Report of study visit

Report of the Study visit “Support and Empowerment for Youth at Risk�

Eskilstuna 23-28 March 2014

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1. Summary of the Project

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he project “Support and Empowerment for Youth at Risk” was a project for training and networking for youth workers, responsible for the most disadvantaged young people. The project aimed to meet the permanent thematic priority, “inclusion”.

The seven participating municipalities from six countries are all members in a European network for middle sized cities, called Eurotowns.

The partners are Eskilstuna (Sweden); Schiedam and Helmond (The Netherlands), Sindelfingen (Germany) Reggio Emilia (Italy), Hasselt (Belgium) and Girona (Spain).

One important, identified, shared problem is issues related to youth poverty. The projects main target group was young people (age 1320), who are disadvantaged compare to their peers and live in poverty, due to for example social barriers, educational difficulties and health problems. For some, it was also a matter about e.g. addiction, crime, integration problems, unfinished school (dropouts) and unemployment. The current financial situation requires European cities to think about new, innovative and cost effective solutions to combat poverty among youth.

Eskilstuna was responsible for a six days study visit programme. The programme presented different aspects of the issue such as how to empower the young persons to become active citizens, how to create a more inclusive society, youth unemployment, leisure, migrants, health and housing problems. There were also presentations about competence, responsibilities and financial issues. Two methods were highlighted. One was to present a solution with an integrated approach, about how to gather all organisations and persons connected to the young person e.g. social services, school, leisure organisations, police, volunteers and family members. Another method was to discuss and learn more about informal learning.

Since all the partners are public organisations, and have responsibility for the issue, all partners implemented applicable new knowledge in their organisations. The evaluation of the study visit will be used as a platform for future cooperation and if possible EU funding. The conclusions of the study visit are summarized in this report and disseminated to the rest of the Eurotowns members and some other (European) networks.

2. Background and Competences of the Participants

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very city has its own system of dealing with the problems mentioned above.

Therefore, every city has developed its own competences.

Eskilstuna is a local authority that has about 100 000 inhabitants. Approximately 30% of the population has a migrant background. The

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youth unemployment rate has decreased and is now approximately 15%. As a Swedish municipality it is – among other things – responsible for social services, childcare and preschools, support for the physically and intellectually disabled and education. On a voluntary basis it also deals with leisure and cultural activities.

In Eskilstuna, there are about 1000 households with children in need for financial support. Eskilstuna is the municipality in Sweden with the highest proportion of all recipients of financial support in 2012, 9.9 percent of the population. Looking at the background, the majority of the families are migrants, born outside the Nordic countries. Many of them are families with a single mother. The youth in these families often has problems at school, suffers from violence, abuse, criminality and mental illness. It is common with a dual diagnosis, both a mental illness and/or a neuropsychological diagnosis, together with addiction. The most important issue for youth at risk is to finish the school because they are often so-called "drop outs". Many of the youths at risk are placed in institutions and in foster homes. Research clearly shows that institutional care does not provide positive sustainable results. Eskilstuna has recently started a project, with the ambition, to empower the young persons and find permanent solutions, by working closely with the school, health care, police, leisure departments and organizations, family and other persons close connected to the young person.

Schiedam and Helmond are both middle sized cities from the Netherlands and therefore face very similar problems. Because of the decentralization of tasks from national government to local government, the municipality is getting more and more responsible for tasks such as child care, medical care, work and income and education. The municipality has to work more efficiently because the budget for these tasks will be reduced. Starting 1-1-2015 the

municipality will be responsible for child and youth care. This asks for more collaboration; integral service to citizens, a more local approach and a change in ways of working and sharing information, changes in the payment system and most of all a different way of thinking and doing. Participation and using the strength in individuals are key-issues.

In Schiedam for example 30% of the inhabitants have a migrant background. About 1800 households with children live in poverty.

Schiedam is providing the poor families with different kinds of support. 20% of the Schiedam children (2.800) are facing severe problems because they are confronted with the effects of poverty. The problems are diverse: unemployment in the family, multiproblem-families, less participation in children's activities, drop out of school, health problems etc.

