Social inclusion-ing

...involving young people with fewer oppotunities in international projects

Informations, Experiences, Ideas and tips for better social inclusion projects.

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Introduction

This publication is a result of the Training Course Social Inclusion-ing and includes materials, information and experiences which were collected during the activities with the aim of promote projects on social inclusion and bring together experiences which can help to start youth work with different groups of young people with fewer opportunities and improve quality of social inclusion projects in the frame of Erasmus plus. This document is addressed to all youth workers and organizations which would like to start with social inclusion project or improve quality of their project and are searching inspiration and experiences by youth workers from other countries. Project involved actively 23 youth workers from 11 countries to whom we are thankful for have been a great resource and for all experiences and ideas that have been shared during the Training Course which have led us to write this publication as such.

First part of the project is introductory the topic of social inclusion. Chapter contains clarification of the key-words and terms and explanation of terminology which are used by the European Commission. The aim is to deepen understanding of the concept of social inclusion and at the same time to sensitize toward problematic of social exclusion. This chapter contains also short description of opportunities which Erasmus+ Programme offers directly to youth as well as recommendation and advises how to use mobilities projects in promotion of social inclusion.

The second part are Roads to Young people. This chapter contains recommendation, advise tips and best practice about how to start to work with young people with fewer opportunities, how to reach them, how to involve them in activities, prepare them for the project, give them support during and after.

Last part contains successful examples of work with two groups of young people with fewer opportunities: young offenders and deaf young people in international project with many practical advises and recommendations how to prepare good project for them and with them.

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Project Description

Training Course "Social INCLUSION-ing" took place in Alcamo, Sicily, Italy and gathered 23 participants from 11 countries and 11 organizations. The aim of the Training Course was to empower youth workers with skills and knowledge useful for implementing successful international project on social inclusion, thus improving quality and enlarge the quantity of real social inclusion projects.

Objectives:

- Exchange practices and experiences among youth workers from different countries on various aspects and perceptions of marginalization and inclusion,

- Share experiences with work with different groups at risk of marginalization

- Empower youth workers with knowledge and competencies in the field of social inclusion of youth in high risk of exclusion - as young offenders and deaf youth - in international projects.

-Motivate and empower youth workers for active promotion of combating social exclusion in their ordinary activities by respecting values and principles of European youth work for inclusion.

were designed as open-sharing of non-formal education and learning process based on participants’ experience and exchange. Different methods were used by trainers to adapt the activities to different needs and profile of participants and their learning styles. Participants took active role along the Training Course, one part of TC were dedicated to workshops organized by participant where they shared their best practices on social inclusion. The project empowered youth workers with neAll the activities w competencies and its activities led participants to gather their own experiences within this publication.

Introduction to Social Inclusion What is social exclusion As we wrote above this publication is addressed to people and organizations who would like to start with social inclusion project particularly with international mobility projects. Therefore, to begin, we would like to clarify and deepen understanding of social exclusion and what it means in context of youth work. The word exclusion sounds very familiar as we use it frequently in everyday conversation to describe situation when individuals or part of group is ignored or their ideas are not taken in consideration. Similar concept is presented when we ask participants to describe social exclusion, and very often they paint circle and few people out of the circle described as excluded. In this perception we use word for description of their state when group of people have problem to enter some society or even interact with society and the aim of inclusion is to bring them back. This idea is not wrong but social exclusion is more wider concept. First of all exclusion is a process. In society are naturally differences between people, differences in living condition, cultural background, personal predisposition...social exclusion is a process when some people because of differences or just current living situation as long term unemployment, is loosing position in the society and have difficulties to reach services, opportunities and standards which are offered to the rest of society.

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The concept of social exclusion originated in France about 40 years ago and over time lightly changed meaning and became broader therefore in literature we can find different definitions based on different approaches of authors, we will use for need of this publication definition of European Commission, which is used in all publication of European union on this topic. “Social exclusion is a process whereby certain individuals are pushed to the edge of society and prevented from participating fully by virtue of their poverty, or lack of basic competencies and life long learning opportunities, or as a result of discrimination. This distances them from job, income and education and training opportunities, as well as social and community networks and activities. They have little access to power and decision making bodies and thus feel powerless and unable to take control over the decisions that affect their day to day lives.”1 As pointed in the definition, social exclusion is a wider term as poverty. Unlike poverty is connected with lack of economic resources, social exclusion can be consequence of lack of access to civil political and social rights and opportunities, therefore very often is described as multidimensional.

But let's speak more concretely which groups are at greater risk of social exclusion? According to dates of Eurostat to December 2014 the most affected groups are women, children, young people, people living in single-parent households, lower educated people and migrants.2

To understand better this situation, let's have a look at situation which socially excluded people are face up to.

Multiple insecurities – Young people face more obstacles in their life in at the same time. For example young people from Sicily face cultural differences, bed economical situation or health problems besides of geographical obstacle.

Persistence – This situation is not short-term problem but lasts long time and have tendency to lead to other obstacles which accumulate and made situation of young people more difficult. For example, young people which are experiencing a long term unemployment period start to have economic problems which can lead to social isolation or health problems.

