Benefits of International Projects

• Social inclusion is about reducing inequalities between the least advantaged groups and communities and the rest of society by closing the opportunity gap and ensuring that support reaches those who need it most.
• If you have more arguments or benefits of international projects, share them at the bottom of the page (log on with your SALTO username or create one)

Our target group is very diverse and different profiles of young people have their own specific types of needs. Therefore the goal they are trying to reach and the process leading to it will take a different shape and a different length of time for each individual. Often a step-by-step approach, starting with small goals and achievements leading to bigger ones, works best. But there is no one way or one specific method of achieving social inclusion.

If a young person cannot recognise how the international experience directly relates to their needs and their situation, then there is a danger that the project will take place in a vacuum with no link to the individual's real life: past, present, or future. To avoid this, the pathway approach helps young people and their organisations implement international projects in such a way as to be able to gain the maximum benefits of the programme. This approach works on the basis of an individual's "personal pathway".

An international project should not be seen as a goal in itself. The pathway approach takes the international project out of the vacuum and links it directly with a young person's long-term learning objectives. This approach takes into account an individual's past development, assesses their current situation, and then gives the international project a place which relates directly to a young person's future aims and goals.

In this context, it should be stressed that the Youth in Action programme should not be seen as the ultimate goal. It is not easy to make a clear long-term plan with our young people and it is difficult to judge whether an international project is the right option for each individual. However, an international project can be an important stepping stone on the pathway that can lead to all sorts of new future directions.

• For more information on "the pathway approach" check "Use your hands to move ahead" to download from the SALTO website: www.salto-youth.net/UseYourHands/

This booklet doesn't pretend to be a handbook for working with young offenders, ex-offenders and young people at risk of offending. The main aim is to explore how the Youth in Action programme can contribute to this work which exists in all kind of different forms and approaches in Europe. Still in this framework it is worthwhile to see what are the main aims and objectives when working with this target group in order to connect that to the possibilities that the Youth in Action programme offers.

Benefits: in general

• Space to reflect
• Often the young people we are talking about in this booklet lack the space as well as the experience and ability to reflect on their life. They live from one day to another, from event to event. In order to set for themselves new goals in life they should become aware of their situation. To create space and a safe environment out of the daily pressure for survival seems to be an important element in programmes with this target group
• Trustful relationship with youth worker, social worker, ...
• Many of these young people don't have very positive experiences when it comes to relationships with adults. In their experience adults like teachers, social workers, police officers etcetera, did not accept them and showed lack of respect. As a consequence we regularly meet distrust and strong doubts when starting to work with this group. Building a relationship needs a lot of effort. At the same time we know from research and experience that the relation between young people and supervisor is of crucial importance for the success of a programme. Gaining trust, showing acceptance and involvement and offering safety are vital for a good relationship.
• Positive experiences /self-confidence building
• As said before, it's certainly not an enormous amount of positive and successful experiences what keeps our target group going. They are almost used to 'failing'. All their life they've heard that they are 'stupid', 'incapable', 'difficult to deal with'. These experiences determine their approach and attitude towards taking up new tasks and challenges and leads to feelings of inferiority and a negative idea of their own possibilities. The lack of self-confidence makes them avoid experiencing new 'failures'. To rebuild their self-confidence it's important to go through positive experiences and to find out and recognise their own competences and skills.
• Competences and potentials
• During most of their life the emphasis has been on 'what they are not able to'. In school, from their parents, from social workers they've heard what they do wrong, what they should change, what they should do different. They know very well what they cannot do. This focus on the negative side is by the way not only the focal point of the young people. The people who work with the young people are used to directing their attention towards the problems of the young people, not so much on their competences.
• For the young people it's crucial to find out what competences they have and which potential competences they want to develop. In order to do this, it is necessary that they have chance to act and be responsible to get the above mentioned positive experiences and the possibility to reflect on those experiences to identify competences. Therefore it's essential to be assisted and guided by workers who are able to identify and name the competences they see.
• A future perspective
• To get out of the vicious circle which living from day to day brings it's inevitable to develop a long-term future perspective. A difficult task for many young people. They are not used to looking far ahead but seek immediate satisfaction of their needs. For some young people also a strong focus on their past can also block them from looking forward.
• To set a future perspective it's important for the young people to set their own goals which are strongly connected to his/her own wishes and needs and which are achievable. In the beginning these goals should be set short term and in small steps to create the possibility to experience success. Realistic goals, being well phased, stimulate the young people for more and further planning to create a new 'life-perspective'.
• If you have more arguments or benefits of international projects, share them at the bottom of the page (log on with your SALTO username or create one)

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Benefits: in specific

We have been taking a closer look at our target group and we looked at the needs to be addressed when working with this target group. But how does that all relate to the Youth in Action programme? In what way can Youth in Action contribute to and enrich the work with these young people? In this chapter we try to describe some important elements and characteristics of the different possibilities in the Youth in Action programme to see in what way young (ex) offenders and young people at risk can profit from the programme.

