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Description
We realized the problems of vulnerable young persons when working on the project Active Elbląg. This is confirmed by police statistics (on juvenile crime and domestic abuse) and social welfare center statistics, and conclusions reached at meetings with centers that work with young people. Discussions with them revealed a need to act to empower and integrate young people into the community, and to introduce new methods of addressing the needs of young people, other than those employed in facilities today. They also revealed a shortage of personnel, and this hinders provision of assistance individually. The work of the centers focuses on solving daily problems and relationships of people in this age group within the center. It is important to create a space where young people will have to find themselves and form new relationships. The project envisages work with young people in the Elbląg district who are socially excluded due to violence, psychological disorders, addiction, disability, neglectful upbringing, and learning difficulties. The objective is to improve their social abilities and teamwork skills, self-confidence, and feeling of physical capability. We draw up a personal assistance plan with each individual. We provide psychological support, coaching on social abilities, coaching on being independent, artetherapy, and creativity workshops. We work together to produce a theatre performance on a subject chosen by young people, a picnic at which the performance is put on for the local community, and an exhibition of the participants'' works. The measures will benefit 22 vulnerable young people (aged 15-21) who will improve their feeling of physical capability, confidence, and creative problem-solving. They will devise ways of reducing their anxiety through communication tools, and increase awareness in measures to prevent violence. They will learn that they have the power to take responsibility for themselves and learn how to do so.
Summary of project results
The project responds to the need to support young people experiencing a variety of difficulties, including aggression problems, depressive-anxiety disorders, addictions, educational neglect, learning problems, including young people under the care of educational care facilities in Elbląg and Elbląg County. Every year several dozen minors commit crimes in Elbląg. Data from the KARAN Youth Therapeutic Centre in Elbląg indicate that 95% of young people end up there because of drugs and alcohol. At the same time, every year the Police intervene several hundred times in families due to violence against children and young people. The number of suicides committed by young people is also increasing. The situation of young people worsened in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic, which did not encourage the establishment and maintenance of peer relationships, often locking children and young people in their homes.A group of 20 people aged 15-21 received psychological and emotional support - both at individual and group level. They benefited from psychological consultations, participated in thematic workshops (on sexuality, crisis intervention, family systems, group process), social competence training, independence training, a series of creative and art therapy workshops. The study trip to Olesno resulted in the participants preparing - in cooperation with the staff of the Rajstopy Theatre - a performance entitled "Would you call yourself an optimist? ".The performance was presented to the local community of Olesno, as well as in three Elbląg secondary schools and during a picnic in Elbląg. As part of the "something for themselves" initiative, the young people also organised joint outings (e.g. to a museum or ice-rink), and as part of the "something for others" initiative, they participated in charity events or prepared leisure time activities for the local community.As part of the project, a group of young people went through a process of working on themselves - their emotions and their relationships with their environment. They learned self-acceptance, group work, developed social competences, practised attentiveness and agency and independent thinking, and discovered their strengths. The group formed lasting bonds with each other and the whole experience was also a big lesson in empathy for the participants. Preparing the performance and then staging it in various venues gave the young people a sense of agency and greater confidence in their abilities.
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