„To know everything“ about the open youth work The open youth work (OKJA) in the involved three countries is more and more under considerable strain to legitimate their work. Beyond that they are increasingly responsible to emphasize their capability to develop a democratic position of children and young persons beyond the individual countries due to actual political developments. Project partners are the Austrian umbrella organisation for the OKJA “nationwide network open youth work” (bOJA) of Austria and the umbrella organisation “open youth work in Switzerland” (DOJ) of Switzerland. Both dispose of plenty experience regarding questions of quality of OKJA and dispose of nationwide networks for the distribution of project results. The project aims for the support of the field of work of the named problems. It includes the establishment of a knowledge platform (website “All knowledge within the OKJA”) for the whole field of work in the OKJA – first of all in the German speaking regions. The knowledge platform shall supply contents for all essential parts of this versatile field of work. The contents and elements on the knowledge platform shall not only be put online in writing but shall also offer different practical presentation forms and formats for the specialised personnel of the OKJA. These are besides the obligatory indexing of contents and the summary of short abstracts for example graphics, videos, pp presentations or the like. Therefore the following steps are taken: 1. Development of a structured website 2. Research of existing contents of the OKJA 3. Selection of the contents for the website 4. Identification of gaps and if necessary extension by specific work orders to external partners (i.e. to universities or through surveys at certain facilities) 5. Drafting of appealing presentation profiles of the contents 6. Distribution strategy for participative use through qualified persons in the three countries involved. The knowledge platform will be developed by the project partners together under the lead management of the AGJF Baden-Württemberg and will be communicated right from the start in a participative process to the qualified persons. Therefore a maximum of 20 multiplier presentations will be held and two further larger cross-national network meetings. By establishment of the knowledge platform the process of the intensive cooperation of the involved countries in terms of a strategic partnership will be implemented. All steps will be undertaken in a common and resourced project structure: … project team – responsible for the realisation of the particular steps and the carrying out of the project … supervision team – responsible for the whole project Editorial team – responsible for the design with regards to content of the knowledge platform Network meetings for the critical discussion or the contents from the praxis point of view The knowledge platform shall remain available for the field of work even after termination of the project and shall be kept up-to-date and attractive by a large participation of the qualified persons as well as the universities. By the international establishment of the knowledge platform a kind of “hub” will be created for the know-how relating to OKJA, not only local facilities but also the organisations of the three involved countries can refer to. Thus we expect a professional strengthening of the field of work, amongst others by a professional highlighted public relation. Beyond that the exchange of experiences between the involved countries strengthens the praxis of the local facilities and secures the quality of the OKJA in the German speaking regions in the long term. Contacts into other European regions will result from contacts with the international network “Professional Open Youth Work Europe” (POYWE) which may use certain formats on the platform. In the medium term it is important to cross-link the OKJA also with other European countries. Therefore the knowledge platform offers an excellent basis.
To know all in Open Youth Work - the knowledge platform www.oja-wissen.info introduces itself The collected knowledge about Open Youth Work in the German-speaking world in one place - that was and is the goal of the project "All Knowledge in OJA". For two and a half years we intensively researched, read, selected, evaluated, discussed, decided and wrote abstracts. We - the iSteering team and the project team of three OJA associations from Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as an international editorial team, qualified with experts from practice and science between Hamburg, Bern and Vienna. The result is an online knowledge platform with a collection of almost 400 contributions: Videos, podcasts, lectures, scientific and other relevant publications. The knowledge platform aims to provide relevant knowledge segments on all OJA topics and will continue to be developed after the end of the project. The allocation to the three categories theory - practice - research, corresponding keywording and a well-developed search function facilitate targeted access to contributions according to the respective desired content. The topic packages compiled by experts offer the best possibilities to get an overview of individual topics on the basis of selected contributions. The knowledge platform was presented for the first time on 22 September 2020 at the German Federal Congress on Child and Youth Work. The video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu1gVtbUb9c. For open youth work in German-speaking countries, the now published knowledge platform https://www.oja-wissen.info/ is a unique innovation. Due to the rather young history of OJA and its thematic diversity, there have been predominantly fragmented bodies of knowledge up to now. Lengthy, tedious research has often been the result, although it is particularly important in everyday practice to be able to access knowledge quickly. The project also represents a great gain for the further linking of practice and theory for all relevant actors from the profession and discipline, for specialists and managers, lecturers and academics, in everyday professional life on site and in teaching and research. The available materials can be used to derive a variety of legitimation and argumentation aids for political contexts of action. In times of increasing populist movements, the strengthening of open child and youth work with its core element of democracy education is an important socio-political factor, which is supported within the framework of the project by the qualifying and profile-building bundling of knowledge. Democracy building and participation, youth work in Europe and European youth policy form special focal points in the above context and were taken into account accordingly in the selection of adequate contributions. A feedback e-mail address offers the possibility to suggest further material to the project team as well as suggestions for the design of the website. Basic criteria for the inclusion of contributions can be found at https://www.oja-wissen.info/feedback/. How was the work done? How will the project be continued? The editorial team is responsible for the selection of content. It consisted of a total of 20 representatives from science and practice during the project period. The concrete implementation was carried out by the five-member project team. The three project committees were staffed by full-time and voluntary employees of the AGJF (Germany), BOJA (Austria) and DOJ (Switzerland). To plan and implement the project, meetings were held at least once a month, initially in analogue form, but increasingly in digital form as the project progressed. The knowledge platform will be continued by the project team on a smaller scale with the help of scientific expertise. The participating organisations will provide resources for this. A total of 11 multiplier events were held in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the second half of 2020 with the aim of publicising the project and obtaining feedback from practitioners and disciplines on the design and content of the website. A total of 292 professionals, managers and university staff were reached with these events. The overall feedback is very positive: the project to bundle knowledge in open youth work and make it directly accessible is welcomed. Many suggestions and proposals for the further development of the project were collected, documented and partly already implemented. In the long run, the project makes a great, if not decisive, contribution to the profile building of open youth work.