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Background
It was in response to demands by youth organisations that SNJ (Service
National de la Jeunesse), the National Youth Service, was created by ministerial
regulation in 1965. It was initially an internal department of what was then the
Ministry of Education.
Based on the commitment of the first generation of educators, SNJ progressively
broadened its scope of action and diversified its programmes. It was in 1984
that a legislative act established SNJ as a Government agency with its own staff
and budget. With the Act of 4 July 2008 on Youth, SNJ’s tasks and structures
were once again adapted to the changing times.
In the course of the years, the youth portfolio regularly changed its ministerial
supervisor. Its status as a Government agency has allowed SNJ to work continuously and to quietly develop its operations and services. SNJ is currently
under the supervision of the Ministry of Family and Integration.
Context and tasks
As a Government Agency, SNJ evolves in a context defined by youth policy.
The objectives of that policy are described in article 1 of the Act of 4 July 2008
on Youth :
Youth policy aims :
a) to actively contribute to developing an environment favourable to the proper
development and integration of young people into our society ;
b) to promote a well-rounded personality of young people and the social and
occupational development of youth ;
c) to contribute to the education of young people as responsible and active
citizens who respect the democracy, the values and the fundamental rights
of our society ;
d) to work in favour of equality of opportunities and combat mechanisms
of exclusion and failure ;
e) to work in favour of equality of women and men ;
f) to promote solidarity and mutual understanding of young people
in a multicultural society ;
g) to promote European citizenship ;
h) to contribute to making autonomy accessible to youth ;
i ) to promote a culture of initiative, creativity and the spirit of initiative amongst
young people ;
j ) to promote non-formal education and support bodies active in that field.
SNJ is tasked with contributing to implementation of youth policy and to
constituting a resource centre for the youth sector. Its tasks are specified
in detail in the Act of 4 July 2008 on Youth.
( www.snj.lu )
Approach
Its principal task being to implement youth policy, SNJ acts as a coordination
and support body.
The projects and programmes of SNJ are defined on the basis of tasks specified
in the Act on Youth. They are a response to political priorities and are grounded
in knowledge of the conditions of young people, described in studies by the
University of Luxembourg and by other research institutes.
The activities of SNJ are governed by the principle of subsidiarity. SNJ does
not create projects in competition with those of youth organisations and other
public institutions but acts in supplement to what is being done elsewhere.
The majority of the SNJ projects are carried out jointly with its partner structures.
Those partnerships go beyond the bounds of the youth sector in such a way
that one can speak of a veritable cross-sectorial approach to working with
young people.
Innovation is another important aspect of SNJ’s work. In its educational
centres as well as through its projects, SNJ aims to innovate working practices
with young people. In doing so, national and international networking plays
an essential role because it makes it possible to import new ideas as well as
to submit its projects to peer review. The approach as described above
implies that SNJ is always on the move, in transition and in development.
The innovations are disseminated in the sector through training, theme
conferences and publications.
A promoter of quality in non-formal youth education, SNJ strives to give a
good example. Its activities are evaluated in a systematic manner by the
participants and their suggestions are taken seriously by those in charge.
The major programmes are evaluated by outside experts and the youth centres
have been given various labels attesting to their quality at the managerial level.
Finally, SNJ has ambitions of inspiring youth policy. Through its projects and
partnerships, SNJ knows the sector very well. Needs ascertained in the field
are regularly escalated to the political level. The fact of being a Government
agency in direct contact with the ministry with responsibilities for youth is
an obvious advantage in that regard. SNJ also participates regularly in various
working groups in the field of youth policy at the level of the Greater Region,
Benelux, the European Union and the Council of Europe.
The field of intervention
and its target public
The field of intervention for SNJ is that of non-formal education which
comprises all of the educational activities organised outside of the system
of official instruction and directed at particular groups pursuing the objectives
of specific branches of learning.
SNJ addresses itself primarily to actors in the youth sector, that is, to youth
organisations, youth centres and professionals working with young people.
A second target group is the school sector. For example, the programmes of
SNJ centres, certain training courses and BEE SECURE are essentially intended
for school groups. Amongst those, SNJ by priority targets the secondary and
secondary technical teaching institutions.
