The European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy (EKCYP) Correspondents
The EKCYP is supported by a European wide network of European Knowledge Centre correspondents nominated by the member states ministries.
The correspondents draft country sheets on national youth policies and answer questionnaires on the topics of Participation, Information, Voluntary Activities and a Better Understanding of Youth. The results can be found in the section country information of the EKCYP. he answers to the questionnaires are either quantitative (e.g. the numbers of young people who belong to youth organisations, the number of people who vote in elections and the number of young people) or qualitative (e.g. measures to foster voluntary activities, actions that have been taken this year on the different topics and methods for increasing citizenship).
The EKCYP correspondents
Reports of the EKCYP correspondents meetings
- 14th meeting. 20 September 2018 (joint meeting of the PEYR and of the EKCYP correspondents)
- 13th meeting. 19 September 2017 (joint meeting of the PEYR and of the EKCYP correspondents)
- 12th meeting 5-9 September 2016 (joint meeting of the PEYR and of the EKCYP correspondents)
- 11th meeting. 16-17 September 2015
- 10th meeting. 25 November 2014
- 9th meeting. 1 October 2013
- 8th meeting. October 2012
- 7th meeting. October 2011
- Joint Meeting of the European Network of Youth Researchers and the EKCYP Correspondents. January 2010
- 6th meeting. November 2010
- 5th meeting. March 2009
- 4th meeting. October 2008
- 3rd meeting. February 2008
- 2nd meeting. October 2007
- 1st meeting. September 2006
Armenia
Lilit AVDALYAN
Youth Studies Institute of Armenia
Lilit Avdalyan is a sociologist and senior analyst at Youth Studies Institute of Armenia where she has contributed through analysis, writing and coordination to the following projects: Youth Employment Potential and Development Perspectives in Creative Economy (2018); Monitoring and Evaluation on 2013-2017 Strategy of State Youth Policy of the Republic of Armenia” (2017); Research on Youth Work and Youth Worker (2016), Study on Labour Market demand: Institutionalization Perspectives of employer-youngster-education institution cooperation(2015), Mapping of Youth Organizations in Armenia and Effectiveness Evaluation on state-funded grant projects (2014) and The Issues of Youth Employment in the RA (2013).
Lilit holds an MA in Sociological Research Methodology from Yerevan State University. Her MA thesis focused on Students’ perceptions of the functional meaning of assessment systems. Previously Lilit was involved in Students’ Voice initiative by the National Center for Professional Education Quality Assurance Foundation (ANQA), and participated in Armenian Features of Higher Education. Survey among Students research project conducted among 17 Higher Education Institutions in Armenia. Lilit is also founder of social network IV Club (I am a volunteer) which aims to disseminate expert knowledge. She truly believes that digitalisation can facilitate knowledge access in the world and that research has a great role to play in shaping right policy responses.
lilithavdalyan@gmail.com
Albania
Jehona ROKA
Austria
Mr Manfred ZENTNER
Donau-Universität Krems
I studied Mathematics and Philosophy but work as a youth researcher since 1997. My main fields of interest are youth cultures, political participation of young people as well as attitudes and values. Furthermore I am active in evaluation studies on youth policy and on the implementation of preventive concepts and health promotion in youth work.
From 1997 to 1999 I was researcher at the Austrian Institute for Youth Research where I became scientific director in 2000. From 2001 to 2013 I worked in the fields of research and knowledge transfer at the private research organisation jugendkultur.at in Vienna. Since 2013 I am engaged at the Danube-University Krems in the Department for Migration and Globalization as researcher and lecturer. Furthermore I am lecturer at various teacher training colleges in Austria.
Already in the late 1990s I was involved in the network of experts on youth research and one of the national correspondents for the EKCYP since its start.
In the year 2007 I was raporteur in the Council of Europe international review team for the national youth policy in Hungary and four years later for the international review of the youth policy in Belgium.
manfred.zentner@donau-uni.ac.at
Azerbaijan
Mr Farhad HAJIYEV
Youth Foundation under the Ministry of Youth and Sport
Belarus
Mr Andrei SALIKAU
Youth Policy and Sociocultural Communication Department of the National Institute for Higher Education of the Republic of Belarus
I am an Associate Professor (PhD in Culturology) of the Youth Policy and Sociocultural Communication Department of the National Institute for Higher Education, Minsk, Belarus.
As an Associate Professor I carry out teaching, organizing and methodical activities; participate in scientific and scientifically popular researches in Youth field; took part in Workshops, Webinars and Trainings for Youth; manage some international Youth programs and projects, coordinate cooperation with local youth public organizations.
