The Art of Ethics in Youth Work

At the beginning of February, we went with our team to Karlovac, Croatia, to learn more about ethics in youth work. As a new organization, our main goal was to learn from the experience of longer established organizations and to create a code of ethics for Youth Europeans.

Due to the intensive programme, only the first morning was dedicated to typical games and then we fully immersed ourselves in activities related to the project theme. First up was a discussion on values in youth work, on which we will later build our codes of ethics.

On the second day, our office was visited by Ivan Cerovac, Ph.D., professor of philosophy at the University of Rijeka, who discussed with us the basics of ethics in youth work in an interactive way. The theoretical explanation was interspersed with personal experiences of Ivan and other participants, which led to a lively discussion. Discussion was generally the main tool of the day and during the games on ethics in youth work that Ivan prepared for us. The whole day was challenging but very rewarding for both individuals and organisations.

The task of the next day was to create at least a working version of the code of ethics of each organization using the materials and experiences we had gathered during the last days of the project. Towards the end of the day, the project facilitators and other participants evaluated our work and added their insights and comments, which we implemented in the code the following day.

On the fourth day we had two tasks ahead of us. The implementation of the comments from the previous day and the finalization of the code of ethics and the preparation of a short sketch on various ethical dilemmas in youth work and their solutions in international groups. Some of the sketches were humorous, others gave chills. The rest of the day was free, in a smaller group we went to the nearby castle and discovered a little more different corners of Karlovac.

On the last morning of the day, the facilitators organized an NGO fair – a showcase of partner organizations where we presented our history, work, vision, exchanged contacts and established new partnerships. Afterwards there was a project evaluation, youthpass handover and in the evening bowling followed by a farewell party.

Matěj Valenta