European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy (EKCYP)

The European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy is a youth research Partnership activity between the Council of Europe and the European Commission.
It is a state of the art knowledge management system that provides youth policy makers and other interested stakeholders such as youth workers, youth NGO’s and youth researchers with a single entry point to retrieve accurate up-to-date research based information in a user friendly manner on the realities of youth across Europe.

The initial launch of the European Knowledge Centre pilot project has taken place during the Luxembourg Presidency Conference on 16-18 June 2005 on the topic of a Better Understanding of Youth. The EKCYP was then presented at the Council of Europe’s Youth Ministers conference, September 2005, Budapest.

The European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy serves as a tool in the implementation of the Common Objectives on a Greater Understanding and Knowledge of Youth and for the monitoring of youth policy. In the first period, the data base was focussed on the four youth priorities - youth participation, youth voluntary activities, youth information and provision for a better understanding of youth - to which the youth Open Method of Coordination (OMC) is applied. In a second phase the scope will widen.

Correspondents:

The EKCYP is supported by a European wide network of European Knowledge Centre correspondents who were nominated by the EU and the Council of Europe Member States’ national youth ministries. Correspondents have now been nominated for almost all EU countries.

The correspondents' mission is to collect each year up-to-date information and data on youth policy in their country and to input this data directly into the EKCYP's data base tools which are:

Questionnaires on the four youth priorities that enable users to find out what exists or is being developed in participating countries in these topics. Search engines enable a comparison by year within the same country on a specific issue (e.g. number of young people participating in youth organisations, actions to support participation of young people in institutions of representative democracy…). They also allow for comparison on replies given by several countries on a specific question.

Each correspondent also fills in a “youth policy country information sheet” that informs on national youth policy related issues such as name and contacts of Minister and ministries in charge of youth, existing legislation, budgets, programmes, upcoming events or new developments in each country.

The data base also contains a glossary of words commonly used in the youth field and a good practice section to facilitate exchange of positive experience amongst countries and inform other interested users. It also features news from policy and research on youth policy priority topics and pages of background information.

Links:

• Youth Knowledge Network
• Youth Partnership Network