The youth portal, the training courses and volunteer service programmes
are directly oriented towards young people as are organised weekends,
camps and outdoor activities as well. Furthermore, the task of coordinating the
accommodation of young people in Luxembourg as au pairs sees its primary
objective in protecting those young people against any abuse.
Partners
In its projects, SNJ tries as much as possible to involve the youth organisations
and youth houses which are its preferred partners. Outside of those youth
sector actors, cooperation with school institutions allows it to reach a maximum
number of young people.
For some subject themes, one has to go beyond the narrow youth sector and
cooperate with specialised associations or institutions. These partnerships
allow SNJ to expand its scope of action and to guarantee greater quality in
educational work at the same time. In fields where it is not possible to establish
partnerships at the national level, SNJ does not hesitate to go on to the international level.
Cooperation with ministries or Government administrations concern specific
projects, important programmes and management of the centres. At the present
time, SNJ regularly cooperates with seven different ministries and with a large
number of Government departments and public agencies. At the local level,
communities are important partners for carrying out projects directly intended
for young people.
Team
The team at SNJ is composed of socio-educational, administrative and technical
staff. This permanent team allows it to ensure the agency’s proper functioning.
In education centres, the permanent teams are reinforced by part-time teachers
on secondment to SNJ. Through such teachers, the fields of formal and nonformal education mutually inspire each other.
The centres also recruit and train freelance trainers and youth workers
who back up the on-site teams and make it possible to extend the supply of
internships. For various projects and teaching duties SNJ calls upon experts
engaged more or less long-term.
At the level of weekends, camps and outdoor activities, SNJ hires youth workers
mainly grouped together in the “Groupe animateur” association. Other leisure
activities are organised in partnership with specialised organisations.
Portal ANELO
Au pair
Loaning of equipment
Youth in action
Youth cultures
BEE SECURE
Youth portal
Lultzhausen
Outdoor sports
Marienthal
Team Building, freestyle
Eisenborn
Initiation to the video
Equipe technique
European voluntary service
Voluntary service
(civic, cooperation)
Voluntary service (orientation)
Level up
Youth leader training
Weekends and summer camps
Hollenfels
Sustainable development
Transitions
Support
to the youth sector
Educational centres
Management
and administration
Further training
for youth workers,
theme conferences,
˝quality assurance˝ projects,
publications
Development
of the quality
Organization chart
National
Youth Service Missions, approach
and concepts
Measures of support
to the youth sector
The support for youth organisations is accomplished through training courses
for youth workers and educators, the “youth leave”, the equipment loaning
service, co-financing of educational projects as well as projects organised in
partnership with other youth sector actors.
Training courses
These courses, organised on four different levels, are intended for volunteers who
supervise activities for young people : recreation days during the summer holidays,
weekends, camps and outdoor activities.
The courses are for the most part organised by the local communities or youth
organisations themselves. In a spirit of subsidiarity, SNJ only organises a limited
number of training courses intended for young people who are not members of
a youth organisation.
SNJ takes care of the coordination of training for youth workers in Luxembourg
with the support of an advisory commission that brings together those organising
the training.
( www.animateur.snj.lu )
SNJ also organises training for members of pupils committees and training
of “school mediators”.
( www.animateur.snj.lu • www.peermediation.lu • www.comite-eleve.snj.lu )
Youth leave
The purpose of youth leave is to support the development of activities for the
benefit of young people at the local, regional and national levels. By means of
this option, youth workers and executives of youth movements can take extra
days off to organise and supervise training internships and educational activities
for young people.
( www.conge-jeunesse.lu )
Loaning of equipment
SNJ possesses stocks of equipment which it makes available at no charge
for organising camps or other activities for young people.
( www.pret-materiel.snj.lu )
Youth in Action
The national agency for the “Youth in Action” programme is integrated into SNJ.
This EU programme co-finances projects such as volunteer services, youth
exchanges as well as seminars for youth workers.
( www.jeunesse-en-action.lu )
Projects and campaigns
In order to provide greater transparency to working with young people and in
order to motivate more organisations and institutions to dedicate themselves
to this field, SNJ organises a certain number of broadly based projects.
