although the concept of ‘jobs for life’ has
long gone, cities continue to act as economic drivers within the EU. To remain competitive, they
need an appropriately equipped labour force – for today and tomorrow. As the Commission’s recent
agenda for skills and jobs1 makes clear, the solutions are a combination of inward migration, longer
working lives and harnessing the aptitudes of the young. Consequently, the question of successfully
engaging with young people has risen up the political agenda as cities have looked at ways to
improve relationships with them. The My Generation network pre-dates the crisis but from the
beginning it placed the initial stage in that process – outreach – at its heart. So, as our network
draws to a close, in this paper we examine the emerging lessons relating to the outreach theme, and
consider the My Generation legacy and its relevance to tackling the challenges ahead.
My Generation – cityscape and journey
In My Generation we have used a graphic cityscape to describe the journey many young people
make on the cusp of adulthood. This transformative experience sees them move from puzzlement,
disaffection and exclusion to the fulfilment of their potential and active contribution as citizens.
However, it is rarely a linear process and one of the biggest challenges is making and sustaining that
connection.
1
An Agenda for new skills and jobs: A European contribution towards full employment 2010
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:0682:FIN:EN:PDF
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Ultimately, successful front end engagement is all about relationships. One of My Generation’s most
distinctive features has been the way in which it has sought to re-engineer this key area. For rather
than fixing young people in our sights as ‘the target group’ the approach has placed the principle of
‘co-development’ at centre stage. This means that young people are actively involved in everything
we do and publicly-funded partners (including the not-for-profit sector) are working alongside them
in a way that is quite different from the ‘target group’ approach.
What does this mean for outreach activity? Well, quite a lot. This fundamental shift in relationships
takes us away from an ‘us’ and ‘them’ model where young people are objectified in traditional
target group terms. Instead, to borrow an established phrase from the disability lobby, the byword
becomes ‘nothing about us without us.’ Consequently, the My Generation cities which have
embraced this model are ones where all of their services – including outreach – have been reengineered to ensure that young people are central to the design and delivery aspects.
Indeed, the concept of outreach within our network has evolved as My Generation has grown and
developed. As we will see from the case studies cited in the following section, we have moved from
a fairly traditional understanding of the term to one which better reflects the complexity of social
and economic disconnection in contemporary urban Europe. This wider understanding of outreach
acknowledges that across the continent there are, for example, young people living in communities
largely disconnected from the host society for a variety of reasons – language and culture amongst
them. Yet through technology they are plugged into global communities across the planet – often
more closely than to those immediately around them. Other dimensions – notably gender – also play
an important factor in these relationships between host city and minority communities. Within the
My Generation family we see this in cities like Antwerp, where effective outreach strategies are
bearing fruit. Across Europe other cities – like Bradford in England – are addressing the same
challenge.
This is still a variation on an established outreach theme. Where we have seen the outreach concept
shift is in settings where the disconnection from available support services is less immediately
apparent. For example, we have seen young entrepreneurs in isolation and unplugged from
established support services. Equally, we have witnessed exciting models designed to connect young
people from minority ethnic backgrounds with opportunities in the corporate sector. Again, we
describe some of these examples below2 which are innovative, effective and which meet a real need
amongst young people who are not fully connecting with the available support offer. This is the fuzzy
area between outreach and brokerage, but the central problem of disconnection is a shared one – as
is the solution which rests on building trust and effective relationship management, but always with
young people at the heart of the interventions.
2
All of the projects feature on the My Generation website http://urbact.eu/en/projects/active-inclusion/mygeneration/homepage/
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The city perspective – the road travelled
So what about the work that cities have undertaken through My Generation?
As lead partner, Rotterdam has brought considerable expertise and experience gained from its year
as the European Youth Capital. It has championed the co-development principle and everyone
involved in My Generation has been inspired by the calibre of the city’s young people who have
contributed. Around the outreach theme Rotterdam has showcased several important mechanisms
which have shaped the thinking of other cities. One of these is the pioneering work connecting and
co-producing with young entrepreneurs led by the Chamber of Commerce3. Another has been the
city’s Youth Council which – as we discuss below – has already been replicated by peer cities. At first
glance this may appear to be an unusual outreach tool. However, it has sent out a clear signal that
cities with this model are taking young people seriously and as a consequence it has attracted many
into public life who would otherwise have remained switched off.