1 European Union. 2004. Joint Report on Social Inclusion. Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs.p.8

http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/soc-prot/soc-incl/final_joint_inclusion_report_2003_en.pdf 2 Eurostat 2014. Europe 2020 indicators - poverty and social exclusion. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Europe_2020_indicators_-

_poverty_and_social_exclusion#How_do_poverty_and_social_exclusion_affect_Europe.

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Erosion of rights and responsibilities – to face discrimination or isolation can lead to erosion of basic social, economic or political rights. (eventually people’s basic social, economic, cultural, civil and political rights and responsibilities are undermined or under threat wholesale: it is difficult to succeed at school if you face discrimination on a daily basis.)3

Social Inclusion A deeper understanding of social exclusion is crucial to understand better what social inclusion means. European commission defines Social inclusion as “a process which ensures that those at risk of poverty and social exclusion gain the opportunities and resources necessary to participate fully in economic, social and cultural life and to enjoy a standard of living and well-being that is considered normal in the society in which they live. It ensures that they have a greater participation in decision making which affects their lives and access to their fundamental rights.”4 It is a process which should help to eliminate gap between people living in the same society and stop the process of social exclusion by creating opportunities for those who need them. European Union target social inclusion in Europe 2020 strategy and has set the target of ‘lifting at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and social exclusion’ by 2020. In the youth field, this process is strongly connected with educational opportunities which are offered to young people at risk of exclusion including also Erasmus+ Programme. In this publication we will focus on 3 types of mobilities: Youth Exchanges, European Voluntary Service and Short-term European Voluntary EVS. For more information about Erasmus+ Programme please referred to the Erasmus+ Guide available online or contact your National Agency. http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/documents/erasmus-plus-programme-guide_en.pdf

3 Council of Europe and European Commission. 2003. T-Kit on Social Inclusion p. 15 https://www.salto-youth.net/downloads/4-17-402/tkit%20Social%20Inclusion.pdf 4 European Union. 2004. Joint Report on Social Inclusion. Directorate General for Employment and Social Afairs. p.8 http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/soc-prot/soc-incl/final_joint_inclusion_report_2003_en.pdf

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Erasmus+ opportunities for young people

Youth Exchange

Youth Exchange is an international project designed for all young people. Youth Exchanges allow groups of young people from at least two different countries to meet together and spend from 5 up to 21 days. Age limit of participants is 13 -25 years, more than 20% of participants may be up to 30 years. Each exchange must have a minimum of 16 and maximum of 60 young people (leaders excluded). Youth Exchanges allow young people to develop their skills, realize socially relevant themes or thematic areas, discover new cultures, customs and lifestyles, especially through mutual learning, reinforce values such as solidarity, democracy, friendship. Target group: projects are open to all, including disadvantaged youth. Methods: The method chosen are based on non-formal education aimed at develop creativity, active participation and intercultural learning of participants. Youth Exchange is a unique opportunity to take part in international mobility experience in the safety of a group supported by a team of leaders who facilitate the active participation of youngsters. It is as well a suitable experience for young people with fewer opportunities since the short duration of the activities. Youth Exchange may also serve as an ideal platform for the discussion of inclusion. Being based on transnational cooperation between two or more organizations from different countries of the European Union and beyond, youth exchanges offer a great opportunities of intercultural learning. EVS- European Voluntary Service: This activity allows young people aged 17 to 30 years old to express their personal commitment through unpaid and full-time voluntary service for 2 up to 12 months in another EU country or outside the European Union. Volunteers have the opportunity to participate in the daily work of organizations dealing with information and policies with the theme of youth, personal and social development of young people, civic engagement, social care, inclusion of disadvantaged people, environment, non-formal education programs, information and ICT and media literacy, culture and creativity, development cooperation. The European Voluntary Service aimed at develop solidarity and tolerance among young people. Short Term EVS Young people with fewer opportunities may receive additional financial support to enable their participation and they can join EVS project for a shorter time (from 2 weeks to 2 months). Short Term EVS projects can be attended individually or in group, between 1 and 30 volunteers at once.

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One negative phenomena of international project is the increasing number of youngsters which have participated in a very high number of projects and are keeping to apply to many other thus creating kind of “privileged participants” which know how the system of international mobility works and how to enter it. Of course, the interest of joining mobility project for young people is clear and understandable and should not be looked negatively but unfortunately this fact is reducing the number of places for young people which are not familiar with such system or do not know how to reach those information. So, youth workers in charged with selection of participants have the role and responsibility to ensure equal opportunity to all including young people with fewer opportunities. In case you have young people particularly interested in international projects, we propose to give them higher responsibility and support them to became, for example, a group leaders.

