Learn and let learn: The international growth pathway of Roots Flanders
What is the impact of internationalisation on a youth organisation, especially in terms of its development and capacity building? Najim Kaldoun (coordinator), Abdou Ouchan (pedagogical officer) and Yunus Denizli (policy officer and coordinator of international projects) take us on the steep international growth path of their organisation, Roots vzw. We observe four learning objectives of their organisation: recognition, professionalisation and quality, growth and maturity.
Recognition makes us soar
Yunus: ‘Recognition is the basis of everything, and it grows because of our international projects. The Quality label for Erasmus+ Accreditation and European Solidarity Corps we received, confirms our capacity to build an international operation with strong projects and gives our member organisations the opportunity to grow.’
Najim: ‘By cooperating internationally, we deepen our vision and expertise on diverse youth work. We communicate these to policymakers and a wide network of youth workers. Perhaps we are too modest in broadcasting our accomplishments. Our inspiration day ‘Diverse Youth Work in 2023 for youth workers, policymakers and researchers’ played an important role and functioned as a lever.’
Abdou: ‘With our international projects, we give more recognition to youth work. Our study visit to Istanbul was a deliberate step. It shows that youth work leads to something more and is not just about ‘keeping young people busy’. This is a perception that is still present to this day among, for example, the Turkish community. We now plan an annual exchange to countries of origin of young people in our network. This aligns our local youth work initiatives with the context and lifeworld of our members.’
Najim: ‘The icing on the cake is our renewed formal recognition as a Flemish youth work association after six years. We are full-on preparing our policy paper 2026-2030. This is an opportunity to strengthen our activities and team and embed internationalisation in our organisational strategy.’
Roots Flanders
Roots vzw is since 2019 the successor of the Platform for Young People with a Migration background. Roots cooperates with more than 100 youth work and cultural education initiatives. Often voluntary work with young people who cannot find a place elsewhere. What binds them is the belief in the power and autonomy of young people to shape our diverse society together. Roots represents their interests at local and Flemish level, offers training and networking opportunities and supports its member organisations in mapping out a growth pathway.
Improving quality and professionalisation
Najim: ‘In selecting projects, we focus on our members and their concrete needs. In our ‘Youth Partnership Diverse Youth Work Organisations 2.0’, we are developing an accessible support tool for starting youth organisations, in collaboration with our Dutch partner. This includes knowledge about starting a non-profit organisation, working out a vision and mission, business or volunteer policy etc. Because these processes are often complex, and the knowledge can be fragmented. Based on this information and our own business expertise, we have developed a series of webinars, articles and a podcast. We are convinced that this tool will boost young people's participation in youth work.’
Yunus: ‘As a host for European volunteers, we provide quality support in order for them to become full-fledged team members, who feel at home here. Simultaneously, we are building up valuable know-how about setting up European projects. This involves technical aspects such as managing project grants and visa applications for our European volunteers. It also involves working together and making agreements with European partners.’
Abdou: ‘We pass this knowledge and experience on to our members for whom this is often brand new. Writing a project involves many different thresholds. Together with JINT, we set up a project writing lab called ‘Dreamcatchers’ where young people and youth workers had the opportunity to develop a Solidarity project. This resulted in about five projects that have been submitted and approved.’
Growth in many areas
Yunus: ‘Not only is our European network expanding, but our local partnerships are also growing because of the international projects. You can take this quite literally: through participating in an international project, 1001 Links and Skillz became part of our network. It strengthens the bond with our members because we can offer them new low-threshold opportunities. When we are together for multiple days on an international outing, we are given the time and space to reflect. This definitely boosts innovation and progress.’
We pass our knowledge and experience on to member organisations for whom this is often brand new.
Najim: ‘The self-confidence of our organisation grows as well. We are less cautious, and we are less afraid to push boundaries and raise our profile. For instance, we dream of front-line youth activities for young people in our building in Antwerp, where our European volunteers can take the lead.’
Yunus: ‘Seeing young people grow in international projects is beautiful. We see hidden talents surface, they experience a different culture and a different perspective. There is often a shared feeling where we can relate with each other. This feeling is a drive to keep searching for solutions to challenges that we all face.’
Embedding a long-term perspective
Yunus: ‘We aim to plant seeds and empower our network, while paying attention to different speeds. This is a common thread throughout everything we do. Roots wants to be a role model and wants to open doors for other organisations. We hope that organisations who organised an international project under our wings, will set up a project on their own in the future.’
Najim: ‘Responding agilely to trends while maintaining a realistic growth pathway is an exercise of balance. International cooperation advances this exercise, and it provides opportunities to grow into a future-proof organisation, which you don't have locally.’
Abdou: ‘Our learning curve is steep. Our international trajectory helps make us who we are: a strong player in a clear niche. We want to further build upon this international foundation.’
RAY-LEARN: the learning journey of organisations
This conversation with Roots was part of RAY-LEARN, a European research project of the RAY network of National Agencies. RAY-LEARN aims to explore how European programmes contribute to the development and learning trajectory of youth organisations in 10 European countries. Together with three organisations from Flanders and Brussels, Roots participates in the national research activities, coordinated by JINT. First research results are expected in autumn 2025.
We dream of front-line youth activities for young people in our building in Antwerp, where our European volunteers can take the lead.
Roots' international growth
- June 2023: first study visit ‘Diverse Youth Work’ to Istanbul
- Summer 2023: European Solidarity Corps Quality Label - 2 individual volunteers received and 2 volunteers on the way. One volunteer team completed in Turkey and start of next project in November in Morocco
- Autumn 2023: start Small-scale Erasmus+ Partnership ‘Diverse Youth Work Organisations 2.0’
- March 2024: Erasmus+ Accreditation - sustainable long-term framework for group exchanges and mobility of youth workers
- July 2024: DiscoverEU project through Italy and France i.c.w. Skillz
- August 2024: first Youth Exchange in Sicily i.c.w. OverKop Genk
- October 2024: first international training ‘Diverse Youth Work’ in Antwerp
- Autumn 2024: start of Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership i.c.w. Blenders vzw - development of a (five-step) model for talent development
- Internationalisation as a strategic objective in the preparation of the policy paper 2026-2030
Want to know more?
Do you also want to embed internationalisation more structurally in your youth organisation’s strategy? Get to know LAND inZICHT, the tool to support you in this (in Dutch, translation to English under progress).