This Website, the E-Learning Platform and the courses created within this structure result from the work developed within the Project LIFE SKILLS FOR CARE LEAVERS, co-funded by the European Union Program ERASMUS+, Key Action 2 Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices, Strategic Partnerships for Youth (KA205), under the Grant Agreement nº 2018-3-FR02-KA205-015207.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
Young people leaving institutional or alternative care face many challenges in the process of adapting themselves to independent living. An important majority of them do not enter higher education, while an important number of the young people leaving foster or residential care are neither in employment nor in education or training (NEETs), which strongly compromises their chances to successfully transition into adulthood. In the context of the above-described challenges, the current proposal aims to contribute to the already ongoing effort to find solutions through:
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- Providing guidance and support to young people by creating a “one-stop-shop” where they will be able to access information, guidance, support and services provided by relevant organizations and institutions.
- Support young people through the process of transition to independence by creating a network of volunteer mentors to help them build their plans and assist them in their communication with institutions and organizations.
- Establish long term cooperation among the partners to assist the insertion of care leavers in European Youth Mobility, Volunteering, and Apprenticeship programmes. The opportunities the EU provides for Youth and Education represent an enormous opportunity for vulnerable young people for inclusion, participation, gaining professional experience and important professional and individual competencies. The project will directly involve about 60 young people aged 18-26 through the activities as well as around 500 indirect participants.
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PROJECT MAIN OUTPUTS:
IO1 | LIFE SKILLS FOR CARE LEAVERS SUPPORT E-PLATFORM AND MOBILE APP
Young people exiting institutional care face many challenges during their transition to adulthood, and easy and comprehensive access to information and services can do much to relieve at least part of the frustration linked to building a life project and entering into adulthood as an empowered and complete individual.
The coordination effort between social services and housing, mental health, and education and employment service as well as the cooperation between public services and non-profit organizations in the relevant fields needs to be enhanced, and with this activity, we are trying to achieve exactly that.
The Life Skills for Care Leavers support e- platform and the mobile app serves multiple purposes:
- A Virtual, Intuitive, Easy to Navigate “One Stop Shop” where care leavers can access information and guidance on the services at their disposal, provided by relevant institutions and organizations, as well as support and coaching online through the app, by phone or person to person.
- An Interactive E-learning Platform with training programs for young people and mentors, with dynamic and useful modules, covering a wide range of skills and competencies, accessible anywhere, anytime.
- An Educational Resource, containing the guidelines to the approach implemented in the project’s training, the methodology, the training program, the results and the analysis of the results achieved by the series of training;
- A Communication Platform for Intercultural Communication and exchange of good practices
- An E-library with resources related to transversal skills and competencies learning and teaching.
IO2 | LIFE SKILLS FOR CARE LEAVERS TRAINING COURSE FOR MENTORS
One of the key activities of the project is the establishment of a network of volunteer mentors for young people, who will provide them with one-to-one support through the process of transition to independence, help them create their life plan, be their first point of contact, and assist them in their communication with institutions and organizations.
With this approach, we aim to address the feeling of loneliness and isolation, due to the lack of person-centred and individualized support from the part of the relevant institutions.
Having somebody to follow through and assist youngsters with their challenges will help alleviate the feeling of social isolation and not being understood. Having more mature and experienced persons to help and provide assistance will also help them learn to cope with the demands of daily life by following an example.
However, for the relationship between a mentor and mentee to be positive and empowering for both parties, mentors need to be prepared and have a clear awareness and understanding of their role and responsibility.
The Life Skills for Care Leavers training course for Mentors will be continuously developed and improved during the lifetime of the project, and its main modules will be organized to ensure that the youngsters will benefit from high-quality mentorship and coaching.
The main modules of the course will cover aspects such as roles and responsibilities, respecting personal boundaries, expecting boundaries, creating rapport and a relationship of trust and respect, empowering and motivating, providing emotional support, transferring skills and competencies etc.
IO3 | LIFE SKILLS FOR CARE LEAVERS TRAINING COURSE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
The main objective of the project is that young people leaving care receive support in designing an achievable life project for their future as adults.
Building a successful life project however requires a combination of transversal skills of competencies such as communication and social skills, financial literacy and organisational and goal-setting skills.
The TRAINING COURSE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE is designed to help them achieve just that with the help of their mentors. To achieve this result it was developed as an interactive, intuitive and “fun” training course for young people, to complete and facilitate the work of the Mentors and provide young people with a set of important skills for their transition to adulthood.
The primary objective of this training course is to be used in young people’s work with mentors. With its design, we aim to make it as “light” and “fun” as possible, while at the same time ensuring effective and lasting learning outcomes by covering the three broad dimensions of learning: AWARENESS-KNOWLEDGE-SKILL.
The MODULES OF THE TRAINING COURSE are the following:
– Social and Communication skills: conversation skills, assertiveness, active listening, preparing for an interview, non-verbal communication etc.
– Financial literacy and management skills: managing a personal budget, financial institutions, asking for a loan/grant/social assistance etc., understanding the difference between consumption and investment, personal budget management techniques and tools etc.
– Organisational and goal setting skills: time management, effective goal setting, resource management, planning and putting into action a life project etc.
IO4 | LIFE SKILLS FOR CARE LEAVERS TOOL KIT FOR ORGANISATIONS AND STAFF IN EUROPEAN COOPERATION
A Tool Kit for organizations and staff in European Cooperation and mobility for care leavers containing guidance in the introduction of quality, safety, and responsibility standards for sending and receiving young people in this situation. The toolkit will allow participating organisations and local stakeholders to send and receive young people, thus providing care leavers with opportunities to benefit from learning experiences abroad.
As care leavers face significant disadvantages, engaging this group in European mobility initiatives will have an enormous positive impact on them. However, the successful integration and completion of mobility projects for young people facing this type of difficulties require a high level of competence and motivation of mentoring and accompanying staff both from the sending and hosting organisations, personalised attention to each individual and their specific needs, as well as adapted and carefully designed missions, approaches, activities and objectives. Due to these requirements, the inclusion of care leavers in EU youth projects is rare and has higher associated risks, such as having the opposite of the desired effect. For this reason, we believe that close cooperation between European partner organisations and the establishment of quality, safety, and responsibility standards for sending and receiving young people in this situation is required for securing positive experiences and learning outcomes. The current intellectual output will create a toolkit kit for organisations in European cooperation and mobility for young people leaving care, covering the following:
1. Communication and cooperation rules and modalities between sending and receiving organisations before, during and after the lifetime of the mobility
2. Preparation of young people before departure: safety instructions, cultural, educational/vocational and linguistic support
3. On arrival training and coaching procedures for young people, including cultural, educational/vocational and linguistic support
4. Mentorship and coaching criteria and rules for sending and receiving organisations
5. Designing suitable missions and activities for the duration of the mobility
6. Regulation of learning/working and living conditions for young people with disadvantages participating in European mobility
7. Ethical code for organisations, mentors and young people participating in European mobility
8. Quality approaches for emotional and adaptation support to disadvantaged young people
9. Cooperation and communication regulation for reaction in crisis and unwanted situations
10. Follow up and mentoring after the end of the European mobility.