In cooperation with colleagues I worked-out the Training Program «Organization work with youth» and obtained a Diploma on “Organization work with youth” with the conferred qualification of “Specialist in work with youth” (2009) .
I worked-out and participated in many national and international program and projects such as National forum of specialists in the sphere of youth work (October 2015, Minsk, Belarus). The aim of the Forum – exposure and presentation the best practices and innovation technologies in Youth work. EPYRU Country Workshop «Supporting Capacity Development in the Youth Sector» Minsk, October 2014. The main aims of the Seminar were: to examine the current status of youth workers’ training, as well as training and in-service training of public authorities’ staff dealing with youth policy in Eastern Partnership countries.
My specific research interests include: state youth policy (development and implementation); international youth cooperation; youth healthy lifestyle; youth quality of life; youth wellbeing; financial literacy and economic culture for youth; social protection of youth in the Republic of Belarus.
Belgium (Flemmish speaking community)
Ms Lieve BRADT
Ghent University, Department of Social Welfare Studies
Dr. Lieve Bradt graduated in 2005 as master in Educational Sciences and obtained her PhD in Educational Sciences at Ghent University with a dissertation on ‘Victim-offender mediation as a social work practice. A comparison between mediation for young and adult offenders in Flanders’ (2009). Since 2010 she is a post-doctoral assistant at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University. In 2012 she became the project coordinator of the Youth Research Platform, a policy research centre subsidized by the Flemish Government. The Youth Research Platform is an interdisciplinary and interuniversity cooperation between Ghent University (social work and social pedagogy), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (sociology) and KU Leuven (youth criminology). The Youth Research Platform’s main tasks are (1) expanding our knowledge on youth by drawing up an inventory of existing youth research in both a national and international context, and (2) recurrently conducting large-scale survey research on the life-conditions, attitudes and activities of young people in Flanders. Her research interests focus on restorative justice, leisure participation, formal and informal support, youth care, school-work transitions and school wellbeing.
Belgium (French speaking community)
Ms Lorise Moreau
Ministère de la Communauté française - Observatoire de l'Enfance, de la Jeunesse et de l'Aide à la Jeunesse
Lorise Moreau is a researcher at the Observatoire de l’enfance, de la jeunesse et de l’Aide à la Jeunesse (Observatory of childhood, youth and youth care) at the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (french-speaking part of Belgium). Before she worked 10 years at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL-Belgium) in the fields of demography and sociology on various policy-related topics. She also taught basic and advanced quantitative data analysis and demographic analysis at the UCL. Actually her domains of interest are public policies analysis and evaluation, youth policy, youth care, non takeup of social rights.
Ms Julie De Wilde
Ministère de la Communauté française - Observatoire de l'Enfance, de la Jeunesse et de l'Aide à la Jeunesse
Julie De Wilde is a sociologist who has worked as an academic researcher in UCL (Université catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve) for almost six years. She works now at the Observatoire de l’enfance, de la jeunesse et de l’Aide à la Jeunesse (Observatory of childhood, youth and youth care) since 2014. The Observatory is part of the Ministry of the french-speaking Community Governement. Its works consists on generating studies and datas in this specific field. It’s also in charge of the evaluation of different decrees concerning public policies on childhood and youth.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mr Jasmin JASAREVIC
PRONI Centre for youth development
Child Protection officer in PRONI Brcko, an “A”, “B” and “B+” level certified educator and General Manager of the PRONI Center for Youth Development. He has served on the national BH Commission for youth since 2006. He holds several Training of Trainers certificates focused on youth worker trainings, with a focus on engaging youth in conflict mitigation activities. Jasmin was involved in youth policy and youth work development since 1998. Jasmin is currently engage as a Correspondent for Youth Policy Development from BiH within a program of the European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy (EKCYP). He was the first trainer from BiH to be included in the online list of trainers of the SALTO-YOUTH Resource youth center, and is also a President of the Management Board of Anna Lindh foundation - BiH Network and a previous member of the Executive Board of the US Alumni Association Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 2012, Jasmin is BIH Country Director for YouthBuild International.
Bulgaria
Correspondent to be confirmed
Croatia
Mr Marko KOVACIC
Institute for Social Research
Marko Kovacic is a youth researcher seated at the Institute for Social Research where he is affiliated to the Center for Youth and Gender Studies. Currently, he is a visiting fresearch ellow at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona where he studies youth political participation.
