Increase

Youth Welfare, Transnational, Continuing Education, Interdisciplinary, Cooperation, Crisis Intervention

Coordination: Jugend am Werk Steiermark GmbH

• Italy: FormAzione Co&So Network
• Greece: ARSIS - Association for the Social Support of Youth
• Germany: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy Ulm
• Rumania: Directia Generala de Asistenta Sociala si Protectia Copilului Harghita
• Great Britain: Volunteering Matters
• Austria: E.N.T.E.R. GmbH

09/2015-09/2017

As part of the protection of minors, youth welfare services play an important role in supporting adolescents and to ensure healthy development and education. The family background of adolescents in youth welfare institutions is often characterized by high risk constellations such as sexual violence, poverty, social isolation or parents suffering from mental disorders. Some of these adolescents in need are street children and unaccompanied refugee minors. The complexity of the cases shows that the demands on youth welfare workers have risen considerably. In addition to higher qualifications and specific specialist knowledge, (social) pedagogical competences, networking skills, crisis management and trauma pedagogical concepts are becoming increasingly important. The aim of the project is to expand the competences of youth welfare staff in dealing with adolescents in crisis situations by developing a transnational continuing education program.

Description of the Project

The project consists of three parts:

A. Carrying out an exploratory study in the form of a questionnaire in order to obtain an overview of the different systems of youth welfare in the various countries and to identify specific needs.

B. Development of a continuing education curriculum with a focus on crisis intervention, interdisciplinary cooperation and trauma pedagogical approaches.

C. Following the implementation and evaluation of the continuing education program, recommendations are to be made to policy makers for future initial and advanced training of youth welfare staff at a local, regional, national and European level.

An international conference in Graz, Austria, with a presentation and discussion of the results marks the end of this two-year Erasmus+ project.

Intellectual Output 1 – INCREASE Research Study

In order to find out more about the needs of the target group in the respective partner country, a survey was carried out that focused on the content, structure and duration of the planned training. The results of this study were published in a research report which served as the basis for the development of the INCREASE curriculum.

Intellectual Output 2 – INCREASE Curriculum

The partners developed a curriculum based on the feedback regarding the continuing education needs of employees in in-patient child and youth welfare services. The curriculum focuses on interdisciplinary expertise and cooperation with supplementary support systems. The partners also developed the accompanying documents and possibilities for practical implementation. The ECVET system can be used to credit the continuing education course. The training program was subsequently tested in the partner countries with the target group.

Intellectual Output 3 – INCREASE Youth Policy Recommendation Paper

A recommendation paper accompanied the entire development process. It contains recommendations for policy makers and addresses the improvement of the situation in in-patient crisis intervention as well as care and support for young people in the partner countries and the EU as a whole. The recommendation paper was completed during the final conference and presented to the public.