Many of the Schiedam citizens contribute to the society by volunteering. This active citizenship is of great value for the Schiedam society. There are also many professionals active in this field. The challenge is to create the most effective partnerships in providing the best opportunities for the children and youth of Schiedam. Empowerment of the children and youth and improving their participation is an important aspect.

The German city of Sindelfingen is a city of medium size with about 60.000 inhabitants.

Nevertheless, it is rather industrialized because of a big factory of the company Daimler / Mercedes that is located beside the city.

Because of this international company, over 45% of Sindelfingen's inhabitants have a migrant background. Children of migrants often are especially affected by poverty and difficulties in everyday life like in school or when they try to find a job. Many times they lack the social network that is important to secure them. However, not only children with a migrant background suffer from poverty and other difficulties but also others with for ex-

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ample unemployed parents. Young people have problems as well. School dropouts, the abuse of drugs or misfits let them struggle with their lives.

It is a task of the municipality of Sindelfingen to take care for the children and adolescents who live in it. Institutions like municipal street workers or childrens' and youth' advice centres try to help young people in need. They are supported by private organizations like Caritas.

Exclusively for the special institutions that take care of children and young people, the municipality pays a huge amount of money each year. Although with the financial crisis it becomes more and more difficult to keep it up. Furthermore, not all activities that are done for young people in need have the results, the responsible persons hoped for.

Officina Educativa of Reggio Emilia Municipality in Italy takes care of the Services and Educational Projects aimed at children and young people aged 6 to 29 years old.

Officina Educativa works closely with schools, with the territory and all the organizations engaged in education. All of them are "at the heart" of the action of Officina Educativa, which distinguishes between school-based interventions, interventions through the afternoon Educational Services and educational interventions with individuals, but at the same time the Officina Educativa team integrates all these activities.

The meeting between the educational dimension and the participation is required on a general level, because it is thought that it is possible to become citizens only through a process of learning of the knowledge, necessary to a conscious use of democracy.

Young people are a great resource for the city, so a great attention should be taken in listening to them and encouraging their direct participation in the life of the city through different dimensions: volunteering, youth entrepreneurship, creativity in its various expressions, construction and/or networking opportunities of aggregation. The policies developed by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia aim at promoting participation and wellbeing of all young people, including in this strategic target group young people who live in marginalized condition (i.e. young migrants, disabled young people, young people living in poverty). In this sense, policies are no targeted on specific needs but address all youth generation considering specific conditions as specific potentials and opportunities to be developed.

With these aims, Officina Educativa promotes – through strict partnership with social cooperatives and associations – specific actions and initiatives aiming at encouraging inclusion of disabled young people in the high schools; sharing information and opportunities for all young people through a dedicated website developing a dedicated section of information for young people about jobs and employment's opportunities; encouraging the active citizenship and volunteering of young people through the Leva Giovani Project; encouraging meetings and inclusion of young people through Spaces for youth (Cantieri Giovani) and promoting inclusion of young people through workshops about active citizenship in schools and public spaces (Palestra di Educazione Civile).

Hasselt is a Belgian city of 75.000 inhabitants.

Although the city is in a good economic situation, a growing number of families are strug-

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gling with unemployment, housing and quality of life. 9.39% of the active society is jobseeker; for the minus 25 job seekers is this even 23.4%. 63.5% belongs to a risk group. On this moment 334 persons are living from a subsistence minimum.

Hasselt likes to bring in experiences with working with target groups, and creating work in – for example – social economy and initiatives already taken in encouraging corporate social and environmental responsibility and with attention for adjoining areas, such as care, neighbourhood, education & information, welfare, environment and mobility.

Hasselt likes to share its experiences in the concerned fields with the partners and to learn from best practices in the other towns and organisations. Hasselt will invite the associated institutions and organisations to take part in this project, and will have preparatory meetings to make participation as valuable as possible.

Girona is a city of 97.000 inhabitants. The 25% of the inhabitants are 0-29 year old (17% 0-14 year old, 8% 15-29 year old).

The 21.5% of the total population are inhabitants born abroad. 24% of the inhabitants born abroad are 0-29 year old (14% 0-14 year old, 10% 15-29 year old).

