Youth-Centred Research-Based Model—An Innovative Tool in Youth Work

Terms like youth-friendly, youth-focused, youth-centred, youth-responsive, etc., have been used to describe the opportunities and services offered to young people. Such concepts often refer to essential and suitable forms of activity and their quality for young people. However, the term “youth-centred” or “youth-centred approach” is not unambiguously understandable in youth work or in other services or activities for young people. Furthermore, more instruments are needed to help a youth worker or a specialist working with young people in every field to work in a more youth-centred way. The team of the Youth Work programme of Narva College of the University of Tartu launched a project to conceptualise the meaning and content of the youth-centred approach and to develop an instrument—a model—that could help implement a more youth-centred practice in youth work. In-depth interviews with Estonian youth field experts and focus group interviews in open youth work confirmed the relevance of the theoretical concept. The empirically tested model is valuable for planning and developing youth-centred activities in youth work.