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Description
Research shows that children coming from foster homes or families with higher social risk feature low self-esteem. This lowers motivation to learn, set goals and achieve them. Children tend to get involved in criminal activities and delinquent behavior. The number of young adults and children showing this behavior is increasing and often at an earlier age. Lithuania lacks successful support mechanisms for troubled youth and families that raise children with a behavior disorder. The aim of the project - to develop a new work model in Panevėžys County, applying apprenticeship and enhanced escort methods for children and youth with high-risk behavior issues. The methodology of the new work model „Skills lab“ will be prepared during the project.
Project target group - children and youth starting independent life coming from foster homes or families with higher social risk. During the project integrated complex services will be provided for youth and children from Rokiškis, Biržai and Panevėžys districts. 75 specialists from the mentioned districts will receive 15 sessions of training on the potentiality and added value of the new work model and its application with the target group.
The project partner SEEDS Iceland (See beyonD borderS) will also contribute to the achievement of the project goal and objectives. During the project, the partners will share experience and knowledge on how to work better with young people experiencing social exclusion, implement a new work model more effectively, and develop social and practical work competencies through a structured non-formal learning process in the field.
Summary of project results
Social services for children at social risk are provided and supervised by social workers working with families in a particular district social services center.The theoretical aim of the social worker''s activity is to develop, restore and maintain the family''s and individual''s ability to independently solve social problems, to initiate changes in the family''s social life, using the family''s own possibilities and the resources of the community. However, the effectiveness of the social worker''s work with families of children in care is particularly affected by the lack of parental motivation to bring about change, the negative immediate environment, and the negative attitude of the community towards families at risk. The data analysis revealed that the causal basis of the factors limiting the effectiveness of the social worker''s work with families at social risk lies in the social service system itself. Improperly organised social worker''s activity, limited social worker''s ability to ensure the use of all the resources necessary for the restoration of the family''s functions, and excessive social worker''s workload are the key factors limiting the efficiency of social worker''s activity.
Services for young people in Lithuania are still not evenly developed, municipal funding is insufficient to ensure quality services, and there is no effective model for working with young people in difficulty in Lithuania either. Often professionals lack the motivation and knowledge to build a strong relationship with a young person who is experiencing difficulties in their life - behavioural, emotional or mental health difficulties, or who is experiencing difficulties in their family or in a care institution, so often the work with these young people is more of a simulation than a real help. It is common practice to try to use conventional forms of working with these young people that do not meet their needs and capacities - dry, uninteresting lectures on psychotropic substances, the importance of work in a citizen''s life, the harm caused by an antisocial lifestyle, moralising and stigmatising.
the Skills Lab - aims to empower the young person to make a personal change in order to strengthen his/her social and work skills. Simply put, we started to prepare young people for independent living through ways, methods and services that appeal to them.
The approach of the Skills Lab is to select a young person, identify his/her needs, initiate a discussion with him/her and his/her immediate environment, and place him/her in a small village for a month, together with other young people of the target group and social, youth and apprenticeship workers. During the camp, the young people follow a clear timetable and daily rhythm: they learn to cook and they learn to work with a carpenter on woodworking. Every day there are reflection sessions, where a group of young people discuss the day and resolve any issues. The young people organise their free time together with the staff, and share responsibilities at home. Weekends are usually dedicated to experiential activities. An individual plan is drawn up with each young person, personal learning goals are set and a relationship is built. There is also an advocacy service. Staff with knowledge of the young person''s psychology are present throughout the process. Staff provide support and individual attention to young people on an ongoing basis.
After a month of living a life that is often different from their usual one, and experiencing the real benefits, young people find the strength and motivation to make changes in their own lives too. This is where the follow-up individual work and accompaniment at the end of the programme becomes crucial. The working approach therefore includes post-camp activities, where individual work is carried out with each young person and his/her environment for a further 6 months after the camp. The individual work after the programme would be carried out through a case management approach. Staff who have gained the young person''s trust during the camp and built a relationship with them continue to work with the young person for six months, helping them to manage their daily lives, helping them to consolidate the situation once they have achieved a change, to keep on going, communicating with the young person''s environment (parents, school, other institutions, employers) and responding promptly to the situation, working as mediators in order to find a solution that is in the young person''s best interest.
The Skills Lab was designed to make a real, tangible and measurable difference for each participant. The objective outcome is measured by the personal goals set by each young person, which were set and specified in the individual plan. Change is measured by comparing the situation before and after the post-camp activities.
Change sought:
- A young person who has gained employment;
- Young person who has changed or returned to the education system;
- Young person who has started looking for a job;
- A young person who has started volunteering;
- A young person who has changed their place of residence;
- Young person who has changed social environment;
- Young person who has managed their debts;
- A young person who gave up addictions.
32 young people took part in the project activities. During the project, 5 started their education, 17 continued their education, -1 got a job and 3 started volunteering.
- The project provided training for social workers on how to work with the Skills Lab model. 76 professionals were trained, 96% of whom scored highly on the qualification course.
Summary of bilateral results
Representatives of the project executor went to Iceland to gain experience that they could apply in the implementation of their activities.