The Girona City Council is developing the Youth Local Plan 2012-2015. The objectives of the Youth Local Plan 2012-2015, according with the priorities stated in it, have been established in the following scopes: Emancipation Process; Training and Employment; Health and Health Promotion; Culture and Cohesion; Association and Participation; and, Information and Communication Technologies.

The European dimension is relevant in all those scopes and is particularly stressed with specific sub-objectives in the fields of Information and ICT Services, Association and Participation, and Culture and Cohesion.

The current situation of general crisis that affects the public sector, the private sector and the third sector has produced a general diminishing of resources. For this reason the actors need to adapt and to change the methodologies of work and management in order to reach the optimal achievements, especially by means of the improvement of integrate approach in Youth Social Inclusion policies, including the reinforcement of the citizenship participation.

3. Programme and Main Topics

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he aim of the project was to bring youth workers from different European cities together and to show them the system of child and youth care in Sweden, especially in Eskilstuna. The main topic dealt with youth poverty and referred to the task team “social inclusion” of the network Eurotowns. Besides this, many more subtopics like drop outs, integration etc. were discussed. For this, two methods were highlighted. One was to present a solution with an integrated approach, which is about how to gather all organizations and persons connected to the young persons.

The other was to discuss and get to know more about informal learning.

3.1 Integrated Approach / Cooperation In Eskilstuna the group visited different projects where cooperation and an integrated approach were top issues. One of the presentations was about the project “Integrated approach / Intervention unit” for young people with very big problems. Here the responsi-

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ble person Nadja Zubair showed how to gather organisations and persons involved in young persons’ life, for example schools, leisure activities, health care or the family. The participants were impressed by the Swedish system and suggested it as very developed. It was obvious that the number of families that one social worker is responsible for is very small. Furthermore, one could see that the cooperation between the police and social workers is very special in Sweden, concerning the duty of confidentiality. All in all, the participants could see best practices and experiences how people in most vulnerable situations still take huge steps forward and become confident to take control of their lives again thanks to intensive consultancy. It was mentioned that work on voluntary basis is very important but it was also said that this is not possible in every place and every time. Therefore, professional youth work still is a very relevant topic.

Striking is that the professionals in this team are not only talking about the boys and girls, but that these youngsters really are participating in the discussions. Last but not least it is quite special that the presence at and the participation in the deliberations of a policeofficer and the fact that he or she gets full confidence of the youngsters.

This intensive care, however, is possible just for few persons which are in need very deeply.

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough resources to support all youth at risk in this way.

The discussions of the participants showed that the legislation in several countries is the same or at least very similar but in practice the target group is defined differently. In some countries the focus is on working with young addicts instead of early action against youth with risky use of drugs.

According to the participants the improvements of the situation of disabled youth should be measured. One suggestion in this direction was to install a measurement system of judging the help by social workers, the client and her/his family and possibly other related persons during the helping time.

A visit at a Family Centre and an Addiction Centre for young people also showed how important the cooperation of different organisations is. To reduce abuse it is important to take care of young people on the streets, in schools and youth houses at the same time.

One organisation on its own, however, is not able to do so. Therefore, different organisations like youth houses, social workers of schools, addiction centres and the police have to cooperate. The participants suggested that this cooperation would be possible when the responsible persons meet on a regular basis and build a strong network.

3.2 Confidence The organizations in Eskilstuna that work with young people do this on a base of mutual trust. They don’t take over the lives of the youngsters, but let them make their own choices. Youngsters are not forced into standard programmes, but are given space to think for themselves and to speak out. This way custom made plans can be developed, that

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are based on what the young people want to achieve.

3.3 Prevention Visiting the various projects in Eskilstuna made the importance of prevention even more clear. We need to invest in prevention to stay ahead of problems later on. By doing so costs and expenses can be saved. Because in Sweden many tasks are commissioned locally and the city council features an undivided budget it became possible for Eskilstuna to raise financial means to organize a lot of actions that contribute to prevention.

What in other European cities is called ‘creating social added values’ Eskilstuna has already accomplished.

