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1. Quality assurance

2. Research and evidence supporting Youth Work

3. Participate Youth Work

4. Smart youth work: youth work in the digital world

Quality assurance

Several aspects factor into the debate on what constitutes good quality child and youth work. They include ensuring a sufficient quantity of services, preventive effects, safeguarding child protection, content and impact – such as promoting democratic values – enabling participation and educational benefits for young people. A central yardstick used to assess the quality of youth work is to look at how they address the agendas, needs and experiences of young people and how relevant the services are for them. Article 11(1) of Social Code Book VIII (SGB VIII) requires youth work to appeal to the interests of young people. Academic papers on and framework concepts for youth work use this aspect as an integral quality element. Youth work is already oriented to young peoples' agendas. The voluntary nature of participation in youth work means that services must appeal to the interests and needs of young people – if they are not, young people will vote with their feet and simply not make use of the activities available. Since the 2021 reform of Social Code Book VIII, the law also explicitly requires youth services to be accessible and usable for young people with disabilities. This provision underscores the inclusive orientation of youth work as a new quality standard. 

As a general rule, the quality of youth work is not safeguarded by way of youth work-specific quality assurance and development programmes. There are no systematic national surveys on whether youth work meets the needs of children and young people or, for example, whether youth work lives up to its principles in practice. However, since 2015, a comprehensive survey of youth services has been conducted every two years as part of the official child and youth welfare statistics, which gathers quantitative data on youth work programmes and their participants. While this provides current figures on the structure and utilisation of youth work, it does not replace an evaluation of the content, coverage or effectiveness of the services offered. At the various political levels there are a number of institutionalised ways of influencing the structural quality of youth work and the ongoing professional development of child and youth work.

In terms of staffing quality, SGB VIII stipulates the employment of youth work professionals (Fachkräftegebot). This applies directly to personnel working in the local youth offices and indirectly to the staff of non-statutory organisations. The implementing acts in the federal states specify which criteria must be met by paid workers involved in the provision of child and youth services – which also includes youth work. Employees must demonstrate personal suitability and have the relevant training qualifications. As the bodies with overarching responsibility for the activities and services provided as part of child and youth services, the local youth offices have a responsibility to employ appropriately trained staff and to safeguard the overall quality of child and youth services. The SGB VIII requirement for youth work professionals does not apply to volunteers, for example those working in youth associations. However, other rules and procedures apply to youth work volunteers to ensure they have the relevant skills and suitability. One example is the JULEICA training programme (minimum of 30 hours), which teaches key skills required in youth work and certifies programme graduates as eligible for a youth leader card. Legal requirements are also in place to ensure that individuals cannot engage in youth work if they have a criminal record as a result of committing offences against sexual self-determination or other relevant offences as defined in Article 72a SGB VIII. The growing shortage of skilled staff in the field poses an increasing challenge for the development of quality in youth work. According to a nationwide survey conducted in 2025, 87% of organisations providing youth work reported a lack of qualified staff, and around three out of four organisations have already had to reduce opening hours or cancel programmes entirely as a result. Key contributing factors include unfavourable working conditions, limited recognition of the profession and demographic change. To attract and retain skilled staff, organisations are now testing pilot measures such as introductory and training courses for career changers and strengthening partnerships with universities to recruit more qualified personnel for youth work.

The Federal Child and Youth Plan (Kinder- und Jugendplan des Bundes) and the state youth plans (Landesjugendpläne) influence the quality of child and youth work in part by funding paid posts in child and youth work organisations, as well as by including certain developments, such as raising intercultural awareness, as mandatory rules. In addition, new topics such as digital transformation and youth inclusion are increasingly being addressed and supported through programmes and funding. Mission statements and framework concepts are also in place in the federal states and local communities. At a local authority level, the youth offices (Jugendreferate), youth officers and youth support services (cf. “Administration and governance of youth work") work to ensure qualitative youth work by providing professional and organisational support to facilities, associations and organisations active in the field of youth work and by coordinating them.

The local child and youth services committees (Kinder- und Jugendhilfeausschüsse) are part of the local youth offices and, as co-decision makers on the structure of child and youth work, have a say in its quality and needs-based focus. Committee members comprise representatives of child and youth work from the youth councils (Jugendringe), the youth associations (Jugendverbände) and other organisations active in open and associational youth work, as well as representatives of the statutory authority and non-statutory organisations from other areas of child and youth services. In many cases, youth work sub-committees or working groups have been established. One key task of the child and youth service committees is to carry out child and youth services planning (Jugendhilfeplanung) as prescribed by law. This planning is designed to ensure the availability of a sufficient number of high-quality child and youth services and thus youth work activities. Many local youth offices also finance internal (partial) posts to perform youth services planning activities. The Federal Youth Board (Bundesjugendkuratorium) points out that youth services planning should be used more systematically as a strategic quality management tool. It recommends further developing the planning process and discussing quality standards transparently within the federal context, rather than allowing them to be implicitly lowered.

