Working with young people: the value of youth work in the European Union Country Report Spain This document has been prepared for the European Commission and the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency. However, it reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Contractor: ICF GHK 146 Rue Royale Brussels B-1000 T +32 (0) 2 275 01 00 F +32 (0) 2 275 01 09 [email protected] www.ghkint.com General report prepared by Allison Dunne, Daniela Ulicna, Ilona Murphy, Maria Golubeva and checked by Daniela Ulicna, Margaret James Edited by European Commission, February 2014 Directorate-General for Education and Culture © European Union, 2014 NC-04-14-173-EN-N ISBN: 978-92-79-367-197-5 doi: 10.2766/7275 2 Working with young people: The value of youth work in the EU Country report: Spain Author: Natalia Alvarez This report presents the situation as of February 2013 3 1 Introduction: tradition, definitions and concepts KEY FACTS RESPONSE Definition for youth work No Legal definition for youth work No Approximate length of youth work tradition Since the democratisation (Around 30 years ago) Approximate length of formal / professional youth work tradition No real tradition in formal youth work. However, social workers and social educators working for national, regional and (especially) local administrations deliver youth work. Overview of relative importance of youth work in supporting young people Increased Main sectors/fields of formal / professional / statutory youth work There is not a formal definition of youth work, so it is not applicable Main sectors / fields of non-formal / third sector led youth work Non-formal education and training, Culture, Sport, Volunteering, Social inclusion 1.1 Definitions The concept of youth work in Spain is wide, so it is not clearly limited and defined. The inexistence of a specific term for youth work or the lack of a translation of the concept into Spanish does not mean that youth work does not take place in the country. Interviewees gave a similar definition of what is youth work for them: the work that professionals from the public administration or the third sector do with young people. They also pointed out that youth work is the work done with young people especially in the field of non-formal education and based on non-formal learning. Its aim would be to ameliorate young peoples’ lives by encouraging their participation and integration in different spheres of society. Youth work in Spain, understood as working with and for young people, has a strong implantation in governments (national, regional and municipal) through public policies on youth for those between 15 and 30 years old. Governments support youth associations, organisations delivering youth services and social entities that work with young people. Interviewees felt that it would be positive to have a Spanish term or at least a formal definition of the concept, because without either of those it is difficult to develop and implement the right youth work policies, programmes or strategies. However, it was viewed as unlikely that a definition or a concept will emerge in Spain when youth policies are decreasing in importance because of the adverse economic context. Besides the economic crisis, finding a common definition is complicated in Spain because the Autonomous Communities have exclusive competence for youth and each can have its own definition or understanding of youth work. Although there is not an official definition of youth work in Spain, given the interviewees definition; in this report formal youth work will be the one delivered by professionals from the public administration at state, regional and local levels. Non- formal youth work will be represented by the third sector organisations, such as NGO’s or youth organisations which mainly work on a voluntary basis and can be financed 4 both through private or public funding- from Spanish public administration or other international organisations-. 1.2 Tradition and development of youth work In Spain, the tradition of youth work started with the transition to democracy (about 30 years ago), as during Franco’s dictatorship (from 1939 to 1975) youth work was either directed to indoctrinate young people or youth work was linked to religion, delivered by Christian youth associations and the Church. The associations that did not fall under the dictatorship umbrella were clandestine. Therefore, it has been since the introduction of democracy that youth work started to become important1. Article 48 of the Spanish Constitution (1978) states that "The public authorities shall promote the conditions for free and effective participation of youth in their political, social, economic and cultural development”2 The Spanish Institute for Youth (Injuve) was created in 1977, at the beginning of the democratic administration. In 1985 was restructured to assume the type of organisation that it is today. Injuve is the youth organisation of the Spanish government. Having, therefore, a nationwide reach; and though the youth competencies are in most cases in hands of the regional administrations, some important youth policies are implemented by Injuve, like those that have an international dimension or that touch to more than one region. Within the activities in which the Spanish Institute for Youth works are also ■ Coordination and management of the youth information services. ■ Coordination and management of state and international competencies for youth mobility, training and leisure through the European Youth Card. Injuve is also the Spanish national agency for the Youth in Action Programme and is responsible of its promotion and implementation. ■ Managing and exchange of international voluntary activities through the Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations. In 1983, the Spanish Youth Council was created by law in order to encourage the participation of youth in political, social, economic and cultural life. The Spanish Youth Council includes representatives from all the Youth Councils of the Autonomous Communities and youth organisations. The International Year of Youth (1985) was considered by Spanish literature3 and the interviewees as a key year in the development of youth policies and youth work in Spain. The International Year of Youth enabled an integral view of in the future of youth work during the upcoming years; both to plan the work of public administrations as well as NGOs and youth associations. In Spain, Youth is a competence of the Autonomous Communities. The process of transfer of the competence of youth to the Autonomous Communities (AC) from the Spanish State started in Catalonia in 1980 and ended in 1989 with the transfer to Asturias, Galicia, Valencia, Madrid and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Both the process of transfers to the regions and the process of democratic institutionalisation of youth policies in the Central Government were parallel events4. 1 See: http://www.cje.org/es/. Date accessed: 22th November 2012. 2 Tribunal Constitucional, Constitución Española, <http://www.tribunalconstitucional.es/en/constitucion/Pages/ConstitucionIngles.aspx> date accessed: 26th of November 2012. 3 Comas Arnau, D. (2007), Las políticas de juventud en la España democrática. Injuve. <http://www.injuve.es/observatorio/demografia-e-informacion-general/las-politicas-de- juventud-en-la-espana-democratica> date accessed: 27th of November 2012. 4 Ibid. 5 From this moment, Autonomous Communities were given exclusive responsibility for youth and they have developed their youth policy in line with their political priorities. At the same time, municipalities also have their own competences in developing youth policies and most of them have a specific department for youth. The rise of youth policies and youth work took place during the 1990s. Interviewees explained that from 2000, youth work has stabilised and in the last year and a half it has experienced constraints because of the economic crisis; especially formal youth work, but also informal youth work, because NGOs and youth associations mainly depend on public budgets to develop their activities. Currently, there is a greater emphasis on youth work actions leading to increased employment opportunities than on creativity, culture or youth participation and active citizenship. Some groups are targeted more because those sectors are more organised, such as disabled youth or young women. Other areas have changed their focus. In health, for instance, youth work used to be focused on eating disorders, HIV and unwanted pregnancy prevention. Now the primarily focus is non-desired pregnancies. In social inclusion the trend is to focus on remedial intervention and not on prevention. From formal youth work, the focus is also on the new information technologies and how to communicate to all young people and not only to those ones that belong to associations or NGOs5. The EU was viewed by all interviewees as a key driver in the development of youth work in Spain, especially in relation to the mobility initiatives. Given the negative economic situation in Spain, most of the interviewees stated that their hope is that the EU continues to value and give importance to youth work, because this can be the only way to move forward given the current budget cuts at national, regional and local levels. One interviewee stated that it is fundamental that the “EU obligates further steps at the national level to move forward”. There are some differences between rural and urban areas. In rural areas, demographics and the increasing elderly population has led to limited youth activities, most of them concern youth and childhood leisure. In urban areas, the activities developed by youth councils are mainly extracurricular educational and leisure, there is also a focus on information and consultancy on employment and sports but activities related with international youth exchanges are limited or non-existent. Moreover, budgets tend to be very small compared to the size of population they have to cover.