Aġenzija Żgħażagħ was officially presented to young people yesterday. The setting up of this agency has been envisaged in the National Youth Policy that was launched last year. In fact this policy calls for an agency that develops action plans and mobilises resources to implement the same policy. The Agency is empowered to carry out the mainstreaming of youth policy into all other government policies. In other words, to ensure that young people and their aspirations are reflected in policies and projects across the various sectors, be it education, employment, health or any other sector.
Aġenzija Żgħażagħ will be safeguarding the interests and reflecting the aspirations, as indicated in the National Youth Policy, of no less than 100,000 young people living in Malta and Gozo, 25 per cent of the total population!
The development of
youth service in Malta
Maltese youth work has its origins in the activities of the Catholic Church and its voluntary organisations. Since the beginning of the 20th century, entities such as the Society of Christian Doctrine, the Catholic Action and the Salesians, in parallel with the Scouts Association and the Girl Guides, have been concerned with providing services through which adults could reach young people and keep them connected to the Church and the family. They worked for the same cause using different methodologies and they were all committed to youth formation and character building. Such organisations initiated the youth service in Malta and as a result grounded youth affairs as significant for further investment. The 1960s brought about parish-based youth centres run by the Church in parallel with the Youth Services Organisation (YSO) developed by the Education Authority of the time.
The parish centres still aimed at Catholic formation but with a different methodology. They opened their centres as drop in clubs where young people could have a drink and play indoor games or football while at the same time participate in weekly formation meetings organised by a priest of the parish. These centres were complemented with some focused work where retreats were run for groups of young people in a residential retreat centre. Diocesan Youth Service was later introduced to assist the local parishes, train local volunteers and organise large events like Festa Żgħażagħ.
Concurrently the Youth Services Organisation (YSO) catered for extra-curricular activities for students. Throughout the years YSO developed its services within the Education Department and in the 1970s it started to organise youth exchanges between Malta and other countries to encourage young people’s mobility and strengthen language practice. YSO made use of Villa Psaigon and the Marsaxlokk Hostel to deliver non-formal education programmes during school hours.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the first Parliamentary Secretariat for Youth, Culture, Sport and Consumer Protection set up a forum where young people were asked to express their views on how they wished to strengthen the National Youth Service. As a result, the first National Youth Conference was held in 1991. The National Conference called upon the government to establish a National Youth Council to represent and thus strengthen young people’s voice.
In 1993 the Ministry for Youth and Arts published the first Maltese Youth Policy. The emphasis was on the involvement of the National Youth Council, youth organisations and young people in the decision making process. The Maltese National Youth Policy was reviewed and revised in 1998, 2003 and more recently in 2009.
The University of Malta agreed to a request by the Ministry for Youth and Arts to establish an Institute of Youth Studies to train those working in the youth field. In 1993 the Institute offered the first Bachelor’s degree course in Youth and Community Studies and has continued to offer this course on a yearly basis. In the past years the Institute became a Department within the Faculty of Education and it is now providing both graduate and post graduate degrees in Youth and Community Studies.
The launch of Aġenzija Żgħażagħ: Moving with the times
As evident the volunteers’ involvement in this sector was and remains of utmost importance while their sterling contributions together with those of my predecessors, especially Michael Frendo and Jesmond Mugliett, are indeed the foundations that allow us to move on with confidence.
Youth work and non-formal education have developed in such a way that they need a modern organisational structure. Ad hoc youth exchanges have been replaced by exchanges organised through the Youth in Action and the Life Long Learning Programmes that offer youth mobility. Youth Information needs to go beyond the directory of youth organisations and include adequate structure where young people can have easy access to the relevant information. Youth Support has evolved from the initial financial handouts to young people, and Youth Empowerment Programmes have gone further than the youth empowerment centres set up in conjunction with local councils.
Non-formal education is considered to be one that gives young people the possibility to develop their values, skills and competencies other than the ones developed in the framework of formal education. These ‘soft skills’ include a wide range of competencies such as organisational and conflict management, intercultural awareness, leadership, planning, organising, co-ordination and practical problem solving skills, teamwork, self-confidence, discipline and responsibility.
Supporting youth organisations
The Youth Agency is envisaged to support youth and youth organisations and as such will be working in full cooperation with the National Youth Council, youth organisations and a number of potential partners. Above all it will strive to work closely with young people to reflect their aspirations and to help them o achieve their maximum potential. Putting it in simple terms, we are set to provide opportunities for our youth because we believe in their capabilities.