Beyond the above official channels of safeguarding quality and the professional development of child and youth work, further efforts to measure and demonstrate quality are undertaken consistently. The criteria are intended as the basis for quality and effectiveness dialogues between facilities, organisations, local youth offices and youth policy governance at a local authority level (Deinet 2013). No data is available on how widespread their use is across Germany.

Research and evidence supporting youth work

Research is largely carried out by universities and research institutes that receive institutional funding from the national or federal state budget. Youth work research is usually conducted by the faculties of social education and/or social work. However, only a handful of faculties focus primarily on youth work (see “Youth workers” for details). Faculty research tends to focus on the conceptual foundations of youth work, its functioning and frameworks, as well as on the question of how youth work addresses current social challenges. More significant sources of input for scientific research and the discourse around youth work include, e.g., the research partnership between the German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut)and TU Dortmund University, and Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg, HAW). For example, HAW studies open child and youth services during times of crisis, as well as issues related to inclusion.

As Germany's largest socio-scientific research institute in the fields of childhood, family and youth, the German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut) has a long history of youth work research. Of particular note in this context is the project entitled "Youth services and social change" (Jugendhilfe und Sozialer Wandel), which carries out regular surveys amongst youth work organisations. This long-term German Youth Institute project, running from 2014 to 2029, repeatedly collects nationwide structural data, for example through surveys of youth welfare offices (most recently in 2022) and youth associations (2024). 

Two bodies in particular focus on researching youth work in Europe. Firstly, at the German Youth Institute, the Centre for European Youth Policy is carrying out research on youth work in the European context from 2019 to 2025, among other topics. Secondly, in September 2019 the Jean Monnet Chair for education and youth work in Europe (Bildung und Jugendarbeit in Europa) was instituted at Cologne University of Applied Sciences (TH-Köln).

To encourage more scientific discourse in the youth work field as well as a stronger dialogue among researchers and academics, the Academic Network on Youth Work (Wissenschaftsnetzwerk Kinder- und Jugendarbeit) was founded in 2021 as a network-building platform for interested parties. It is closely linked to the Federal Network on Youth Work (Bundesnetzwerk Kinder- und Jugendarbeit), established in 2019, which connects stakeholders at national level. The Academic Network has working groups on the following topics:

• Internationalisation/Europeanisation/Comparative youth work
• Interface between theory and practice
• Research
• Youth work in times of socio-ecological transformation

Research is also conducted at the state (Länder) level on the development of child and youth work. Thematic focuses vary by federal state – from digitalisation, political education civic education, crisis management to inclusion – always with the goal of assessing and further improving the quality of youth work on the ground. The Saxon child and youth office (Landesjugendamt Sachsen) and the municipal social association of Saxony (Kommunaler Sozialverband Sachsen) jointly fundes from 2028 until 2024 a smart youth work project in Saxony (entitled "Smarte Jugendarbeit Sachsen"), which was working with experts and young people to develop a research-based concept for adapting youth work to the demands of the digital age. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the practice-based research project "momente" ran from 2021 to 2024. It was coordinated by TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences – and funded by the state ministry for youth (Landesjugendministerium, MKFFI). The three-year project aimed to develop conceptual foundations for civic education in open child and youth work, investigating how "political moments" in the everyday life of open youth facilities can be identified and strengthened. Until 2018 the University of Göttingen cooperated with the queer network of Lower Saxony (Queeres Netzwerk Niedersachsen) and the Lower Saxony youth council (Landesjugendring Niedersachsen) on a study funded by the Ministry for Social Affairs, Health and Equality of Lower Saxony (Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Soziales, Gesundheit und Gleichstellung) to develop practical action recommendations for youth work with LGBTQ* young people with special consideration to the regional challenges faced in Lower Saxony. In 2024, the Thuringian Ministry of Social Affairs, in cooperation with the Thuringian Youth Council (Landesjugendring Thüringen), commissioned a study on inclusion in youth work, associational youth work and youth social work. A survey was conducted to assess how well young people with disabilities are included in youth work programmes. The results showed that providing inclusive services requires comprehensive commitment across financial, personnel, structural and methodological levels. Based on these findings, several guidelines were developed to further improve the participation of young people with disabilities in youth work. As a next step, the Ministry plans to establish a dedicated inclusion office for youth work, which will advise practitioners on how to implement inclusive measures.

