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Description
Each year, courts send more than 700 young people (aged 13-18) who are in trouble with the law to juvenile probation supervision centers. These young people are mostly from especially difficult and neglected environments, and do not have sufficient role models or receive support or motivation to change from their family. The shortcomings of the legal and education system mean that juveniles sent to these centers are often unwilling to cooperate with supervisors. The Ministry of Justice has stated that "... Clearly for this form of measure to continue to develop, youth organizations and other community organizations have to work together. Without cooperation of this kind, which takes account in particular of local conditions, it will not be possible for the juvenile resocialization system to function properly”. The project will address the diagnosed problem of poor resocialization of young people (aged 13-18) who face social exclusion due to being in trouble with the law. We will conduct workshop and development classes, three times, on cooking, sewing, DIY, and ironing, and accompanying relaxation and motivation classes, and meetings with career counselors. In addition to the career counselling, there will be visits to local businesses selected by young people. We will summarize each of the courses at a meeting attended by the project personnel, personnel of the juvenile probation supervision center, the young people participating in the project, and their parents. As a result of the project, young people will gain skills and knowledge giving them a mature attitude to entering adult life and enabling them to make informed decisions. We will devise methods for working with young people facing exclusion, which we will use when working with further groups of wards of the juvenile probation supervision center. 36 young people at the juvenile probation supervision center in Zielona Góra will participate in the measures.
Summary of project results
The project responded to the problem of ineffective rehabilitation of young people from the Zielona Góra district at risk of social exclusion due to conflicts with the law. Every year, the courts refer more than 700 young people aged between 13 and 18 who have been in conflict with the law to probation centres. These young people mostly come from difficult and neglected backgrounds, where they do not receive support and motivation to change from their relatives. The inadequacy of the legal and educational system means that minors placed in probation centres are often unwilling to cooperate with the educational staff. The effectiveness of this form of rehabilitation requires the centres to cooperate with youth and other social organisations, as the Ministry of Justice has pointed out.
As part of the project, 3 sessions of meetings and development workshops were held for young people aged 13-18 from the Zielona Góra Probation Centre (36 people). The workshops and meetings covered practical skills - cooking, DIY, ironing, sewing - as well as relaxation and motivation techniques and career counselling. The form and content of some of the activities were influenced by the participants themselves. During the career preference meetings, the young people got to know seven companies from different sectors that had invited the project participants and showed them how they work "behind the scenes".
The project benefited 36 people - young people from the probation centre in Zielona Góra. The young people developed their social skills and emotional intelligence and increased their motivation to enter adult life in a mature way and to make informed decisions. They also acquired practical skills to function independently after leaving the centre, useful in the household. Young people''s awareness of career choices has also increased. Thanks to the project, the beneficiary has developed interesting and innovative tools for working with young people at risk of exclusion, which will be used in work with successive groups of young people in the Probation Centre in Zielona Góra.