Definition of terms: Young people with fewer opportunities, Young people with special needs, NEETs

Young people with fewer opportunities As mentioned before young people aged between 16 and 25 years old are one of the most vulnerable groups experiencing social exclusion. Therefore exist many strategies and program focused on young people which are also combating social exclusion. Term used by the European Commission for these young is young people with fewer opportunities and define them as: “young people that are at a disadvantage compared to their peers because they face one or more of the situations and obstacles which prevent young people from having effective access to formal and non-formal education, transnational mobility and participation, active citizenship, empowerment and inclusion in society at large.” (Erasmus+ Guide, 2013) Since we are speaking about young people, emphasis is placed on educational opportunities, both formal and non-formal. Lower opportunities to access mobility experience for youngsters with fewer opportunities make them suffer big inequality, that's why these youngsters are one of the main target group for Erasmus+ Programme with the aim to facilitate their participation in international mobility projects. Very often, this term young people with fewer opportunities evokes misinterpretation and therefore, here, we would like to clarify better its meaning. The term which do not intend to stigmatize this group describes young peoples´ current situation NOT young people themselves. The term groups very different profiles, backgrounds and needs and depends on conditions in different countries. To unify the understanding, European Commission has recognized 7 types of obstacles which are the most spread ones. The following is not a complete list is more an attempt to point out the most common obstacles: disability (i.e. participants with special needs): people with mental (intellectual, cognitive, learning), physical, sensory or other disabilities; educational difficulties: young people with learning difficulties; early school-leavers; low qualified adults; young people with poor school performance; economic obstacles: people with a low standard of living, low income, dependence on social welfare system or homeless; young people in long-term unemployment or poverty; people in debt or with financial problems; cultural differences: immigrants or refugees or descendants from immigrant or refugee families; people belonging to a national or ethnic minority; people with linguistic adaptation and cultural inclusion difficulties;

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health problems: people with chronic health problems, severe illnesses or psychiatric conditions; social obstacles: people facing discrimination because of gender, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, etc.; people with limited social skills or anti-social or risky behaviours; people in a precarious situation; (ex-)offenders, (ex-)drug or alcohol abusers; young and/or single parents; orphans; geographical obstacles: people from remote or rural areas; people living in small islands or in peripheral regions; people from urban problem zones; people from less serviced areas (limited public transport, poor facilities).5 Why do we focus so much describing several obstacles that young people face up to? The reason is not just to clarify the terminology but as well to look at problematic situations from higher perspective thus helping youth workers to recognize also lack on their work and on their social contest. Is larger the number of NGO working with young people in the city, but how many organizations are working with young people in rural area? Maybe young people living in the city are more aware about opportunities supported by Erasmus+, but what about youngsters living in smaller village or far from the city, do they know about these opportunities? By including around 50 young people in our activities every years, how many of them are people with disability? One of the core principles of the quality of youth work is to reach out all groups of young people. Personal and practical obstacles Additionally to those mentioned above, there are two more obstacles that need to be taken in account while working with young people with fewer opportunities: personal obstacles and practical obstacles. Those two influence also methodology of work with young people and support which they can require. Young people with strong personal obstacles like low self-esteem, will need more personal support and guidance. On the other hand, young people with practical obstacles, like people with disabilities, need more help with accessibility and adjusted activities. In this publication, you will explore how to work with both categories of young people. To give an example of work with young people with personal obstacles we will present the work with young offenders and as a example of practical obstacles, the work with deaf young people.

PERSONAL OBSTACLES Low self-esteem; Lack of support, motivation, encouragement; Resistance towards authority and guidance; Resistance towards activities for children; Fear of discrimination; Uninteresting activities PRACTICAL OBSTACLES Lack of information; Lack of permission from their peers; Lack of time and energy; Lack of money; Problems with mobility

This description is not a proper definition which would help us to understand exactly who are and who are not young people with fewer opportunities. Certainly, everybody will agree by saying that

5 https://www.salto-youth.net/tools/otlas-partner-finding/help/young-people-with-fewer-opportunities/

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not all people with geographical obstacle are with fewer opportunities. For example our organization is located in Sicily which is an island one hour by flight or 10hours by train/bus far from Rome, the capital of Italy. This distance is clearly understandable as geographical obstacle, but not for all habitants this distance create obstacle which would prevent them from opportunities which have their peers in the rest of the country. Very important role in it is represented by economical situation but also self-esteem or accessibility to information.

Young people with special needs Very often, the European Commission use also the term young people with special needs. There are young people deprived of additional support like accompanying person, interpreter or material support, would not be able to participate in Erasmus+ projects, program therefore offers them special financial support. A person with special needs is a potential participant whose individual physical, mental or health-related situation is such that his/her participation in the project / mobility Action would not be possible without extra financial support. Higher education institutions that have selected students and/or staff with special needs can apply for additional grant support to the National Agency in order to cover the supplementary costs for their participation in the mobility activities6

NEETs Due to the persistence of economical crisis in Europe, particular attention of European youth work is given in last years to long-term unemployed young people, who do not participate in training or are not students. This group of young people are entitled with shortcut NEETs which mean (Not in Education, Employment or Training). Increase their employability and inclusion is also one of the priority of Erasmus+ chapter Youth. Many countries have paid attention to the NEET phenomenon, but focusing mainly on the problem of unemployed youth. The focus on unemployed youth underestimates the extent of their potential vulnerability. Expanding the focus from unemployed youth to those not in employment, education or training can provide a better insight into the challenges that young people face and inform the development of policies that contribute to a better future for them and for their countries.7