• Being 'out of daily life'
• Being in another country during a Youth Exchange or as a volunteer in a European Voluntary Service project, and even in a Youth Initiative in prison, brings opportunities and challenges. It means being out of your daily life. No parents around, not the friends you usually hang out with, not the familiar places you are used to go, not the same cellmates. It's all not there.
• Being freed from all that daily pressure but also being in a situation where the 'normal' solutions don't work anymore. You can and even have to invent yourself again. When getting into a conflict at home you can always run off to a friend or to the pub. But now the pub and the friend are not there. The new and different environment forces you to find new solutions for the challenges you meet. In the beginning maybe a frightening experience. But then you discover that you find those new solutions, you find other ways to deal with what comes on your way...and, what's more important, it works, you can do it!
• Being 'out of daily life' and away from your home also creates a distance which helps you to reflect on your life and to make decisions about how life should go on.
• An intercultural experience
• Being in an other country means to be confronted with an other language, with an other culture, with different customs. You find out that what you always thought was 'normal' is maybe not that normal here. People have different perceptions; look at things in a different way. But there are also a lot of things which seems to be pretty much the same as they are at home. A confusing experience. It makes you feel uncertain and uncomfortable. It makes you question your own values and certainties.
• But then you don't have much choice. To survive you have to reconsider normality, you'll have to ask, to communicate, to open up and to try out. A sometimes difficult but also exciting challenge which forces you to look at yourself and which helps you to broaden your views and perceptions.
• To go through that process and to discover that you manage is a thrilling experience giving a boost to your self-esteem.
• An intensive and different contact with the worker
• The young people and youth worker or social worker being together in a Youth Exchange offers new opportunities. The new environment and situation, for both the young people and the supervisor, will change the relationship.
• For the supervisor there is the chance to see the young people acting in different circumstances, doing different activities, taking up other roles. It opens the possibility to see other and maybe new competences and potentials of the young people. Probably also the young people finds out new competences. It's important for the supervisor to confirm those competences and to stimulate the young people to further develop.
• Also the mentor in a European Voluntary Service project is in the position to observe the young people in a new environment acting out new roles and tasks. Most of the times, being in a different environment, opens up the young people and makes him/her want to talk about all the experiences.
• As said before, being out of daily life allows for reflection. The supervisor has the opportunity to assist the young person in that reflection and to facilitate the process of making new plans for the future. Of course it's important to give a follow-up after the project to assist the young people to make the plans come true.
• Taking responsibility
• The different actions in the Youth in Action programme offer the possibility for young people to be active and take on responsibility. It's not only an opportunity that Youth in Action offers, it's actually one of the main aims and values promoted by the programme.
• Being involved in a Youth Exchange means being co-responsible for the programme, for the activities, for the logistics. A big variety of tasks have to be fulfilled addressing a large variety of skills. As mentioned before, it's important for our target group to carry out projects and tasks in a successful way to increase self-confidence and self-esteem. Preparing a part of the programme, preparing a meal, searching for travel possibilities, managing the bar, setting up a web log.......and so many other tasks to be done which could be an excellent opportunity for young people to take responsibility and to complete a task in a for them satisfying way for them.
• It speaks for itself that the same goes for a Youth Initiative. These projects should be the responsibility of the group of young people and make it necessary for them to divide tasks and responsibilities.
• European Voluntary Service offers the opportunity for the volunteer to take up different tasks and to plan for a longer period. With the help of the mentor an activity plan can be set up where different tasks can be combined. Short-term and long-term tasks, easy and more challenging tasks.
• The main facet is that the young people gets the chance to experience feeling responsible for a certain task or project and has the opportunity to finish that task in a successful way. To have something to be proud of.
• Working together
• In all the different Youth in Action activities young people are confronted with the fact that they have to work together with others and in many cases with people from other countries. For many of our young people the first time that they experience teamwork.
• Being involved in a Youth Initiative really means making decisions together with others, being able to listen to other opinions and to communicate your ideas and to keep up the team spirit . The same goes for the Youth Exchange or the team in an European Voluntary Service project.
• A big challenge but the good thing is that there is a constant opportunity to learn from the difficulties and problems. By evaluating the teamwork on a regular basis, as well in the team but also in individual talks between young people and supervisor, there are great learning opportunities for the young people.
• An intensive experience with long term effects
• There are many elements which makes a Youth in Action project an intensive experience. An experience with big challenges, lots of excitement, many difficult moment and numerous happy experiences.
