A handbook for youth workers on participatory methods for monitoring and evaluation of learning activities has been published as part of the Tool M&E Up!  Erasmus+ project., The handbook is available to download for free from the resource section on Kopin's website (www.kopin.org).

The Handbook is of particular use for youth workers, other professionals and volunteers engaging in activities with young people. It presents a number of evaluation methodologies aimed at assessing the impact of educational activities on young people. It has been developed in a participatory way in collaboration with youth workers from nine different countries.

Since 2014, the Youth Work Profession Act has recognised youth work as a profession, regulating the work of youth workers and determining the qualification and conditions to acquire the recognition. According to the Youth Work Profession Act (Ch. 533 of the Laws of Malta), youth work is a non-formal learning activity aimed at personal and social development of young people. Youth workers support young people at community level, supporting the realisation of their full potential and addressing life challenges and opportunities.

Kopin, the Maltese partner of the project Tool M&E Up!, engaged with Maltese youth workers who took part in a training seminar held in Busteni (Romania) in May 2017. The training has provided the youth workers with knowledge about the evaluation methods presented in the Handbook, which have then been tested at national level within their day-to-day educational work.

The results of the testing phase have been shared in September 2017, in a seminar which took place in Gabrovo (Bulgaria). During the event, youth workers from Malta, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey and the United Kingdom shared their experiences and contributed to the contents of the booklet.

Maltese youth workers who took part in the experience have summed up the importance of such process and the availability of such tool, stating that "monitoring and evaluation is found in every project penned yet it is implemented frugally. The wealth of information and energy monitoring and evaluation is vital not merrily for the organisation implementing the tool, but it enhances the quality of youth work being delivered. This, in turn, will get the young people involved to think critically. The non-formal approach embraced in the monitoring and evaluation tool makes it a unique medium for active social change."

Through a participatory monitoring and evaluation approach, individuals and communities critically analyse the world around them and identify practical actions to create the world they wish to see. Critical to this approach is regular open dialog and honest reflection at each stage to determine if the underlying assumptions, strategies and actions are moving the community towards their vision.