Rotterdam has also shared its mobile youth service model through My Generation. This is an
intervention that contains some of the key features of successful outreach work. First of all, we see a
proactive approach where support services are taken out into disadvantaged communities with a
view to resolving conflict and engaging with disconnected youth. Secondly, young people – on
internships or at the starting point of their career – form part of the mobile team. Recruited from
the local areas they can empathise with the young people living there and have credibility with
them. Thirdly, the model provides a structured career pathway for young people who take the
decision to channel their skills and experience positively. Through their experience in the mobile
team these young people are on track to gain accredited qualifications leading to a career in youth
work.
This qualification pathway model also exists in other cities too. For example, in Antwerp, young role
models – often from migrant communities – are re-engaging with disaffected younger peers through
sport, music and other shared interests. But rather than dropping into those communities they are
permanently based there, working from an innovative network of ‘community competence centres’.
These support hubs provide a wide range of services to young people – including advice, guidance
and competence profiling – as well as offering a safe space to meet and socialise. The role of the
youth workers is well-established (building confidence, providing advice and guidance etc) but they
are also utilising new ways of capturing the competencies of the young through tools like the Cstick4.
Trusted advocates drawn from isolated communities and supporting others within them is an
established working model in many cities across Europe. One instance is in Bradford where local
partners have been working closely with young Muslim women to empower them to have a more
active community role. For example, through the Our Lives project5 a group of young women have
acquired the skills to write, film and produce a documentary about the lives of Muslim women in the
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http://www.blog.urbact.eu/?p=686
4
The C-stick is a portable device used to demonstrate informal and formal competences
http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/women-towards-excellence
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city. The output, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, provides a powerful statement
around community cohesion, as well as building the confidence, skills and employability of these
young people.
Across the Urbact Programme we also see recognition of the importance of effective outreach tools.
For example, Roma Net has acknowledged the need to connect young Roma people into the aims of
the project and stressed the value of having motivated young people as catalysts and champions of
change in across local communities. To convey this message to the key actors in each of the ROMANet partner cities, the themes of active community engagement, social marketing and antidiscrimination were the subjects covered at their first trans-national learning cluster event. As a
consequence the participating cities now have a clearer picture of the levels of innovation and
creativity required to stimulate and engage the interest of young people. All of this builds on
previous activity around youth engagement supported through the Urbact 1 programme which
underlined some of the critical success factors in meaningfully engaging young people.
In both Rotterdam and Antwerp, we can see that strong political leadership and resource investment
in prioritising the needs of young people have also been key factors. In 2011 Antwerp assumed the
mantle of European Youth Capital and the final My Generation
conference took place there in April 2011. This event linked
into the city’s showcasing of its use of five a side football to
engage with young people from all backgrounds – The ‘Shoot’
tournament. Again, the model here is a community-based
event providing a shared space for young people and credible
advocates to get together and start building trusted
relationships in a non-threatening environment.
Our two UK cities – Birmingham and Glasgow – also have established outreach services where
football is part of the initial engagement toolkit. In Birmingham this is underpinned by a formalised
pathway into Football Association (FA) accredited career pathways, and aligned to innovative
confidence building programmes such as ‘A World Worth Living’.6 Glasgow also has a proactive
service, with mobile “Fives” pitches and other attractions moved between local ‘hot-spots’ and
designed to engage with gang members. Behind this is an impressive support structure which
includes the city’s two major football clubs using their iconic brands to engage disaffected young
people in learning and skills development. Gothenburg has also shared its outreach models for
engaging with young people in trouble with the law, where a co-ordinated agency approach in a
specific locality has proven successful.
Many of the My Generation cities are using such shared spaces where through sport, media and
culture young people who might normally be reluctant to come forward are engaged. In Gdansk
we’ve seen skateboarding, in Valencia the use of music and the visual arts, a cultural focus in Patras
and in Riga the idea of a ‘Youth Month’ as a hub for a variety of events and activities. These are
designed to attract all young people, with support agencies using them to provide an initial platform
to engage with those less likely to participate. However, the focus in cities like Tirgu-Mures has been
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http://urbact.eu/en/projects/active-inclusion/my-generation/homepage/
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more specific, for example in relation to supporting marginalised groups including young people with
HIV.
In Riga –as well as Warsaw – My Generation has triggered key structural changes which may be a
step change in the cities’ relationship with the young. Both cities have established a commitment to
developing Youth Councils based on the Rotterdam model and already we can see an impact in the
number of young people coming forward to engage in public life. Again, this is outreach of another
type – one designed to raise participation levels – but the consequences may be profound. Cities
taking this step are sending a message about taking young people seriously and about involving
them in decision-making. In years to come, My Generation will be identified as the catalyst for these
exciting developments within our network cities.
The My Generation legacy
So as My Generation draws to a close, what have been the key lessons in relation to outreach
activity – and what legacy can it leave behind?