Marko’s education include PhD in (youth) public policy at the University of Ljubljana (ongoing), an MA in public policy at the University of Zagreb and an MA program in political science at Central European University, Budapest. Marko’s research focus is on youth policy, particularly non-formal political participation of young people in the post-socialist context, youth political competency and youth work. He has been publishing papers on those and similar issues in domestic and international journals and presented his findings in more than 20 international conferences.
Apart from the academic career, for more than 10 years Marko has been an active member and a trainer in various civil society organizations and initiatives, focusing on youth and educational issues. Hence, he is a national correspondent on youth policy for the European Knowledge Center for Youth Policy, administrated by the Youth Partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Commission. Marko has worked as a consultant and evaluator for numerous international organizations on topic of youth and education. In addition, he is a youth research methodology lecturer at the Youth Studies programme in Croatia.
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Ms Zdeňka Mašková
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
Zdenka Maskova is the head of Youth Policy Unit of Youth Department, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. In her academic career she moved from secondary education to in-service teacher training education and to youth work, while the focus of her interest remains youth policy. She participated in writing of several youth policy papers in the Czech Republic, is a co-author of the National Youth Policy for the period 2007 – 2013 and the main author of the National Youth Policy for the period 2014 – 2020. Her main youth policy development areas are: non-formal education, social inclusion, participation and learning mobility. She has an extensive experience in cross-sectorial youth policy development. She took part in a couple of European peer-learning activities on youth policy and was member of numerous expert groups of European Commission as well as advisory groups of the Council of Europe.
zdenka.maskova@msmt.cz
Estonia
Ms Mai BEILMANN
University of Tartu
Mai Beilmann holds PhD in sociology and she is currently a research fellow in Social Policy at the Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia. Her research interests include youth studies, civic participation, social capital, (social) trust, and cultural values. Her interest in youth field dates back to 2003, when Mai became voluntary youth worker in one small open youth centre in Tartu. She became actively involved in youth research already during her master studies in 2006 when she was doing fieldwork for the project “The Socio-economic Scope of Youth Work in Europe”. Since then Mai has contributed to the youth research through various (applied) research projects focusing mainly on youth work and youth workers, assessment of different youth programmes, and educational inequalities. Her latest research is related to her participation in Horizon 2020 project CATCH-EyoU and focuses on youth civic participation, youth organisations, and interpretations of youth civic engagement and youth policies. Mai has published on youth related topics in scholarly journals as well as in youth work related publications and in Estonian public media.
Finland
Mr Tomi Kiilakoski
Finnish Youth Research Society
Tomi Kiilakoski, PhD, is a senior researcher in the Finnish Youth Research Network and an adjunct professor in the University of Tampere. His areas of expertise include youth work, youth participation, educational policy, school violence and its prevention, cultural philosophy and critical pedagogy. He has worked in the university of Tampere and Humak University of Applied Sciences. He has authored eight books on youth work, youth participation and critical pedagogy in his native language, Finnish. He engages actively in promoting participation and developing youth work on the local and state level in Finland.
tomi.kiilakoski@nuorisotutkimus.fi
France
Virginia Mangematin
Ministère de la ville, de la jeunesse et des sports - adjointe du bureau des relations internationales et en charge du suivi du Conseil de l'Europe
virginia.mangematin@jeunesse-sports.gouv.fr
Janaina Paisley
Ministry of National Education, Department of youth, non-formal education and voluntary organisations.
Janaïna Paisley is policy officer in the field of public policies especially social and youth policies. Her background is in sociology (Sociology of the State), history and political sciences. She is also the national correspondent for the European data base Youth Wiki.
Janaina.PAISLEY@jeunesse-sports.gouv.fr
Georgia
Kartlos Karumidze
Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport
kkarumidze@mes.gov.ge
Germany
Ms Susanne KLINZING
IJAB - Fachstelle für Internationale Jugendarbeit der Bundesrepublik Deutschland e.V
I hold a master's degree in Slavonic and British / American Studies obtained at the University of Potsdam including a one-year-stay at the Russian University of Rostov/Don. I have worked as a freelancer for Eurodesk and later on continued my professional career at IJAB – International Youth Service of the Federal Republic of Germany. I call myself an information and content manager. I am in charge of gathering information on youth policy and youth work in different countries providing it at different websites run by IJAB.
I have been part of the network of national correspondents for the EKCYP since its beginning in 2005. In 2015 I joined the network of national Youth Wiki correspondents. My working languages are German, English and Spanish.
My leisure time is divided between a Cuban salsa rueda group and salsa classes, voluntary work, being a baseball mom, travelling and reading.