For example: it can prove profitable to invest extra money in fighting drug abuse to save costs of social benefits and nuisance in the future. Another example: people with chronic psychiatric disorders are not living in large institutions, but in small housing facilities or even independent. There is always professional help nearby. Next to the much more human living conditions of the patients this must also lead to cost reduction.

cluded for the centre for minor refugees.

There was much attention for personal development, education and finding a suitable job.

You can only reap if you are willing to sow‌

3.5 Drop Outs / Unemployment Another very important topic is the one of drop outs. In 2014, 12% of all European pupils are drop outs. These are less students without any school-leaving qualification than in 2007 (14.9%) but still far too many. In order to learn about this problem, the participants visited an elementary and secondary school where the headmasters Jens Axtorp and Eva Salzman presented them projects that deal with this issue.

3.4 Small Scale A lot of projects are realized on a small scale, close to citizens in their living environment.

The number of participants is limited and this can be the key to a higher quality level of support.

The group saw various projects in which an intensive, small scaled approach led to positive results. The school for drop-outs worked with a question driven approach with a high focus on the individual. The same can be con-

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To reduce drop outs, the participants suggested improving school social work and creating additional supply through various activities of informal learning. To underline this suggestion, the programme of the study visit included a presentation by the international coordinator Andrea Maris about the possibilities of informal learning and the advantages which result out of it.

All participants agreed that youth unemployment and drop outs are very important topics that have to be dealt with very carefully in order to be able to offer the youth a financially secure future. Nevertheless, they understood from the discussion that there are some differences between the main problems of the different regions.

Cities from Belgium, Germany, Sweden and The Netherlands have to deal mainly with mismatching; cities in Italy and Spain suffer from very great numbers of youth unemployment. One possible solution that was worked out during the visit was approaching open jobs to job searching across European borders with preparation – for example language courses etc. – in the country where the youth needs jobs. Furthermore, it was considered being very important to build strong networks with representatives of the local industry so that young people who are looking for jobs can be placed with a firm more easily.

3.6 Care and Housing As part of the topic care and housing, there was a presentation of the project of “Intense Home-based Family Treatment”. This concept aims at intensive care for children in needs (age between 7 and 20 years) which nevertheless get the chance to stay at home with their families.

One team of this project is composed of three social workers and is taking care of eight families. The usual time of treatment for a child is six to nine months. Each social worker is on call from 07:00h to 24:00h. Usually they visit the families at least three times a week. The project consists of three phases: motivation, treatment and generalization. In 80% of cases the children get intensive professional care and are additionally able to stay in their homes. This shows the success of the project.

But not all children and young people can be helped in this way. The participants mention for example street children which need a very special kind of care. The same case is with children who are not really “homeless” but spend a lot of time on the streets. For these young persons, the mobile youth work which is already embedded in the youth welfare systems of Helmond, Sindelfingen and Reggio Emilia is a good example of professional and successful help.

In the discussion about the question if children with migrant background have special needs to avoid poverty and risk situations the participants agreed that these young people suffer from disadvantages especially in matters of job seeking, income, home, network, permanent passport and language. This is why children from migrant families should specifically be supported. Other youth which need special care are unemployed in general, young people addicted to drugs, handicapped, homeless and children from multi-problemfamilies.

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funding. This could be a chance – at least for specific projects – to deal with the financial constraints which prevail almost all regions in Europe.

4. Conclusions and Learning Points for the Future

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nvesting in intensive consulting of the most vulnerable target groups work! The group has seen best practices and experiences how people in the moste vulnerable situations still take huge staps forward and become confident again to take control of their lives again thanks to intensive consultancy.

The impression most of the participants got during the study visit was that Sweden has a very intensive care for disabled young people which is – unlike the other countries / cities – guaranteed by a huge number of staff in this special area. The needs of children and individuals are valued very highly. Most of the social institutions are under the responsibility of the municipalities. This is a difference to other European cities where for example private or ecclesiastical associations play an important role. Therefore, there exists little competition between different kinds of social institutions in Sweden.