The state government of Hesse funded a study by Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences on more inclusive structures in local-level youth work. Ending in February 2024, the study examined how leisure activities could be made fully accessible to young people with a disability. It delivered a set of best practices and hands-on solutions for inclusion in this field in a move to help implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Aside from research by universities and research institutes, the associations and organisations themselves both finance and conduct research activities. One example is the research department of the Federation of Protestant Youth in Germany (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Evangelischen Jugend in Deutschland, aej). In addition to publishing the aej’s own studies on conceptual approaches to child and youth work in a Protestant context, the aej research department tackles fundamental questions relating to Protestant youth work and organises a regular forum (entitled "Forum Wissenschaft und Praxis") to provide a platform for dialogue between academics and practitioners. Another example is the Franco-German Youth Office (Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk), which has its own research department that looks at the evolution and evaluation of educational concepts, as well as issues relating to youth in Europe.

Beyond research data, official national statistics are gathered on youth work at local authority level (e.g. staffing, number of facilities, financing). Efforts to collect more data on youth work have been stepped up in recent years. For example, federal statistics have been updated to include information on youth work services. State-level data is available in most of the federal states.

At local authority level, some communities collect data on youth work beyond the scope of the federal statistics, e.g. for planning purposes. No nationwide overview exists of the community-level data.

The federal government’s Child and Youth Report (Kinder- und Jugendbericht), which evaluates various aspects of youth work, is published every four years. The 16th Child and Youth Report (2020) focussed in particular on the promotion of the democratic education of young people. The federal states also produce their own child and youth reports on a regular basis.

As diverse organisations at different levels take responsibility for youth work (see “Administration and governance of youth work”), funding for research is equally varied. Research is performed and funded at national, state and local level. In addition to institutional support for universities and research institutes, many studies by these institutions receive external funding. The money primarily comes from federal funds (e.g. Federal Child and Youth Plan (Kinder- und Jugendplan des Bundes)) and the individual state budgets (e.g. youth support plans (Jugendförderpläne)). In some cases, this is supplemented by money from the European Union. Research projects in the youth work field are also financed by foundations (e.g. Aktion Mensch, Deutsche Telekom Foundation, German Research Foundation (DFG)) and by the youth associations themselves. The research projects are carried out individually by universities and research institutes as well as in partnership with civil society organisations and research bodies. Given the complexity of the field (cf. “Administration and governance of youth work”) and the resulting rich and manifold research landscape, no central body is in place to collate research findings and data across all levels. However, networking initiatives, such as the Federal Network on Youth Work (Bundesnetzwerk Kinder- und Jugendarbeit) and the Academic Network on Youth Work (Wissenschaftsnetzwerk Kinder- und Jugendarbeit), as well as the transfer agency established in the Bonn Process for the European Youth Work Agenda, help improve dialogue and provide an overview.

Participative youth work

By and for young people: This is the basic ethos of youth work in Germany. It also means that, in Germany, participation is understood to include participatory youth work as well as – or especially – the autonomous activity of young people as a form of participation. Participation is thus an integral component of youth work and enshrined in law in Article 11 Social Code Book VIII (SGB VIII). As such, young people are to take part in the planning, execution and evaluation of youth work projects and thus have a say in youth work services.

Beyond this direct form of participation by young people, which refers primarily to specific matters of organising and implementing youth work, young people also participate indirectly at all levels via certain organisations. Article 12.2 SGB VIII stipulates that youth associations (Jugendverbände) fulfil this function as representatives of young peoples' interests (cf. “Participation”). The participation of young people in shaping youth work is thus institutionalised as the local and state youth councils (Jugendringe) represent young people in the youth services committees (Jugendhilfeausschüsse) and local youth services planning (Jugendhilfeplanung). At national level, the German Federal Youth Council (Deutscher Bundesjugendring) plays an active role in shaping youth policy (cf. “Participation > Youth representation bodies”). Beyond the youth associations, other statutory authorities and non-statutory organisations act as advocates for young peoples' agendas at local authority, state and national level in dealings with other organisations and in other policy areas.

