INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE “BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES – YOUTH WORK AT MUNICIPALITY LEVEL DURING COVID-19 TIMES”

International Conference “Building Resilient Communities – Youth Work at Municipality Level during COVID-19 times” was organised by DYPALL Network from 21st March – 26th March 2022 in Braga, Portugal.

The Conference was a space for more than 70 youth workers and public officers from local and regional authorities to come together and focus on different fields related to youth such as participation, employment, education, health, housing among others, with special attention to specific measures, sustainable practices and tools that promote resilient communities, prepared to cope with extraordinary circumstances such as COVID-19 pandemic. The Conference programme included a variety of keynote speakers, exchanges of best practices, thematic round tables, and working groups. 

At the opening of the Conference, we had the contribution from Ricardo Rio, Mayer of Braga, Bruno António, DYPALL Network coordinator, Carla Mouro, Executive President of Youth Foundation and Rui Oliveira, the president of Portuguese National Youth Council.

The opening speeches were followed by the point of view of a policy analyst from OECD, and the round table with a researcher and youth policy analyst from EU-CoE Youth Partnership and a Member of the Board of Directors from the Portuguese Institute of Youth and Sports.

During the Conference, participants took part in several thematic working groups on mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, round tables and workshops about youth work in building resilient communities led by representatives from Democracy Reloading, Portuguese Institute of Youth and Sports and Europe Goes Local. We had the opportunity to listen to keynote speakers from SALTO and Verke about e- Participation and Digital Transformation and expand our knowledge through exploration groups about tools and resources for new trends in youth work and digital transformation led by representatives of SALTO-YOUTH Participation & Information and Europiamo. A diversity of methods that include focus group discussions, brainstorming, and experiential learning exercises were used in the sessions.

Participants also explored local youth work realities at Vila Nova de Gaia and Vila Nova de Famalicão and had a cultural visit to Braga city centre.

On the last day of the Conference, we tackled sustainability in youth work. Human Power Hub gave a presentation about social innovation which was followed by the round table about creating sustainability by learning from the European Youth Capitals’ practices. We also discussed youth work impact and its connection to climate change.

Throughout the event, participants had opportunities to build a strong network by exchanging best practices in terms of cooperation between local authorities and civil society, with a specific focus on strategies to decrease the impact of the pandemic on young people’s lives.

The Conference was organised with the support of the Erasmus+ programme through the Portuguese National Agency and by Braga Municipality.