Integrity in youth work

1. In recent years, the theme of integrity in youth work has increasingly taken a prominent spot on the social and policy agenda. The Department of Culture, Youth and Media wants to further substantiate this theme with research so that youth work organisations and policymakers have access to high-quality data to make informed decisions regarding the theme of integrity.

Many initiatives have already taken place within subsidized youth work to ensure a safe environment for children and young people, e.g., participatory youth work, appointment of Integrity Contact Persons, etc. Nevertheless, there remains uncertainty about how an integrity policy is currently implemented in practice, which measures are effective in creating a safe environment, and how organizations deal with reports/cases or breaches of integrity. Therefore, in the current study we will conduct a literature review followed by a mixed-method approach to answer the following research questions:

• What does an integrity policy in subsidised youth work look like in practice today? What similarities/differences can we detect, and can these be linked to a particular form of youth work (e.g,. youth movement, youth welfare work, cultural education organisation, etc.)?

• What actions are organisations taking in the development, implementation, recording and evaluation of their integrity policies?

• What integrity violations/reports are organizations confronted with? What is picked up by whom? How/where are reports recorded? Who provides what response?

• What recommendations can be made to the youth organizations on the one hand and to the legislator on the other? How can the sector (including internal and external partners) organise itself optimally so that it can respond to the questions and expectations of children and young people, parents and volunteers?

• To what extent do the current regulations support the sector in drawing up and implementing its integrity policy?

Throughout the entire project, a participatory approach will be used in which stakeholders from policy, youth work organizations and intermediary organizations are systematically involved.