"Smart" youth work: youth work in the digital world

Whilst youth work takes place at a local authority level, digitalisation strategies are mainly discussed at national and state level. These strategies follow a general approach, with no single digitalisation strategy focussing specifically on youth work. In March 2018, the German Federal Government appointed a Minister of State for Digitalisation; today, the issue is being advanced through an independent Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation. In 2022, the government adopted a comprehensive digital strategy addressing, among other areas, education, youth and social participation. The initiative "Growing Up Well with Media" ("Gutes Aufwachsen mit Medien", funded by the Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Bundesministerium für Bildung, Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend, BMBFSFJ) supports activities aimed at improving media literacy among children, adolescents, parents and youth work professionals. Issues related to the expansion of digital infrastructure, which ultimately benefit child and youth work services, are also addressed within broader digitalisation strategies. The COVID-19 pandemic also highlighted the critical importance of digital access and prompted the launch of federal programmes such as the post-COVID catch-up initiative "Aufholen nach Corona", which provided funding for digital equipment.

The individual federal states adopt their own digitalisation strategies. Additional funding programmes are providing targeted support for the digitalisation of youth work. During the pandemic, for example, the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia funded over 650 projects in social work (including youth work) through the special programme "Zugänge erhalten – Digitalisierung stärken" ("Promoting access – improving digitalisation"), with a total investment of approximately €42 million. Other federal states have pursued similar approaches. In Lower Saxony, for instance, €2.5 million was allocated to advance the digitalisation of child and youth services under the "Startklar in die Zukunft" ("Ready for the future") action programme.

While Berlin has no digitalisation strategy of its own, it runs various media literacy programmes such as jugendnetz-berlin. The aim of these activities is to give children and adolescents access to new media, enable them to handle them with due care, develop youth-appropriate interactive formats and e-participation models, and support and connect regional and supra-regional projects and initiatives.

A core subject of debate surrounding the digitalisation of youth work refers to specific training for youth work professionals in media literacy and media services. Further questions include how digital formats can support youth work in practice and/or open up new possibilities for youth work. Youth work plays an important role in helping young people to acquire media literacy skills. In parallel, it offers advice on using the internet and the dangers to be aware of, as well as internet addiction counselling (cf. “Education and Training > Media literacy and safe use of new media”). The Federal Agency for Child and Youth Protection in the Media (Bundeszentrale für Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz, BzKJ) emphasises the importance of supporting youth work and parents in their educational roles to promote the healthy and responsible development of children and young people in the digital media environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital youth work ("Jugendarbeit digital"). Experiences with online youth clubs, virtual workshops and hybrid formats have demonstrated the wide range of possibilities available. New tools and formats are increasingly enriching youth work in the digital sphere. For example, the Actionbound app makes it possible to design digital treasure hunts and interactive rallies, turning learning into a playful and engaging experience. Likewise, "serious games” – in other words, digital games created for educational purposes, such as in civic education – have become an established feature of youth work projects. At the same time, it has become clear that purely digital offerings cannot fully replace in-person encounters. Early studies conducted during the pandemic showed that while many young people use online programmes, they do not consider them a full substitute for face-to-face meetings. The future of youth work likely lies in a balanced approach: youth work that strategically integrates digital channels while maintaining opportunities for direct, personal interaction.

Adapting communication channels in youth work to the everyday realities of young people is equally important. Today, young people are reached via social platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Streaming platforms are also being used, for example, some youth centres stream regularly on Twitch to discuss topics relevant to young people and engage them via chats. Experiences from the pandemic and various projects demonstrate that digital elements are no longer optional but have become an integral part of contemporary youth work.

Examples of good practice at federal state level: 

• Digital Streetwork recognises the key relevance of digital media and online spaces for young people and hence operates where most young people spend a lot of their time: online. Up to 14 digital outreach workers are active on all currently youth-relevant online platforms, using opportunities to connect with users while, e.g., gaming. This model project is run by the Bavarian youth council (Bayerischer Jugendring) and receives funding from Bavaria’s state ministry for families, labour and social affairs (Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Familie, Arbeit und Soziales). It offers accessible, anonymous and free counselling and advisory services to all young people aged 14 to 27 in Bavaria.
• The youth app Yoggl, available from January 2024, is an accessible and relevant way for young people to examine participation options and access child and youth services in the state of Saxony. It offers a search function for youth club activities and counselling centres, an interactive map, event listings, local training and part-time work opportunities, and self-created content. The youth app is also a handy tool for socio-educational staff (the secondary target group), who can use it to reach out to adolescents of a certain age or in a specific location.