6 European Comission. 2016. Erasmus+ Programme Guide for 2016. p. 44 http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/documents/erasmus-plus-programme-guide_en.pdf 7 European Training Foundation. 2014. Working together for life, YOUNG PEOPLE NOT IN EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION OR TRAINING IN THE ETF PARTNER COUNTRIES http://www.etf.europa.eu/webatt.nsf/0/A0A1BB4102618130C1257E3000329DCA/$file/Young%20people%20not%20in%20employment,%20education%20or%20training%20in%20the%20ETF%20partner%20countries.pdf

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Roads to young people

Starting with social inclusion project step by step

This chapter is summary of discussions and experiences with social inclusion projects of youth

workers from different organization whose aim is to encourage youth NGOs to start with social

inclusion projects. You can find here examples and practical advices how to start with social

inclusion projects. Important is just to realize that there is no space for simple “instant” solutions

which will allow you to create fast, easy and well managed project. Every good project is based on

thorough preparation and close collaboration with young people who are your target group.

Do not worry and keep youthworking

When we asked youth workers from organizations who had no experience with involvement of

young people with fewer opportunities in their activities why they never tried it the most frequent

answers were feeling the lack of competencies to work with particular groups or just fears or

worries.

The truth is that there is no reason to have any worries. As we wrote about young people with fewer

opportunities are just in more difficult situation that the better we know it the easier we can

facilitate their participation. Youth work concerning projects focused on social inclusion is based on

the same principles as “ordinary” youth work. Young people are always young people who want to

participate in projects which reflect their needs and interest no matter if they are with disabilities or

from difficult backgrounds.

Get to know your target group. Discover their needs and interest, environment they live in, places

where they spend their time, problems they face, what they expect from the future, what you can

offer to them.

How to do it?

Meet directly young people, visit places they are frequently placed such as schools and youth

centers. Speak with their parents, teachers, social asistents, other youth workers or just people from

the same neighborhood. Try to get all information you can get but in the same time also present

opportunities which you can offer to them, inform them and try to attract their attention. Ensure

that if they want they know how to contact your organization and try to come closer to their

realities.

Treasure hunt “young people”

This activity is exercise that was experienced also during Training courses with very good result. In

order to get to know local young people , their problems, interest and needs participants joined

different version of treasure hunt. Participants in teams of 4-5 people they went to the city with

simple task to speak with young people and their parents and to find answers on following

questions:

1.Where young people like to go?

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2.Which opportunities have young people in Alcamo?

3.Which difficulties have young people in Alcamo?

4.What young people would like to change in the city?

5.Who are young people with fewer opportunities in the city and which obstacles they face?

Participants had 1,5 hour.

After returning participants presented results of their small researches and tried to put together

picture about the situation of young people in the city. The aim of this exercise was not only to gain

information about local young people but also to find how easy can be to collect informations about

local realities Participants of the Training course after this exercise collected very clear and detailed

picture about situation in the city for young people and some get useful contacts.

This small activity we would recommend not only to members of NGOs that want to start working in

some territory but also to youth workers who want to rethink they work and gain new inspiration for

their work.

Collecting information

Living in 21th century we should not forget about opportunities which we have available especially

the use of internet. Everything is on the web so let´s search. Try to understand which kind of project

has been already done and what kind of results were performed. Which projects were successful

and why and which did not work so well in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Find

organizations that work with similar target groups in your country or abroad. Once you start

searching you will find that there is a lot information available on the web and maybe also directly

concerning your target group. Sometimes it is like do a puzzle but the result worth it.

But what if we still do not know how to start?

Find partners. If you are starting to work with new group of young people, try to get in contact with

schools, other NGOs or public institutions that work with them or know their realities. They can

facilitate your contact with young people, provide you with important informations or advise how to

approach particular target group, recommend you concrete youngsters who could be interested to

be involved in your activities, or youngsters who are natural leaders of the group who are important

to approach. Many youth centers would like to organize international projects with their young

people but they have difficulties with English so they do not t do it. Collaboration and networking is

very essential in youth work in order to offer to young people more opportunities.

If there is nobody who work with them you can try to get to know how also from organizations from

other countries. When we decided to write project of Youth Exchange with mixed group of hearing

and deaf young people we did not know any organization that would experience it, also therefore

we choose partners who already organized such project. They gave us a lot of tips about how to

design program, tips about how to organize translations anicipd their participation in the project

was very useful and enriching.

Rather than to have partners it is very good to have reliable partners and no matter if they are local

or international. Therefore is important to know the organization that your organization is

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cooperating with before. Various information about organization and their approach to young

people you can get easily by communication. The way how they speak about young people with

they work can provide you with significant overview. Do they really know them? Are they speaking

about young people as a partner? Which kind of project the organization have organized in the

past? With which results?