The “On Stéitsch” festival and “Nuit du sport” are annual events attracting
thousands of young people. The “Song Contest” and the “Festival des
cabanes” are organised every two or three years, respectively. Besides these
regular events, SNJ organises projects and campaigns according to the
needs of the sector or policy priorities. All of these projects are carried out
in partnership with local community or national-level institutions, youth
organisations or other actors interested in getting involved in working with
young people.
Besides these major projects, SNJ encourages projects in the field of youth
culture at the local and regional levels by means of financial or logistic support.
( www.onsteisch.lu • www.nuitdusport.lu • www.cabanes.lu • www.songcontest.lu )
Actions addressed
directly to young people
A certain number of SNJ’s activities relate directly to children and young
people, sometimes to families as well.
Weekends, camps and outdoor activities
SNJ, in partnership with various associations, organises numerous weekends,
camps and outdoor activities for children and young people.
Their objective is to offer young people a means of spending their leisure
time in a constructive way, encouraging participation and avoiding the traps
of pure consumerism. Integrating it into a collective experience outside of
the conventional framework allows young people to develop their sense of
autonomy, their sense of responsibility and their capacity to integrate.
( www.agenda.snj.lu )
Youth portal
SNJ coordinates the youth portal which gives a succinct survey of the youth
scene before directing visitors to specialised sites, some of which have been
created or initiated by SNJ.
SNJ still belongs to the pilot group of “Jugendinfo”, a quality label for information
disseminated at the local level.
( www.youth.lu • www.jugendinfo.lu )
Bee Secure
BEE SECURE is an inter-ministerial initiative which aims to raise public awareness
about responsible use of new information and communication technologies.
BEE SECURE is a partner in the European networks named Insafe and Inhope.
Inside BEE SECURE, SNJ takes care of the segment of “raising awareness of
children, young people and their environment”.
( www.bee-secure.lu )
Accommodation of young au pairs
SNJ is in charge of managing, monitoring and coordination of au pair
accommodation. In this context, it processes applications for approval
of foster families and applications for approval of young au pairs and
monitors their au pair accommodation.
( www.accueil-aupair.lu )
Programmes facilitating
transition to working life
SNJ has developed different paths intending to facilitate the transition of
young people to working life. This refers more specifically to volunteer service
programmes, “Level Up” projects, the www.anelo.lu portal, certification of
participation and the portfolio.
Volunteer service programmes
Volunteer service is an opportunity to learn and get to know practical experience,
one which constitutes a full-time commitment for a certain period of time. For
certain programmes, the activities take place in Luxembourg, for others in Europe
and even beyond that.
Currently, SNJ offers four types of volunteer service :
• The Voluntary cooperation service offers a concrete opportunity to become
involved in a development cooperation project ;
• The European voluntary service offers a panoply of projects for young
people interested in doing their volunteer service abroad and includes several
different fields and countries ;
• The Civil voluntary service is directed more at organisations in the asso­
ciation sector and offers tasks of a civic nature for young people interested
in becoming involved in a local project ;
• The Orientation voluntary service offers young residents an opportunity
to acquire practical experience and to become involved in a project of public
benefit in Luxembourg.
( www.volontaires.lu )
Level up
SNJ has developed activation projects concerning the following issues :
international mobility, coaching of couples and studios appealing to creativity
and handicrafts.
These projects as well as the information sessions for young people and
their parents, where transition to working life are discussed, are promoted
under the “Level Up” label.
( www.levelup.lu )
Anelo
SNJ coordinates the portal on school and occupational orientation, www.anelo.lu
( An elo ? = What should you do now ?). This reference portal has been elaborated
in partnership with the other ministries and departments concerned, the trade
associations as well as with specialised associations.
( www.anelo.lu )
Attestation and portfolio
The “Attestation of commitment” is a document certifying skills that the young
person has acquired during his participation as a volunteer.
The portfolio is a binder that allows young people to collect copies of their
school report cards and diplomas, their certificates and documents attesting
to their participation in training courses, apprenticeships or other projects.