• Confusion, joy, loneliness, feelings of belonging and friendship are strong emotions that occur during these projects. It makes you feel shaken quite often and this also means that strong guidance is sometimes needed and fundamental to help the young people to make further steps.
• There is a saying stating that change only comes after chaos. Experience shows that the intensive period that young people go through during this kinds of projects often have a long-lasting effect. The sentence 'this project changed my life' sounds quite dramatic but still is used often by young people from this target group who took part in a Youth Exchange or European Voluntary Service project. All the new experiences and all the confusion makes them reconsider the things that are important for them. New windows are opened.
• For the ones who work with these young people it's important to be aware of the strong impact and emotions coming up, to keep those new windows open after the project and to assist the young people to keep the energy and spirit up.
• Although many of the benefits outlined are real for all young people, the advantages are magnified for our target group by the fact that this is sometimes very much a once in their life opportunity rather than an opportunity available amongst a selection of alternatives.
• Young people represented in this target group often come from families in lower socio-economic situations than their 'included' peers. They may never have experienced family holidays or any other form of international travel. They may never have spent time with people from other cultural backgrounds, and may only have stereotypical knowledge of other European countries. Few will have any linguistic skills and for many this experience can be a chance to enjoy a cultural exposure that has never been in their reality.
• Practise social skills
• Originally, the young people's social network (friends, family, gang, etc) often have the expectation that, when returning from prison, the young person will fit in to daily life easy and smoothly. This is often not the case. Their original situation hasn't changed, but the young person has lived in a completely different and isolated world for awhile.
• For example: making your own decisions and choices, structuring your own life, small talk with neighbours, how to cope with technical evolutions in daily life (e.g. so called 'e-administration': all kinds of official forms to download from websites), etc.
• Youth in Action can give these young people a context and environment (e.g. European Voluntary Service or Youth Initiatives) where they can get the opportunity to learn, practice and experiment in a safe environment different and new social skills they will need when returning back home.
• Making a fresh start
• Being abroad as a young person, you don't carry with you a history when arriving on the first day of, for example, a European Voluntary Service project. People don't know you, don't know your past and don't have specific expectations towards you. It offers the possibility to make a fresh start, not hindered by things that happened before.
• Some organisations in the UK send young people on a short term European Voluntary Service experience during their probation time or community sentence. This means that they go directly from prison into an unknown but 'normal' daily life. This gives them the opportunity to be an individual without 'a history' of crime, prison, etc. They can start from 'blank' and this might create new opportunities, experiences and new perspectives. This experience is a strong incentive for in-depth follow-up when returning home after European Voluntary Service.
• Practising Citizenship
• In addition to this, citizenship has not featured in these youth's lives and now engaging in programmes which often have European Citizenship as a core element allow these young people to consider not only their place in their local or national society, but also how they fit into wider Europe. For many living in countries which do not require people to carry ID gaining a passport through the Youth in Action programme is often their first step to feeling included as a citizen of their home country.
• Training for workers
• Also for those people who work with the young people international youth work is a new and challenging activity. Especially the intercultural dimension of the work demands for special competences. The Youth in Action Programme offers a wide range of training courses to support the competence development of those working in the Programme. Next to that a wide variety of brochures, booklets and other material has been produced to support the workers.
• If you have more arguments or benefits of international projects, share them at the bottom of the page (log on with your SALTO username or create one)

More training opportunities to find in the European Training Calendar (www.SALTO-YOUTH.net/Training/) and training tools in the SALTO Toolbox for Training (www.SALTO-YOUTH.net/toolbox/)

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Case Study: Nikolai

Nikolai had been in prison twice - crimes related to anti-social behaviour whilst under the influence of alcohol. Nikolai was very interested in music, when work with him began, his home organisation had just begun a partnership with an organisation in Italy who wanted to receive two volunteers who were interested in music to be involved in a new short-term host project.

Nikolai went to Italy, with another volunteer, in summer 2005 to help a local host organisation with a large annual music festival. He spent his time promoting the festival around the local towns, delivering leaflets to local people and helped with the setting up of the stages, crowd control and clearing up afterwards.

On his return, Nikolai applied to college to study Popular Music. He was accepted and although he had no formal qualifications, he could talk about his experiences in Italy which hopefully aided him in his interview. Although Nikolai successfully completed the first term and started again after Christmas, he had to abandon the course, due to anomalies in the state benefits system which do not allow students over 19 to participate in full time courses and still claim benefits. Nikolai has stayed out of trouble though and is currently on a New Deal (a Government employment access course).

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