Contemporary open youth work requires an understanding of the hybrid (online and offline) environments in which young people live, as well as the digital practices embedded within them. Hybrid youth work has, therefore, become a central topic within open youth work, highlighting a strong need for knowledge exchange to successfully integrate digital practices into youth work settings.

It is evident that digital services vary significantly across different institutions. This presents an opportunity to identify both facilitating and challenging factors, in order to promote structured exchange and support the development of a well-founded framework for action.

This bachelor’s project focuses on creating a knowledge pool tailored to the various aspects of hybrid youth work, and on developing a format that fosters exchange and networking among institutions. This knowledge pool will be presented to NÖJA (the Lower Austrian Working Group for Open Youth Work dedicated to supporting knowledge exchange, networking, and quality assurance in open youth work).