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Policy legal framework

There is no independent national strategy for youth work. The National Youth Strategy, which has expired in 2024, included youth work under the objective of 'Enhancing the Work of the Youth Profession and Nongovernmental Youth Organisations'. It aimed to improve recognition, develop training, and set criteria for youth work. The main conceptual framework of youth work is described in 10.1 General context, which shows that:

• the contents,
• domains and
• providers of youth work are not specified.

Thus, we can assume that the objectives and target groups of youth work overlap with those of the general youth policy.

Regulations applicable to organisations carrying out youth work mostly derive from NGO regulations in general, as youth work is often carried out by NGOs.

Integrated Community and Service Spaces

An earlier important framework for supporting local youth work was to promote the creation of Integrated Community and Service Spaces (integrált közösségi szolgáltató tér, IKSZT). A ministerial Decree made it possible for settlements under 5 000 inhabitants (municipal governments, NGOs and churches could apply) to create community centres with a wide range of compulsory services including:

• organising youth community programmes,
• generating youth development processes and monitoring those,
• operation of youth information spots and desks,
• supporting community organisation and participation of youth. (Dudás, 2016: p. 32)

The decree was repealed in 2017, and became ineffective in 2018, but many IKSZTs are still operating on the municipal level.

Funding

Public funding

As the concept of youth work as such is rarely specified in youth policy frameworks, no earmarked funding can be identified, and thus, no budgetary allocations can be estimated.

The youth-work-related objectives are financed through the National Cooperation Fund (Nemzeti Együttműködési Alap) and the Children and Youth Fund (Gyermek és Ifjúsági Alap). The College for the Future of New Generation (Új nemzedék jövőjéért kollégium) supports NGOs working in the fields of education and training, skills development, child and youth advocacy, child and youth protection, health promotion, disease prevention, curative and health rehabilitation measures, and drug prevention. (For more information on the funds, see 1.7 Funding youth policy and 5.6 Supporting youth organisations.)

Bethlen Gábor Fund

The Bethlen Gábor Fund (Bethlen Gábor Alapkezelő) supports youth work and connections of young people in the Carpathian Basin, in line with the national strategic goals and objectives. The Fund was created to centralise and unify the aid policy for Hungarians abroad. The management of funds is performed by the Bethlen Gábor Fund Management Ltd.

The Fund supports ethnic Hungarian youth outside the borders of the country with educational tenders in different programmes with different funds. The most relevant ones are the following:

• Ethnic Hungarian pre-primary- and secondary school students living in Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia or Slovenia studying at least partially in Hungarian language can receive support for education, training, textbooks and teaching materials.
• A flagship programme supported by the Fund is the 'Without Borders' ('Határtalanul') programme. The aim is to support trips abroad in order to get to know Hungarians living outside the borders of Hungary and to establish and strengthen contacts between young Hungarians in Hungary and abroad.

(For more information on the 'Without Borders' programme, see 1.4 Youth policy decision-making.)

Visegrad Fund

The V4 Gen Mini-Grant programme of the Visegrad Fund supports the short-term mobility of young people between the ages of 12 and 30. At least two V4 countries must be involved in each project. The maximum budget for each project is about HUF 4 million (EUR 10.000), and the maximum timeframe is 6 months.

EU sources

In the contents of the EU 2021-2027 operative programmes youth work is not explicitly mentioned. The Human Resources Development Operational Programme Plus has a priority on development in the fields of family and youth affairs, but its target areas are mostly related to families.

Other funding opportunities directly referring to youth work are related to Erasmus+ Youth and are administered by the Youth Unit of Tempus Public Foundation.

Cooperation

Established ways of cooperation administered by public authorities were mainly related to the Elisabeth Youth Fund. The cross-sectoral coordination of youth policy in general is now administered in the Deputy State Secretariat for Young People. With regard to formal cooperation, the role of the Children and Youth Fund (Gyermek és Ifjúsági Alap) can be mentioned (see Chapter 1.7), which is chaired by the government representative for children and youth issues (as of 2024, the Head of Department of Young People in the Ministry of Culture and Innovation).

Besides these, the networking efforts of the Youth Unit of Tempus Public Foundation can be mentioned. An example of this is the Hungarian implementation of the Europe Goes Local project, which established cooperation between youth experts, NGOs and youth researchers. They also organised for the second time in 2024 the Summer University of the Youth Profession, which provides a space for youth work practitioners and those involved in the higher education programmes related to youth work, both academic staff and students.