Write to Randa Kenge >>

Office of Social Affairs

Write to Stefan Batliner >>

Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Institute of Labour and Social Research

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’ (2012-14) 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” (2017-18) 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.

Write to Ruta Braziene >>

University of Luxembourg

Hannes Käckmeister is a research scientist at the Centre For Childhood and Youth Research (CCY) at the University of Luxembourg. He completed his doctoral thesis in 2021 as part of a joint doctoral programme between the Fribourg University of Education (Germany) and the University of Strasbourg (France), focusing on the reception and integration of unaccompanied minors. From 2021 to 2023, Hannes has been working as a lecturer and researcher at IAE Nancy School of Management (France).

His research interests lie mainly at the intersection of three areas: child protection and social welfare, international mobility and (forced) migration, and comparative public policy. In his current research project at the University of Luxembourg, he is working on the topic of young people (12-29 years) and digitalisation. Besides his research activities, Hannes worked as an expert for the EU Commission and as a legal advisor in a reception centre for young refugees in Strasbourg.

Write to Hannes Käckmeister 

Aġenzija Żgħażagħ

Write to Miriam Teuma 

Jason Zammit has been engaged with Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, the Maltese National Youth Agency, since 2010 where he currently serves as a senior manager focusing on research, strategy and youth policy implementation. A youth worker by profession, Jason holds a master's degree in public policy.

Write to Jason Zammit

Laura Rio has been a youth worker with Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, the Maltese National Youth Agency, since 2021. She forms part of the Youth Empowerment Unit.

Write to Laura Rio

Creative Development Association

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.

Write to Mariana Turcan >>

Ministry of Sports and Youth

Write to Martin Lulgjuraj >>

Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs

Sigrid Benjaminsen works as an advisor in the Norwegian Directorate of Children, Youth, and Family Affairs. In her department, she works on improving the conditions for upbringing and ensuring the rights of children and young people. Her areas of expertise include youth participation, inclusion in leisure activities, and children and young people growing up in low-income families. 

Sigrid holds a master's degree in sociology from the University of Oslo and has been working in the Directorate since 2022.

Write to Sigrid Benjaminsen >>

Polish Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps National Agency

Mateusz Jeżowski is a Research Unit coordinator at the Polish National Agency of Erasmus+ Programme and Youth Wiki national correspondent. Since 2006 he has been involved in research projects on youth, education and international mobility, with a special focus on transnational volunteering activities. He co-authored three books on youth policy in Poland and in the Eastern Europe and Caucasus countries and authored several research reports on international mobility impact on young people, local communities, youth organisations and schools. He is working on a PhD on social engagement of ex-EVS volunteers.

Write to Mateusz Jezowski >>

Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth (IPDJ)

Ana Cristina Garcia works in the Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth (IPDJ) with programmes 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.

Write to Ana Cristina Garcia >>

PhD in Political Sciences (Comparative European Youth Policies in Romania and Turkey), with extended expertise in grassroots youth work and youth work methodologies and practices, youth participation methodologies and inclusion policies. MA in Comparative European Social Studies (MACESS) at London Metropolitan University, holding a BA in Political Sciences and one in Social Work – University of Bucharest. Her research interests are in the field of social policies for young people, structured dialogue and participatory youth structures, youth led movements, as well as into the transfer mechanisms of European policies and programmes to the local realities. 

Write to Adina Marina Șerban >>

Ministry of Tourism and Youth

She is a specialist in school psychology, and she has been working at the Ministry of Tourism and Youth of Serbia as a adviser to the Minister for Youth Policy. Over 20 years of working experiences in the position of associate professor, and headmaster in primary and secondary schools in Belgrade. From 2001 to 2007 worked on following positions: Chief of the department for professional training in the Ministry of Education and Sport; Head of Centre for professional development of employees in education; project director of World Bank and Ministry of Education and sport project “Serbia Education Development Project”.

Over 16 years of working experiences in the field of youth policy in the Ministry in charge of youth, of which 10 years as Assistant Minister for Youth (from 2008 until retirement in 2018). Adviser to the Minister for Youth Policy from 2019.

Participant and speaker in many international conferences in the field of education and youth; authored many articles in professional publications; manager of many researching projects and teams in the education and youth fields; member of working groups and councils in the field of youth at the national and international level (Commission of the Republic of Serbia for Cooperation with UNESCO, European Steering Committee for Youth, Council of Europe, National Coordinator for Global Education, North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, Regional pool of experts, Youth Policy Lab on Youth unemployment and on Youth mental health RCC, etc.).

Write to Snežana Klašnja >>

Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Youth, Ministry of Education

Maja Skalar is a program officer, researcher, trainer and professional coach with over 15 years of experience in higher education and non-profit sectors in Austria, Hungary, Denmark, and Slovenia. She currently serves as the Program Officer of Open Society University Network (OSUN) Secretariat at Central European University (Vienna). She holds a BA degree in Policy Analysis and Public Administration from University of Ljubljana (2009) and an MA in Human Rights (Department of Legal Studies) from Central European University (2010).

After implementing human rights education projects with Amnesty International Slovenia, Zavod Voluntariat, and International People’s College in Denmark, Maja joined CEU in 2011 as a Research Fellow at Human Rights Initiative. She also worked in a Professional Development Unit of School of Public Policy, and as an Internship Coordinator at Department of Public Policy. Between 2013 and 2020 she managed higher education support programs (Modular Doctorate Program, Visiting Research Fellowship, Yehuda Elkana Center's projects in Myanmar), and in 2020 she joined the newly established OSUN Secretariat and serves as grant management, HR and financial administrative support to more than 20 ongoing OSUN financed CEU projects (individually managing 9 projects). 

Maja’s research interests include Roma rights (MA thesis on “Access to Pre-school Education for Roma Children in Slovenia”), Roma-integration policies (author of 2019 and 2020 Slovenia reports on implementation of the national Roma integration strategy under the Roma Civil Monitoring project supported by the EC), and youth policies (researcher on the 2023 interim evaluation of the European Union Youth Strategy for Slovenia). 

Write to Maja Skalar >>

Department of Youth, Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic

Write to Peter Papšo >>

The Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society (MUCF)

Write to Katarina Falk >>

Coalition of youth organisations 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.

Write to Tomislav Gajtanoski >>

Netherlands Youth Institute (NJi)

Write to Caroline Vink >>

Civil society organization: The initiative center to support social action “Ednannia”

Iryna holds a master’s degrees in Public Administration and International Relations. She has extensive experience in youth policy development. Over the past nine years she was Head of Youth policy department at the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine. She coordinated the work on the development and approval of the National Youth Strategy 2030, State Target Programs “Youth of Ukraine” for 2016-2020 and 2021-2025. She also represented Ukraine in the Council of Europe Steering Committee on Youth (2015-2023), chaired the Programming Committee on Youth of the Council of Europe (CPJ) in 2017, and was Deputy chair of the Programming Committee on Youth of the Council of Europe in 2016.

Iryna is currently working at the civil society organization “The Initiative Center to Support Social Action “Ednannia”.

Write to Iryna Bieliaieva >>