The 2022 edition of International Youth Day, as organised by the United Nations, shines a spotlight on the concept of intergenerational solidarity. Particular emphasis is placed today on ageism which impacts both young and old, while having detrimental effects on society as a whole.
“Young people continue to report age-related barriers in various spheres of their lives such as employment, political participation, health and justice. On an individual level, these age-related obstacles can deeply impact wellbeing and livelihoods not only during the youth years, but also in adulthood. On a societal level, ageism prevents us from thinking and designing policies and social services that adopt a life-course approach and are fair for all ages.”
United Nations Global Report on Ageism, March 2021
To coincide with International Youth Day, and reflecting on the theme, we (re)introduce you to the work of three COST Actions who are working to support the position and voices of young people, ensuring that no one is left behind.
YOUNG-IN
CA17114 – Transdisciplinary solutions to cross sectoral disadvantage in youth (YOUNG-IN) aims to understand the interrelationship of disadvantages that young people across Europe face in the process of entering the adulthood and how policies can mitigate this negative spill-over effect. Specifically, circumstances and factors that prevent young people from: finding a decent job; starting a family when they want; making their voice heard in the policy processs.
Based on transdisciplinary knowledge on disadvantages it is possible to propose relevant policy interventions to tackle such situations and eventually to reduce risk of social exclusion. The Action works to better understand how the approach to social investment and relevant policy interventions can be applied to young people without bringing about increase in inequality.
“Ageism at the labour market is a well-known problem – young people sometime find it hard to get a job because their lack of work experience makes employers reluctant to hire them. In YOUNG-IN we have discovered, that besides such reluctant attitudes, structural premises for ageism exist. Most of the current European welfare system relies on stable and permanent standard work contracts – the longer the period of contribution, the better your social security. These principles are not well suited to young people who often swing between work and studies, studies and childbearing, or just hop on and off from employment to discover the world. In YOUNG-IN we work on evidence based suggestions to redesign the welfare systems in such a way that these will better serve young people’s needs in health care, in transition from education to employment, in basic income security and in housing affordability.”
Prof Anu Toots, Chair of YOUNG-IN
EurofamNet
CA18123 – The European Family Support Network. A bottom-up, evidence-based and multidisciplinary approach (EurofamNet) proposes the creation of a Pan-European family support network, under which family support and parenting policies are included, combining both common goals across countries and the recognition of the specificities of cultural and families’ contexts.
The Action is building collaborative pathways between researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, children and families, public and private agencies, and general society to create the necessary framework that allows to inform family policies and practices with the underlying goal of ensuring children’s rights and families’ well-being.
RNYN
CA18213 – Rural NEET Youth Network: Modeling the risks underlying rural NEETs social exclusion (RNYN) is looking at the factors that affect young, rural NEETs (Not in Employment, Education or Training) and how their inclusion can contribute to sustainable development in Europe’s rural regions
RNYN aims to develop a model of comprehension for rural NEETs’ social exclusion risk and protective factors based on the bioecological model. It focuses on three specific goals: 1. upholding future research capability (with an emphasis on Early Career Investigators (ECI) and Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC)); 2. creating a rural NEETs’ online observatory; and 3. fostering knowledge use by policy makers and practitioners.