This system shows great success within care taking for youth. On the other hand, nevertheless, it calls for a huge amount of money to preserve it. With rising numbers of disabled and badly integrated young people, the Swedish municipalities have problems to finance their work and to cover all children and adolescents who need their support. The participants of the other European cities were impressed by the work that is done but showed concern about the financial situation. This problem is one of the biggest in all European cities. Often there are less public resources available but the children in need get more and more. Therefore, one outcome of this study visit was to put more effort into EU-

4.1 Learning points The teams only handle very heavy cases. This prevents (and protects) one or more ordinary workers in the area or district to spent all of his or her valuable time on such a hard case.

Above this Eskilstuna makes a clear choice for an intensive, customized programme, in which young people and their network (family,

Hasselt The exchange with Eskilstuna confirms our procedure and makes us aware that investing even more in this topic is even better. Also for our own project concerning child poverty volunteering is a point of operation on our agenda. It is a very intensive process to find volunteers, to coach them and to accompany them but these efforts don’t outweigh the results that are achieved with people in poverty.

This on the base of social networks as well as on the base of personal growth.

friends, and neighbours) play an important part.

Dare to take (financial) risks which can create a benefit in the long run. Sometimes it is necessary at first to invest to get the desired solution. This can only be reached if there are no

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borders between budgets. What is invested in a preventive approach pays back when specialized treatment isn’t necessary and people start paying taxes. The system change in the Netherlands is a good opportunity to work a little more according to the Swedish way. Early investments and offering support targeted on prevention and early intervention must lower the demand for expansive forms of care and cure.

It looks like working on a small scale is an important condition to reach a high level of quality. Better one good project than ten halfhearted attempts.

In heavy cases there’s one professional who determines what’s needed. Other professionals are responsible for effectuating the plans.

With this approach the case manager doesn’t lose the (very important) so called helicopterview.

The multi disciplinary approach in the combat against poverty was also confirmed. This enforces the opinion on the fact that we have to work on a better cooperation with our exist Eskilstuna

Schiedam “In short one could say that our inspiration especially has been triggered by the courage of the Swedish colleagues to invest in youngsters in full confidence that this investment will pay back. This method of seeking the opportunities and possibilities of young people we would like to explore in Schiedam. Confidence or trust is the ground on which working with vulnerable people will flourish. The examples shown to us in Eskilstuna definitely can help to look for the ingredients needed to gain that confidence and to make progress from there on. Important are, amongst others: take enough time, work with intensity, on a small scale, from an equal vision, choose quality over quantity and go for customization.

But we might be able to make good use of this Swedish way of customization to refer or lead people to collective facilities.”

ing partners in the future and that we have to work on broader frames within which problems are handled and on the involvement of vulnerable target groups in all these initiatives.

“It was also found that volunteering is practically invisible in the Swedish child and youth care.

The Swedish system also struggles in how to reach more unmotivated young people. Germany, Holland and Italy had much experience and a long tradition of so-called outreach work with street children.

In the centre for family care open afternoons were organized where parents could play with their children accompanied by professional workers who provided them with tips and tricks. This could be a good addition to the services in the centres for family care in the Netherlands.

The network of Eurotowns in general and this study visit in Eskilstuna in special showed the participants an international point of view to their work.

In order to improve the systems of all European countries, the participants agreed that networking and cooperation between the different European cities and especially their youth workers are very important for further success of their work. They benefited from the overviews of the work that is done in the other European cities and got some new ideas

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comparing it with their own systems and institutions.

Another very important aspect was the possibility to get to know each other and the main European problems which are predominant in most of the countries right at the moment.

But one week of working together is not enough. Systems, projects and solutions to problems could be shown only fragmentary even if the interest was very great. Therefore, more meetings and common projects should be organized to continue the work. Examples can be a service programme for transnational job exchanges or different projects within the Erasmus+-programme like one about mismatching or projects that are supported by the ESF.

But – as mentioned above – the work is not done by this. In everybody’s opinion more projects are necessary to improve the systems and the caring for children and young people.

Future cooperation should consist of specific topics and workshops where the participants get the chance to deepen their knowledge and find new ways of dealing with the problems in their work. The aim should be to get EUfunding and use it for projects to improve the condition of youth at risk. Therefore, the study visit was an excellent beginning and a very good possibility to meet people of the same “business” of different countries. This basis could and will be used for further actions.

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