Involve young people-peers

Young people are interested to meet other young people, we youth workers are not so interesting

for them. Everytime we go to promote EVS project in some school or youth center the interest of

public increase significantly in the moment when the floor is given to our EVS volunteers. EVS

volunteers or local volunteers are the best “tool” which we have to attract young people. No matter

how many great photographs or videos do you have from creative projects, one participant who

experienced it in reality is more trustworthy and interesting. For your volunteers it is also great

learning opportunity to organize small promotion event and meet new young people.

Great opportunity you have is to use activities that you already run with young people. If it is youth

exchange or local activity try to create space in which new young people can join the activity to

understand what is going on. Many young people especially that one from difficult backgrounds or

with personal obstacles will not directly join even few days long activity, but they may come to see

how it is. Once seeing that it is nothing difficult and it can be even funny it is easier to motivate

them to join the project. These kind of events have to be well prepared and planned in order to

create also for new people who come to see the event. Space and tasks are adjusted in order they

can join and feel useful.

Building an individual approach

In majority of cases starting with new target group means to start with very small groups of young

people. We should not take it as failure if we manage to attract for our activity just few individuals.

Slow beginning can be useful for both sides as it allows really individual approach. Few young

people really interested in the activity bring better results than the group of young people who from

time after time take part in activities. Important is to enhance the interest of young people and

create for them responsibility in the framework of the organization. Young people can become your

co-workers who help you to involve in your activities local community and young people who would

alone maybe never tried to take part.

Building trust

To build the trust of young people with whose we start to work is the most important step. There is

no way how to speed up the process, but unfortunately there is lot of ways how to lose their trust.

One of them are empty promises. It is crucial to be honest with young people about outcomes of

the project. If you want to write together with young people project it is necessary to explain them

from the beginning that the project can be also not approved. The same problems are connected

with supporting unrealistic expectations. Maybe during 10 days long project youngsters will not

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learn to speak fluently English and EVS project is not tool how to find the job abroad (this even

shouldn’t be the objective of participation) but participation in project abroad can help you to lose

the fear of speaking in English and improve your ability to express also with limited vocabulary. EVS

can be experience which shows you opportunities which you have for your future job and gain new

competencies. Important part of building trust is to tackle also possible difficulties which can appear

during the project.

Active involvement of young people

One of the most important criteria

how to ensure the quality of youth

work is giving to young people

active role in all activities during

whole duration of the project in all

phases according to their interest

and possibilities. This task can look

difficult but in reality it is making

your work easier. More active are

young people involved in project

less problems can appear during the project itself concerning their interest and motivation.

Find role for everybody, maybe not all young people will be interested to be part of project writing

so it is important to integrate them in different tasks.

Explain them their opportunities what they can do in the project which responsibility they can have.

Don’t put too much responsibility and be careful and open to their proposals, but put them in

reality. When we wrote the project for the first time youth exchange including deaf young people

we were trying to give them so much space that we did not realize that the project has lost the

characteristic of youth exchange. It was our mistake as young people did not have experience with

youth exchanges and the project was not approved. We rewrote the project for the next deadline

searching together ways how to fulfil expectations of young people and in the same time to stay in

the frame of youth exchange, the project was approved and in the end also they liked more the

parts of program that resulted in compromise.

Ensure that young people understand clearly their responsibilities and tasks. This is very important,

working with young people who maybe first time participating in the project you can not expect

that their task are for them clear as they are clear for you.

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Young people with fewer opportunities in international project- conreate

examples and practical advises

In this last part of publication we will present concrete examples of work with 2 different groups of

young people with fewer opportunities young offenders and deaf young people

We will present how we started to work with them and our experiences and advices how to involve

young people in activities. This two examples are representing also 2 different approaches one is

more connected with personal support and the other with practical support.

Experiences in work with Young Offenders

Young offenders who we work with have similar profile as young people from difficult backgrounds.

Very often facing cultural isolation, little opportunities and language barrier as it is significant for the

realities of Young offenders.

Who are young offenders?

Young people who committed an offence (a crime) and serve a punishment or are under supervision

from the legal authorities. The profile of these young people can be very different, many of them

face multiple obstacles as difficult economical situation, cultural differences or cultural isolation, low

educational background or in many cases even learning difficulties.

How we started to work with young offenders?

Associazione InformaGiovani started to work with young offenders 15 years ago. Everything started

from collaboration between our organization and one very active social assistant. Our organization

at that time did not have concrete experience with social inclusion project, we just believed in the

idea that our activities should be open for everybody. On the other hand social assistant wanted to

put one young offender out of his comfort zone and give him opportunity to challenge himself in

international project. The result was life changing for both sides, this experience helped to the boy

to find his way in life and enhance self confidence and our organization decided to continue in this

work and co-operate with different bodies of the Italian Ministry of Justice responsible for

rehabilitation of young offenders. Close collaboration with social assistant and Ministry of justice

made our work much easier and gave us a lot of know how. Social assistant gave us not just lot of

information about the boy , but also idea how to act in some situations and possibility to prepare

the leader of the international project to be ready for this experience.