Greece
Ms Briseida DOKOU
Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, General Secretariat for Youth
Hungary
Correspondent to be confirmed
Ireland
Mr Maurice DEVLIN
Italy
Lucio d'Amore
Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, Dipartimento della Gioventù e del Servizio Civile Nazionale
Lucio d’Amore works at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Department of Youth and National Civic Service. He holds degrees in Political Sciences, Italian Literature and Foreign Languages and Literature at the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples. He has been Professor in High School and has completed various specializations in international relations in Rome. As ministerial official he has worked for the Ministry of Culture, the Department of Performing Arts and the Department of Tourism. He was seconded twice as National Expert to the European Commission, from 1991 to 1994 (Environment Directorate-General) and from 2000 to 2004 (Enterprise Directorate-General), where he dealt with issues related to the promotion of sustainable development, the enhancement of natural and cultural heritage, the quality management, the social and cultural tourism, the international cooperation.
Maria Luisa Silvestrini
Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Department of Youth and National Civil Service
Latvia
Gints KLASONS
Social Processes Analyses Agency
I have obtained the master degree in sociology in the University of Latvia in the year 2003. Since 2001 I have worked in the research field and through all these years I have obtained the extensive experience and sound knowledge on the elaboration of research studies, methodological tools of data collection, different approaches to data analysis and other issues concerning organization of research work and data analyses, and elaboration of recommendations for use of data and information. Since 2007 I am the member of the Latvian Sociological Association. Over the past ten years I have mostly worked on management of projects for state and local government institutions (ministries, local governments, state agencies, etc.), including elaboration of studies, political recommendations and consultations in such areas as culture, creative industries, youth, education, regional development, social inclusion, business environment etc.
Since 2007 I am regularly involved in evaluation projects of youth policy and youth work of Latvia and in consultations on development of youth policy for state and local government institutions. Since the year 2010 I elaborate the annual assessment of youth policy implementation in Latvia for the Ministry of Education and Science, results of which are used in developing action plan of youth policy for each following year. I am regularly involved in researching youth field at national and municipality level, working with topics such as youth policy monitoring, early school leaving, youth work in municipalities, youth political participation, youth work contribution to quality of life of young people, social inclusion of young people, quality of children alternative care, and many more. During last 3 years I work extensively with municipalities – consulting in youth policy development issues and doing evaluations of youth policy and youth work efficiency.
Liechtenstein
Daniela CLAVADETSCHER
Lithuania
Ruta Braziene holds a PhD in Social Sciences (Sociology). She is Chief Researcher at the Lithuanian Research Centre, Labour Market Research Institute. Her areas of expertise include youth transition from the education to the labour market, youth labour market integration, youth social exclusion and living conditions, housing provision for the youth, youth policies development and evaluation and etc. She held a research grant and was a Chief Researcher –project leader “Transition of Youth from Education to the Labour Market in Lithuania: development of monitoring system’ (2012-2014) from Lithuanian Science Council. She holds a research grant and is a Chief Researcher –project leader “Housing Provision for the Youth: Processes, Problems and Solutions in Lithuania” (2017-2018) from Lithuanian Science Council. She has written and published monographs, articles and reports on youth: for example: “Transition of Lithuanian youth from education to the labour market: theoretical presumptions and empirical evidence” (2013, ISI Web of Science, in Lithuanian), “Youth and Housing in Lithuania: Different Opportunities, Pathways and Challenges” (2018, monograph, in Lithuanian).
She has more than 20 years of scholarly and practical experience with Universities, local Governments and NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe, the United Nations (UN) and the European Commission, as well as more than 8 years of experience of ESF evaluations.
Luxembourg
Mr Andreas HEINEN
University of Luxembourg
Andreas Heinen is researcher at the University of Luxembourg. He has many years of experience in both quantitative and qualitative youth research. His primary research interests are youth transitions, migration and social reporting. He is co-author of the luxembourgish youth report and involved in many local and national youth research projects.
Malta
Moldova (Republic of)
Mrs Mariana TURCAN
Currently, Mariana Turcan is the Executive Director of Creative Development Association. She has a good experience in the youth sector, she was the President of the National Youth Council Moldova (2003-2005), Bureau Member of the European Youth Forum (2005-2006), trainer and co-ordinator of different projects, member in different committees and working groups at national and international level etc.
Montenegro
Norway
Mr Ørjan Bergan
The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth, and Family Affairs (Bufdir)
Ørjan Bergan is a social scientist, and a researcher.
His background is in political science, moral philosophy, antropology, and social psychology. He graduated with an MA at the University of Chicago in 2010, and is currently working on his PhD project.