In working with the portfolio, young people can take stock of all that they have
thus far achieved and learned.
Development
of quality of work
with young people
SNJ supports the development of quality of work with young people by offering
recurrent training for educators in youth houses, theme conferences, quality
assurance support projects and by issuing pedagogical publications.
Further training
The Ministry has set a minimum number of hours of further training for youth
workers in the publicly funded youth sector. SNJ is responsible for organising
the recurrent training modules.
In addition, SNJ participates in the coordination of further training offers for
childhood sector professionals. In fact, it manages the portal dedicated to
further training.
( www.enfancejeunesse.lu )
Theme conferences
SNJ organises at regular intervals conferences where issues are taken up in
a cross-sector manner. The cross-sector aspect is ensured on the one hand
by involving actors coming from highly diverse backgrounds in planning
the conferences and, on the other hand, by inviting professionals working
in sectors other than youth work as participants.
Publications
In order to ensure dissemination of new strategies and good practices,
SNJ publishes several series of pedagogical documents. The series
“Dossiers de l’animateur” (the youth worker’s case file) primarily addresses
young volunteer youth workers. The “Guide de formation” (training guide)
series is intended for freelance youth workers working in specialised centres
but is also accessible to the public. The series “Pädagogische Handreichungen”
(pedagogical support) like the files in the series “Etudes et conference” (reports
and conferences) are addressed more to a specialised public.
Projects for quality assurance and pilot projects
SNJ provides financial support to projects developed by youth houses in
connection with the quality assurance approach. In addition, the pilot projects
programme makes it possible to co-finance innovative projects at the level of
practical education.
( www.qualite.snj.lu )
Educational centres
SNJ has four specialised youth centres that are tasked with being resource
centres for working with children, more specifically :
• Dedicated premises for young people
The centres are reserved for youth activities, activities organised by young
people and for training courses for work with children and young people.
• Pedagogical laboratories
These centres develop new activities for children and for young people
with the purpose of innovating in practices of non-formal education.
• Training centres
The experience acquired by educational staff in the centres is transmitted
by means of training and publications for work with children and young
people.
• Institutional partners
These centres are part of specialised regional, national and international
networks. At the national level they support cross-sector policies to benefit
youth. At the international level they assume the role of national relays for
certain networks.
Eisenborn – Introduction to video
The centre offers activities in the field of audio-visual technologies. The specialty
of the centre’s team is introduction to video. Nonetheless, the centre remains
available at all times for actors from the youth sector in order to organise training
courses, study days, conferences and seminars.
( www.eisenborn.snj.lu )
The centre is the organiser of the “Crème fraîche” contest and a partner in
the “Créajeune” festival.
( www.eisenborn.snj.lu • www.creme-fraiche.lu • www.creajeune.eu )
Hollenfels – Education for sustainable development
The centre offers pedagogical stays for school groups in the field of education
for sustainable development. Courses are offered dealing with the following
subjects : water, forests, geology, food, energy and globalisation.
The centre also organises recurrent training modules for teachers, educational
staff in accommodation structures and for multipliers.
( www.hollenfels.snj.lu )
Lultzhausen – Outdoor sports
The water station of Lultzhausen, managed in cooperation with the Ministerial
Department of Sports, accommodates groups of young people in connection
with outdoor activities. On offer are courses in sailing, kayak, stand-up paddling,
orientation, mountain biking and hill climbing.
( www.basenautique.lu )
Marienthal – ˝Team-building˝ et ˝Freestyle˝
This centre offers primary prevention activities : courses in team-building and
freestyle activities. With the Freestyle programme, the centre contributes to
the national programme called “Bougez plus, mangez mieux” (Move more,
eat better).
( www.marienthal.snj.lu • www.freestyle-crew.lu )
Chalets
Besides the four specialised centres, SNJ has three chalets located in Erpeldange,
Larochette and Weicherdange. These chalets round out the infrastructure for young
people in the country.
( www.erpeldange.snj.lu • www.larochette.snj.lu • www.weicherdange.snj.lu )
SNJ has set up the website www.chalets.lu listing the majority of private chalets
accessible to youth groups.
( www.chalets.lu )