How to involve young offenders in international activities?

Selection

Close cooperation with Juvenile Justice and social assistant is a crucial work with this group of young

people. Social assistants follow young offenders during the long time period and therefore they

know them very well and can evaluate if the young person is ready for this experience. This is very

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important in order to ensure security for the rest of participants which is always in the first place but

also personal development of young offender. We would like to underline that majority of the young

offenders commit crimes that are not considered as violent in majority of the cases there are just

adolescents who made wrong choice and the image which they have in society is highly

discriminative.

Getting to know and preparation

Social assistant provides to us also all information that could influence the participation of young

offender in the international project (for example problems with drugs or alcohol in past) or could

help to facilitate his involvement. Anyway is very important to know every young offender

individually. Our staff member meet every young offender before his involvement in any activities in

order to get to know him better and explain him better our activities. InformaGiovani every year

organizes also projects that last one weekend which allow to young offenders better understand

what we do and to really get to know each other. During this project they have possibility to get to

know also the volunteers and youth leaders of our organization. These activities have the same

structure as youth projects as youth exchanges and sometimes are even with participation of

foreign volunteers as EVS so they can better immagine experience that is waiting for them.

According to the maturity and level of self esteem and autonomy of each youngster, there are

different steps to join the international activities for young people. They can start from a Youth

exchange in Italy then abroad and finally joining an EVS short term project. It must be said that not

all the youngsters have passed through all the steps but at least they can repeat the experience if

the results are successful for their personal development educational project.

Composition of the group

In every project doesn´t matter if local activities or international activities as youth exchanges we

create mixed groups of young offenders and our volunteers and other young people. In youth

exchanges we involve max 1-2 young offenders from different USSM ( social Services for minors

offices) of Italy because in our experience joining these kind of activities is more enriching, as they

have possibility to get to know other life style and opinions and it increases cultural exchange. From

our experience activities that involve more young offenders request more experienced leaders as

the dynamic of the group changes and more conflicts can appear.

Which kind of activities and projects?

The most important aspect in selection of topic of the project tend to to reflect the interest of

young offenders, but is important to take in account also their needs and adapt the activities to

them. In our case majority of young offenders who we involve in our projects had just basic or any

knowledge of English. Because of this they prefer projects that include practical activities, physical

or manual activities as sport or volunteering activities as free time activities for children or

environmental activities. Volunteering activities help to foster sense of belongingness to the

community and recognition of own potential for each youngster. Very important is to include in

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projects activities which allow them to express themselves in non-verbal way. We have very good

experience with use of theatre, music, painting (street art) or for example cooking. National

evenings are very often activities in which young offenders are engaged the most. Therefore also

when we choose place where to organize the activity we prefer venues where participants can cook.

Preparation

Preparation phase is very important as it can help to

prevent many difficulties and facilitate participation of

young offenders in the project. During the preparation

are discussed following topics:

social contract – as participation of young

offenders in international projects is the result of

cooperation with Ministry of Justice, there are

rules which young offenders have to follow (as

for example no tolerance of alcohol and drugs)

but also rules of living together that are

important to be clarified. Many of young

offenders do not have experience in living in

community and therefore is important to speak

about sharing common space, division of tasks, responsibilities, tasks rights connected with

participation in project, but also problems which can appear.

explanation of what is youth exchange and non-formal education. For majority of young

offenders is participation in youth exchange the first experience with international projects

and non-formal education is very often perceived negatively as “playing” and “childish”.

Therefore is important to explain that it is educational approach and point out learning

outcomes that the youngsters can gain such as improve language skills, presentation skills,

teamwork or conflicts management)

intercultural experience – Big challenge for many young offenders is living in the intercultural

environment. Young offenders are very often from culturally very homogenous and isolated

environment therefore is necessary to discuss topics as intercultural differences, prejudice

and stereotypes, but also issues as how to behave with participants of opposite gender. To

make them understand that for example physical contact during communication which in

Italian culture is considered as normal can be perceived as offensive. That people have

different perception of what it means normal communicative distance or private space. That

more silent participants do not have to be “cold” people, but just maybe need some more

time to get to open to others.

Division of tasks. Every group before the youth exchange has to make some small task as

prepare presentation of the country and culture. This task helps young people to get into the

project but also facilitate team building. It is important that every member has his role and

task.

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As for many young offenders is participation in youth exchange the first experience of travel

(very often first travel even in Italy) preparation for travel and all practical issues must not be

underestimated. What to bring, which kind of clothes, travel documents... Travelling is very

challenging. Very often young offenders after the project speak a lot about travel and fear

which they had before and feel very proud that they managed it, therefore is important to

include them actively also in planning of travel and give them support.

Motivate them for the project and create a relation of trust. This preparation meetings are

very important in order to get to know each other and to start creating the relation of trust

between the leader and the young offender and friendly relation inside the group in general.

