Written by Nik Paddison
So, the starting point, who are you and what do you do?
Eleftheria
My name is Eleftheria Christoforou, and with my colleague Anna Lytra, we work at the Policy Department of the Youth Board of Cyprus. This is the national competent authority on youth issues. The three main pillars of our department are: youth work, youth policy and youth research.
Our main role is to advise the state on youth issues, on everything that relates to young people, and everything that concerns young people. In this context, we are responsible for coordinating the development and the implementation of the National Youth Strategy. We conduct regular surveys and consultations with young people, either face to face or online.
We arrange meetings with youth organisations, young people, and governmental departments, in order to ensure that young people's perspectives feed the process in every way.
We also represent the government at European and international fora concerning youth policy and thus, we collaborate with European level stakeholders in order to strengthen the quality and development of youth work practice in Cyprus. In this way, we are the contact point for the European Youth Work Agenda, as well.
Can you share more about the current situation of youth work in Cyprus?
Anna
Well, youth work is not regulated in Cyprus, there is no official framework. However, we believe that we have taken some important steps over the last years. At the beginning of 2019, we hosted a mission from the Council of Europe where they assessed youth work in Cyprus. This resulted in some recommendations for the development of youth work.
As a follow-up, we established in 2020 a working group. The working group includes major stakeholders like the Youth Board, the National Youth Council, the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth, the Cyprus Youth Clubs Organisation and the National Agency for Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps programmes (IDEP). We were mandated to work together on the development of youth work in Cyprus.
Using the European Youth Work Agenda as a foundation, we started working on a roadmap for the holistic development of youth work in Cyprus.
Last year, we conducted a survey to map the state of play of youth work in Cyprus. The main results show that youth work is done mostly by volunteer youth workers. They are experienced and committed but there are no career pathways or educational opportunities for them at the national level.
The youth sector is driven mainly by NGOs and local initiatives. Overall, the sector is lacking formal recognition, systemic support, and a consolidated understanding of what youth work is. Even amongst those in the sector, youth work is interpreted in different ways.
So, overall, this is the current situation of youth work in Cyprus.
You mentioned the European Youth Work Agenda, can you explain more about how you connect with it and the eight priority areas?
Eleftheria
The Agenda provides a valuable framework for us because it helps us to plan our work. For the time being, we have selected four of the eight priority areas to focus on, taking into account the available resources. Thankfully, the current collaboration we have with the National Agency, enhances our efforts and resources.
The four priority areas are: Promotion and Recognition, Policy Frameworks, Quality Development, and Develop and Expand the Youth Work Offer.
Recognition and Promotion
Anna
As an example of some of our work, under the priority area of recognition, we organised an event with the Cyprus National Agency (IDEP) in November 2025. The title of the event was “Developments and Prospects for the Recognition of Youth Work”. We invited the Youth Department of the Council of Europe and the National Youth Office Agenzija Zghazagh from Malta to share their policies and practice on youth work. Also, Elke Fuhrer from the German National Agency provided an input on the Agenda.
We managed to bring together around 100 participants representing policy-making bodies and youth organisations from Cyprus. They presented real examples of how youth work is being implemented both at local and national level. Young people were also there to share their experiences as well.
This highlighted the impact youth work has on young people's lives and its effect on social cohesion. In reality, not all policy makers are aware of youth work, so one of our intentions was to inform policy makers about the power of youth work at the local level and its impact on social inclusion. We believe that this was one of the achievements of the event.
Quality Development
Eleftheria
The second example is linked to the quality development of youth work which is another policy area we focus on. In close collaboration with the members of the Working Group and the Human Resource Development Authority, we are working on the development of occupational standards for youth workers. On the policy level, we have recently drafted the 2nd National Youth Strategy and the action plan for its implementation. We are proud to say that youth work is included as one of its strategic objectives.
In this framework, we are also planning on creating educational pathways for youth workers linked to the occupational standards and we are also exploring the possibility of integrating youth work in post-graduate curriculum.
We are currently promoting youth work on the local level in order for more youth workers to become employed. The recognition of the profession would really help towards this goal. For now, we provide awareness, information and funding for implementing actions on the local level. Unfortunately, since the profession is not yet officially recognised, there are very few paid positions for youth workers. Only some organisations practicing youth work, are employing youth workers.
During the Cyprus Presidency over the first semester of 2026, we made sure that youth work was discussed during the workshops of the EU Youth Conference and we promoted the report from the 4th European Youth Work Convention.
Both the Convention’s outcomes report and, more broadly, the need for youth work development are referenced in the two policy documents adopted by the Council of Ministers in May under the Cyprus Presidency.
Where would you like to see youth work in Cyprus in five years time?
Eleftheria
Definitely, we would like to see youth work being officially recognised and to become more visible on the local, regional and national level. We would like to have the occupational standards implemented and specific trainings and career pathways for youth workers in place. It would be also nice to have dedicated funding for youth work organisations.
We could be more visionary, but we also have to be realistic.
Anna
I would totally agree with Eleftheria to achieve recognition at the professional level, at social level, and at the policy level. I hope youth work will be defined at policy level.
I hope that our cooperation with the Ministry, the National Youth Council, the Cyprus Youth Clubs Organisation, and the National Agency will continue to grow and be further strengthened towards achieving our common goal. This is not a task that can be undertaken by a single stakeholder.
We need to be all on board and have a clear mandate and responsibility in order to expand youth work beyond youth ecosystem.
