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Description
“Ativ@-te!” main objective is to contribute to the reduction of the percentage of young NEET residents in the municipality of Maia, aged between 15 and 29 years old and who are inactive without studying, working or attending vocational training, particularly in vulnerable situations, with low education and low levels of qualification. With this project it is expected the creation of activation mechanisms among these youth people, promoting initiative and individual empowerment, through close monitoring, constructive leisure spaces, among others. The project will be implemented in five main phases: knowledge and awareness (diagnostic actions and personalized and individualised follow-up sessions to delineate a life goal of the participants); involve and prevent (creation of spaces and opportunities for constructive leisure); empower (through training on citizenship and enhancement of human potential, internship programs within companies); accompany and integrate (mentoring programs and tailor-made, individualized follow-up sessions to enhance job readiness).
Summary of project results
The project aims to contribute to reducing the percentage of young NEETs in the municipality of Maia, Porto district by: Involving young NEETs in the municipality of Maia in inclusive and participatory training processes that lead to their socio-professional integration; Developing mechanisms for intergenerational cooperation and mentoring for the benefit of the inclusion of these groups of young people; Developing training and capacity-building programmes for young NEETs that encourage their transition to the labour market, supporting the acquisition of skills through non-formal and informal education activities, including artistic, cultural and sporting processes; Encouraging and supporting the involvement and participation of young people in youth organisations in the design of policies, implementation and monitoring.
Throughout the project, activities were developed such as training for the acquisition of personal, social and transversal skills, employability, work on self-knowledge and self-esteem, as well as self-concept, to promote lower levels of resistance to change and to lead young people to build and participate in their life project and be agents of their own change. Individual support was an important premise for all the work carried out with young people in action, as well as for creating and maintaining the synergies created with some families and other services and the community in general. A total of 364 individual appointments were made in response to the idiosyncrasies presented by the young people and their contexts.
A diagnosis was made of the organisation and the following training activities were implemented as the result of the Action Plan: Training in Planning and Evaluation for Impact Demonstration (12 hours); Training in Designing and Executing Marketing Strategies (12 hours); Training in Defining and Implementing Communication Strategies (24 hours). A consultancy process (25 hours) was developed, centred on Value Creation and Sustainability Models, with the coordinators of the SCMM''s centres and central services. This process resulted in a value proposition for the institution in question and the acquisition of new tools and working methodologies.
The Ativ@-te! project! involved, trained and empowered 136 young people, of which 96 were referred for training and/or employment. 22 young people were integrated into work opportunities. There was a positive impact on the contribution to improving the quality of life of the beneficiaries, and this continuous improvement is reflected in the long term and in more inclusive and autonomous processes, easy to see in the opinions shared by young people and the external evaluation report. Follow-up was guaranteed in the different dimensions of young people''s lives, so that the perpetuated changes were holistic and permanent. Synergies and products were established to support life projects, in articulation with services. These synergies and opportunities were vital for creating and sustaining opportunities for change, with the ultimate aim of empowering and including young people. As a result of synergies with the community, unintended results were achieved, such as the integration of young people into sports associations and better levels of family involvement.
The organisation''s capacity-building was extremely important. It promoted the improvement of skills, other visions of intervention and projects. It trained all the organisations´s departments in strategic areas, making the organisation even more capable of working for the community and civil society. The training was considered by all the participants and those involved as a very valuable and positive component, for the present activities and for the future.