During the project

First days of the project are very important as it is the time when the group is creating,

therefore it is important to include in programme many get to know each other games,

icebreakers and teambuilding games. It is important to select activities which are accessible

for everybody, to add more physical activities if some participants have language barrier. The

main rule is to continue with teambuilding activities (using different types of activities and

methods) until the group is undivided. In every activity mixing the members of the group is

important because participants have possibility to interact with everybody. Language

barriers or shyness is very often serious obstacle during the first days and many times is

necessary the leader is helping with socialisation involving more shy participants in

conversation or helping with translation in particular during the free time when activities are

not foreseen. What we recommend to our group leaders is helping but not “babysitting”.

Trying to help but not to be all the time close better to try to help them to find they way how

to express themselves. Same as understand when to help is important also to know when to

leave them alone in this learning process.

The support can be done also through various activities. Participant create own “vocabulary”,

divided in groups can write on flipcharts basic sentences translated from all native languages of

participants to one common language in this case English. There are more activities for example

every day can be dedicated to different language and in this way also participants who do not speak

English can be teachers to the others.

Language barrier can create a barrier for active participation. These participants who suffer

from language barriers if they would like to participate in many situation they have limited

opportunities and because of this is

important to create activities and tasks in

which can be leaders participants with

language barriers.

Settle rules- Rules have a specific meaning

in the project with young offenders as

many of them have problems to follow

them and therefore many situations can

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be very challenging. It is important that the rules are not just said at beginning but also

followed during the whole period of the project (also by the leader). Young offenders very

often try to slowly move this limits in order to understand until where they can go, therefore

it is important to be strict with the rules and when young offender breaks the rule it is

important to explain to him the consequences if such behaviour will continue.

Personal crisis- Participation in international projects is very challenging and therefore very

often our youth leaders face small personal crisis of young offenders. Participants want to go

home, don´t want to participate in activities, don´t want to eat with the rest of the group or

try to attract attention with provocations.This personal crisis normally finish as fast as they

started, important is just to be prepared. Very often young people only need to speak with

somebody, see that somebody care about them or need help with their socialisation. When

participants want to go home, very successful strategy is to convince them to stay 1-2 days

more. It is normally that they need to find friends and after do not want want to interrupt

their presence in the project. Provocation or conflicts are sometimes much harder to handle

as many young offenders are very “creative” and sometimes it is impossible to stay calm. In

this situations we recommend to our leaders not to solve the conflict when the atmosphere

is tensed, but wait for some time and return to the issue when both sides are calm down

and search for the solution together.

Experiences with work with deaf young people

Our organization started to work with deaf young people 3 years ago when one our local activity

included also few deaf young people. This activity was just starting point that helped us to know

each other and we had great opportunity to discover Deaf community and deaf culture. The project

was very strong breaking point for all members of our NGO that made us to understand that there

exist realities about which we know just too little and that world of deaf and hearing people are in

our region still isolated therefore we realized the need to open all our activities also to deaf young

people. We contacted group of deaf young people which participated in our project and they were

very interested to participate in international project so we decided to write together project of

Youth Exchange. As we had any previous significant experience in working with deaf young people

these young people were big support and they have offered many ideas for the project. Anyway we

felt that before organizing the project will include also deaf young people from other countries we

should be more experienced. Many relevant information we received from 2 interpreters of the Sign

language which gave us answers also to questions that we would never asked. As they work as

mediators between word of hearing and deaf people they transmitted a lot of know how about

how to adapt project to the needs of deaf people and introduced us the problems connected with

interpretation of words to Sign language.

Other important source of information were for us our international partners. When we were

searching partners for our youth exchange we were surprised with very little number of answers,

fortunately we have found few organizations that were not just interested to be partners in our

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project but also ready to share the know how and experience. It was crucial that we involved

organization with experience because they helped us to avoid many mistakes and were very helpful

in designing and writing project. Thanks to our deaf participants, interpreters and partners we

managed very successfully our first youth exchange with mixed groups of hearing and deaf young

participants who not only encouraged us to continue with this work but also to try to open our

activities to all young people.

Tips and tricks for involvement of deaf young people in international projects

The first step in every youth project is to get to know deaf young people and their needs. There are

many differences in needs of deaf young people. Firstly there are young people who are using

speech as manner for communication (lipreading). Secondly there are young people who are using

Sign Language as their prime language or are using both possibilities. The difference is often already

included in the way in which they use the word deaf. Deaf written with capital letters as Deaf refer

to Deaf culture, young people which identify themselves as part of Deaf community use as prefered

or prime language Sign language. People who are "deaf" (with small d)are usually oral deaf people

who use speech to communicate instead of the Sign the language.

This information is very important in order to be able to adapt suitable activities. During

international project this aspect has even higher importance due to the fact that many deaf young

people do not speak english and therefore to learn foreign language is more difficult for them. This

obstacle is possible to resolve with help of interpreter who can translate from/to English from/to

national Sign language, but it is important to take in account that in some countries it is difficult to

find even interpreter who speaks also English.

There exist also international Sign language called International Signs, but unfortunately it is not

very known and there is no convention on international recognition or it is more complex than

natural Sign languages, and has a limited lexicon. In our first project in order to simplify translation

we wanted to make it in International Signs but we were informed by our partner organizations is

that very difficult to find deaf young people who know it. Therefore we decided to use translation in

National Sign languages.