We have seen that in the short time that our network has been in operation, the challenges facing
young people have intensified. Many identify the source of this as a seismic tremor – rather than a
passing blip. Relentless economic restructuring – driven by globalisation and technology – means
that the old labour market is fast disappearing with much uncertainty around the shape of its
replacement. We cannot predict how jobs in our cities will evolve in the next decade and beyond.
Conventional wisdom is challenged and the status quo is widely perceived to be a non-starter. For
many young people, prospects appear bleak and for the most disadvantaged it may feel like the
odds are completely stacked against them.
However, we cannot afford to watch large numbers of young people fail to reach their potential. The
importance of more effectively recognising their talents has been a key theme of our work. But in
order to do this there must be a relationship in place which allows this validation process to occur.
Effective outreach – in all of its forms – is a prerequisite for this.
Across Europe’s cities this is already well known. Therefore, it has not been the aim of My
Generation to painstakingly create a (yet another) compendium of good practice. Previous projects including those funded through Urbact7 – have done this and the characteristics of effective
outreach activity are well established and understood. To this My Generation can add some new
insights8 but this has not been our key goal.
Instead, we have had a dual focus. The first part of this has been on generating a better
understanding of the cityscape and the journey through it which young people are now making.
Within this context our animation shows that as young people engage and undertake this transition
– at their own pace and often in a zigzag pattern – outreach remains a core component. It also
shows that on completing the journey many young people – particularly from disadvantaged
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such as the importance of underpinning outreach activity with an appropriate framework of opportunities
and support otherwise, we risk undermining the trusted relationship at the start by promising something we
cannot deliver
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backgrounds9 – want to give back and as they reach out to their peers the cycle begins again. So,
outreach is a key component of this set of relationships – and it is an integral part, rather than a
standalone feature.
The second area of focus has been on the relationships between publicly funded agencies and the
young people who they aim to support. As we have previously stated, our central thrust has been
from an ‘us and them’ traditional target group mentality to one where young people are as much
part of the solution as the problem. This is a key shift in emphasis which has significant implications
for practice and policy in our cities. In this paper we have given examples of both.
In the former, young people are actively involved in the design and delivery of services. And here we
are not talking about a cosmetic addition whereby, for example, a focus group of youngsters rubberstamp an intervention which has already been agreed. Instead, the My Generation approach
requires young people to be actively involved – as equal actors – from the outset.
In the latter, young people are taken seriously as stakeholders with an informed and valued
perspective. Consequently, they are engaged in decision-making fora where they can bring their
knowledge and experience to the city’s investment decisions. In Rotterdam, Antwerp, Riga and
Warsaw we see such structures beginning to shape the way business is done.
However, this transition in working relationships is clearly an ambitious and complex process. Even
those cities which are at the forefront of its development would accept that it requires clear vision,
effective leadership, resources and time. It also needs processes and products and this is where
many of the most important My Generation gains have been made. In relation to the processes, the
network has utilised a variety of approaches to engage stakeholders in ways that have been exciting
and fun. Some of these – such as the workshops, interview panels etc – have used well established
techniques. Other approaches – samba dancing and guerrilla cooking amongst them – less so! Taking
risks has been a watchword throughout and as a consequence the network has built up a repertoire
of techniques designed to facilitate and promote co-production with young people – and indeed
others. In doing so it has engaged in an open dialogue with young people, who have influenced and
shaped key aspects of the overall process.
Alongside this, the network has majored on producing an appropriate set of products. In addition to
the standard reports, this has included extensive use of animation, video and social networking
media. The varied formats allow the My Generation story to be communicated in a range of ways –
as befits our eclectic audience - and it has the dual function of relating the evolution and activity of
the network whilst showing how this was done. In particular the visual outputs – both the animation
and the videos – operate as important outreach tools in themselves. Accessible, fun and engaging,
they reflect the spirit of the network and will hopefully inspire others to adopt similar approaches.
So the principal legacy of My Generation relates to the way in which we work together with young
people and the tools and processes we have at our disposal to do that. So although the network’s
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The pattern of wishing to give back is well established amongst some societal groups. For example, it is
prevalent amongst reformed offenders where criminologists have defined it as a ‘redemptive script’
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activity has been modest in scale, we hope that this legacy will be picked up and continued by
others. In particular, we see opportunities for this to happen via:
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Our member cities – many of which will continue to collaborate
Managing Authorities – which have been keen observers and participants in our work
The Urbact programme – through existing and future Urbact projects and through its links to
other networks (Eurocities, OECD etc)
The European Commission – through its development of the new Structural Fund
programmes and via the implementation of Youth on the Move
Eddy Adams
Thematic Expert - Outreach
May 2011
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