Training-seminar “50/50” for youth workers from authorities and public organizations of the Russian Federation (archive event)

Training seminars “50/50” for Russian participants have been held since the very beginning of cooperation between the Council of Europe and the Russian Federation in the field of youth. The concept of the event was aimed at strengthening cooperation and partnership between non-governmental and governmental organizations in the development of youth policy and the implementation of youth work with the direct participation of youth in decision-making processes.

This event is a part of the Action Plan for 2019 for the implementation of the Framework Program for Cooperation between the Council of Europe and the Russian Federation in the field of youth policy.

The purpose of the «50/50» training seminar in 2019 was to increase the level of competence of representatives of youth policy sector aimed at expanding possibilities of applying a human rights-based approach to working with youth at different levels in the Russian Federation.

Key objectives of the training seminar included familiarization with the current state and trends of youth policy and youth work in the Russian Federation and the Council of Europe, consideration of the topic of youth access to rights through the prism of Recommendation CM / Rec (2016) 7 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe “On youth access to rights” and its relevance to Russian realities. There also were such objectives as development of practical tools for work on the topic of youth access to rights based on the methodology of the Council of Europe and positive practices of the Russian Federation and other countries, creating conditions for the formation of a network of like-minded people who were aware of the importance of a human rights-based approach in youth policy and were ready to apply it both at the local and national levels.

The seminar was attended by 30 participants from different regions of the Russian Federation including representatives of local and regional authorities responsible for youth policy and leaders of youth non-governmental organizations.

Participants 

The training seminar «50/50» was attended by an equal number of representatives from the governmental and non-governmental sectors of the field of youth policy (15 people from each).

Participants from the non-governmental sector – young people from 18 to 30 years old, residents of the Russian Federation with at least 3 years of experience in the field of youth policy and youth work:

• representatives of youth public associations, 
• representatives of non-profit organizations working with youth at various levels, 
• members of youth parliaments, youth governments, student councils and other youth self-government bodies, 
• representatives of initiative youth groups, 
• representatives of educational institutions and research groups involved in the work on the topic of youth access to rights.

Participants from the government sector were federal civil servants, state civil servants of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation and municipal employees who were connected with issues related to work with youth and / or youth policy in their daily work. 

Key results

The educational program for participants was very intensive. The topic of youth access to rights was quite new in the context of work in the Russian Federation. Most of participants had no experience of participating in Council of Europe events, therefore concepts covered during the training seminar and approaches used during working sessions were completely new to and were highly appreciated by most of group members.

Participants stressed the importance of applying a rights-based approach to youth policy in their work and developed action plans to further implement the Recommendation on Youth’s Access to Rights.

For the last two years this event has had a positive trend towards multiplication. Participants who took part in the All-Russian training seminar organize similar events at the regional and local levels.