-Topics: Visual art and visual media are very important communication tools for deaf people,

therefore we recommend them not only to facilitate self expression of participants but also as

channel of communication.

-Breaking barriers between hearing and deaf people is the main task of the first days of the project. It

is very important to use non-verbal communication. Activities based on body language and mime

are crucial. These kind of activities are very important specially for hearing participants who based

on our experience have greater problem to express themselves through body language or

pantomime. It is important to create friendly atmosphere where everybody feels comfortable to

express himself in every possible way. We recommend also simple exercises using improvisation and

acting. Of course nobody can be forced to participate. It is important to understand what the young

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people feel to do and how they want to express themselves and give them the proper space.

-Timetable When we are planning the program of project with participation of deaf people it is

important also to take in account time that is necessary for translations. In general it is good to take

into account that every activity takes double time. This need of double time means also longer

concentration therefore it is important to create enough space for participant to relax. Activities

based on speaking are very important to be balanced with more dynamic activities. We recommend

also to avoid big group discussion and if it is necessary better to discuss in small groups.

-Activities in small groups are very inclusive as in small groups there is a chance to speak also for

participants who would stay silent while participating in the big group. The composition of the

groups should vary in every activity in order to give to all participants the chance to speak with

everybody. Concerning the fact that it is an international project it is important to mix different

nationalities in the group but always in the way that everybody who needs help with translation has

the interpreter or somebody who can help him.

-Interpreting to Sign language is very complex issue during the whole period of the project. For good

interpretation it is crucial propriate light available that is necessary for deaf participants to be able

read from the lips and to understand the signs. This aspect is important to have in mind also during

the free time to create for all participants possibility to socialize also during the time when any

activities are not foreseen.

Concerning international projects there is need for interpretation to more languages in the same

time therefore it is important to have space capacious enough where every deaf person can see

easily the interpreter because interpreting to Sign Language is not only about gestures and

movements of hands but also postures or movements of the body, head, eyebrows, eyes, cheeks,

and mouth have also their meaning.

-In mixed projects hearing participants do not realize that they can not speak in the same time

therefore it is important to find system which remind to all participants that they have to speak one

after another and always leave time for translation. In our projects we started using a moderator for

discussion whose role is managing the discussion, giving the voice to participants and if there is

need to stop participants who are speaking too fast. Anyway to learn to speak one after another is

not so easy as it can look like, but the effort is worth as in this way participants learn not just to be

more sensible to the needs of others, but also to listen more carefully and do not interrupt the

speech of others.

-For translation very important is the eye contact and quiet environment therefore is important to

explain rules of every activity very clearly before the activity starts. Only when we are sure that

everybody understands the activity can start, because in the moment when participants start to

move is very difficult for interpreters of the Sign language to work effectively.

-Support materials for Sign language interpreters. If the topic of youth exchange requires specific

vocabulary is good to prepare some written material for interpreters to whom it allows to prepare

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more carefully for interpreting.

-No blindfolding. Many icebreakers, team building and trust games are based on blind-folding. This

types of activity are better to avoid. For deaf people the sight is the most important sense and

without it they feel very uncomfortable.

-Visual support materials are very useful. Do not be afraid to use colours in all materials.It is good to

create from every activity small written summary which can be available for everybody to

remember discussed issues. Use of videos, images, painting and photographs make every activity

more interesting not not only for deaf young people.

The break for translation have to be long enough not only to allow to interpreter to finish the

translation but also to deaf participant to respond or ask a question if there is need for clarification.

Regular feedbacks – In order to understand if interpreting works well it is necessary to receive

regular feedback from interpreters and participants. It is important to create atmosphere in which

participants don´t have problems to say that they didn´t understand something or something did

not work well .

To be able to better solve this issue it is good to involve also deaf participants and interpreters as

they are much more experienced and they can find solutions more easily. First days are always little

bit chaotic and difficult important thing is to take it positively and be open to various solutions, next

days it will go better. It is also very beautiful to see interpretation to different Sign languages and

observe how young people are becoming more sensitive to the needs of others.

-And in the end we would like to give you some advices how to communicate with deaf people. The

most important is to speak face to face in order to allow to deaf person to read from the lips. When

you turn to somebody else you have

to be aware that the deaf person can

not understand you. Many people

tend to articulate too much, this can

be very confusing, it is better to

speak normally, just not too fast.

When there is interpreter present

who is interpreting your speech also

you have to be very careful not to

speak too fast and to be sure to

make breaks to allow to the

interpreter to finish the interpretation. It is very good habit to make yourself regularly sure that the

interpreter managed to proceed the translation.

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The publication is a product of the “Social Inclusion-ing” project implemented by Associazione InformaGiovani, European Network for

social volunteering, under Erasmus+ programme. This project has been funded with support from the Italian National Agency. This

publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of

the information contained therein.

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and Lithuania deaf youth association

www.informa-giovani.net