The German Wind Band Youth (GWBY) is he youth organization of the Confederation of German Music Associations. It is the combination of 23 member federations from all over Germany. Through their district or province federations more than 300.000 children and youths up to an age 27, from more than 10.000 wind bands, brass bands and fanfare corps are members of the GWBY. Not included the ones who are still in training. For their member federations and beyond the GWBY is performing as a professional board for projects in children and youth work in Germany.

Besides artistic-cultural children and youths work, the youth organization is applying itself to the federal (non artistic) youth work - a crucial point of youth work in the children and youths assistance law of Germany. GWBY is an institution of youth welfare service. This acknowledgement has its background in the youth assistance law of Germany and is linked to the condition that the bearing organization is able to make a crucial contribution to the fulfilment of tasks of youth welfare through their professional and personal qualification.

In their associated youth federations and youth groups, youth work is self-organized, collectively formed and self-accounted by young people. Their work is consitent and directed towards their own members. It can also be oriented towards other young persons who are non-members. Interdisciplinary oriented youth association work supports socialization and personality development of young persons. It is value based and linked to interests. The principles of voluntariness and self organization are prior for this work. Youth association work is using all the posibilities and methodical approaches to create a multiple spectrum of offers for children and youths.

Their various offers - regarding content and structure - give children and youths many chances and possibilties for self organization, representation of interests, political sensitization, leisure time and recreation against the background of the collective social process, of the differentiation and of individual life styles. Special forms open up social spaces, self authentification and responsibilities. To give adequate offers to young people, it helps to create more voluntary engagement.

The member federations pick up the growing interests of young people in leisure time offers, education, playing, community, new forms of partizipation and new concepts on children and youth recreation through designing and carrying out projects, initiatives and educational events within youth association work. While doing this, they make a valuable contribution to compensate deficites within the local infrastructure. Their children and youths work has always a social context.

As a federal organization, the GWBY carries out advanced trainings for multipliers of youth work. In 1986 a “training frame work for basic and advanced training of youth counsellors” was defined and documented in the “guidelines and advices” for the training of voluntary workers in youth work. There are also guidelines for the artistic basic and advanced training of children and youths in the member federations (D1, D2, D3). These guidelines were created by GWBY.

Being a central office of youth assistance in youth work GWBY can delegate funds of the children and youths plan of the federation for international youth exchanges as well as of Franco-German and German-Polish Youth Office to their member associations.

The German Wind Band Youth is a member of

German federal youth council

Federal association of cultural children and youths education

To create new impulses for the youth work within our organization GWBY organized the "meeting of young multipliers" in 1996 in Münster. As part of the 3rd German Music Festival in Friedrichshafen GWBY organized an International Youth Camp in 2001. This project was an offer to different target groups of youths from age 16 to 21. The aim was to get to know new and advance methods of youth work and to open up new social contexts. About 300 youths from different neighbour countries and from different provinces of Germany got together in the camp. A challenge for tolerance, social creativity, self responsibility and self organization for the young people. In 2007 there was also a Youth Camp during the 4th German Music Festival in Würzburg. Young musicians from age 16 to 26 worked on topics of youth work, created the festival paper and discussed issues of music associations with politicians from the German parliament.