Ørjan Bergan specializes in identity formation analysis, and relational explanatory models to discrimination.
Mr. Bergan has previously worked as an advisor at the National Service for Special Needs Education (Statped) in Oslo Norway, and as a facilitator with the 2012-trial, following the terrorist attacks at Utoya and in Oslo in 2011.
Ørjan Bergan is also the National Correspondent for Youth Wiki.
orjan.bergan@bufdir.no bergan@uchicago.edu
Poland
Correspondent to be confirmed
Portugal
Ms Ana Cristina GARCIA
Ana Cristina Garcia works in the Sport and Youth Portuguese Institute with programs and projets connected with free time and volunteering. She belongs also to the team of Lisbon Youth Centre where she is the responsible for non informal education, democarcy, citizenship and social inclusion. For a long time she is a trainer for trainers in Portuguese language.
Romania
Irina Drexler, PhD, has a BA in English Language and Literature and Japanese Language and Literature, an MA in British Cultural Studies and a PhD in linguistics, with a focus on pragmatics, rhetoric and (critical) discourse analysis, in 2013 having been awarded an academic scholarship as visiting PhD candidate at the University of Vienna.
During her studies she was actively involved in educational projects for youth, quality assurance and policy writing activities at local and national level in the academic and NGO environment. Through her work within the Faculty Council, University Senate, University Administrative Bureau, University Senate Bureau and other decisional fora she gained more than 8 years’ experience in academic management and in drafting concise recommendations, regulations amendments and policy papers.
Observing the trend of resorting to digital tools for humanities research, she is one of the founding members (http://digihubb.centre.ubbcluj.ro/team/drexler.php) of the first digital humanities research centre in Romania (Transylvania Digital Humanities Research Centre – DigiHUBB), within Babeş-Bolyai University. She has also been involved in the coordination of a linguistics book, helped the editorial team of two academic journals and has been working as a sworn translator.
Keen on combining her academic background with her research work and civic engagements, she has been involved in national and international project-based activities organized in the framework of the No Hate Speech Movement (http://www.coe.int/en/web/no-hate-campaign) initiated by the Council of Europe. She is currently the national campaign coordinator of the No Hate Speech Movement in Romania.
Having in view the role of youth in preventing and combating violent extremism and radicalisation, and the importance of (critical) discourse analysis and rhetoric, she became interested in tackling hate speech through counter and alternative narratives. Working on and with social media platforms, she also became interested in Internet Governance. Thus, in 2016 she was asked to join the organizing team of workshop 1 on media and content for the EuroDIG event in Brussels, hosted by EURid in cooperation with the European Commission and the Council of Europe, while in 2017, together with the European coordinator of the No Hate Speech Movement, she is co-managing the process of organizing Plenary 2 on Internet in the post-truth era, for the same event, held in Tallinn.
@IrinaDrexler
Russian Federation
Olga Popova
Serbia
Correspondent to be confirmed
Slovenia
Barbara ZUPAN
Slovak Republic
Ivan HROMADA
Spain
Correspondent to be confirmed
Sweden
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Mr Tomislav GAJTANOSKI
Coalition of youth organizations SEGA
Tomislav holds bachelor degree in Public Administration and has extensive experience in youth policy development over the past 9 years. He was consultant in the preparation of the National Youth Strategy 2016 – 2025, and holds expertise and extensive knowledge in youth participation. Additionally, Tomislav holds expertise in continuous research process on the right to participation of children and youth and expertise in Results Based Approach in PCM. He is an author of several publications such as the Youth Participation Manual, Lobbying Advocacy Manual, Creating Local Youth Policies manual and Report on Monitoring of child rights.
The Netherlands
Correspondent to be confirmed
Turkey
Correspondent to be confirmed
Ukraine
Ms Anna Оstrikova
Researcher at the Department of civil education of youth, State Institute for Family and Youth Policy (from 2014)
Research interest:Volunteering, evidence-baced youth policy, civic education, non-formal education methods, professional competence of youth workers, project management in the youth field.
My professional goals are to provide development of evidence-baced youth policy and to make researches on youth interesting and understandable for the young people directly.
During the years 2014-2015 took part in researches on the topic:
Social exclusion and social inclusion of young people in Ukraine, Institutionalization of civic participation of young people in the process of modernization of Ukraine, National and patriotic consciousness of the Ukrainian youth: the criteria and mechanisms of formation.
I also participates in the preparation of annual reports to the President of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the situation of young people.
I have a successful experience of the cooperation with public autorities and NGO's in the field of youth policy.