The Time for Change Europe Project will tackle the some of the key challenges that young people in Europe are facing right now, that will also after their long term future. The innovative Time for Change programme for young people developed in the UK , will be transferred to other member states during the lifetime of this project. This project addresses the needs of young people who are most at risk of being economically inactive, and are more at risk of social exclusion, by involving young people who are severely disadvantaged. The Time for Change uses a unique blend of intensive one to one work with group activities and challenging outdoor environments and activities to provide young participants with space way from their normal environment where they can start to consider the changes that they want to make to their lives. Challenge for Youth developed this programme to work with young people from very disadvantaged areas of Belfast. Many of the young people had experienced conflict and some had been at risk of paramilitary violence. Other problems confronting young people who took part included family breakdoewn, severe poverty and problems with addictive or self-harming behaviours. The rationale behind the transfer of this project is that young people who face particular social disadvantage are at even higher risk of not having access to/becoming removed from: education, training, employment, and active society – and objective is a concern for all EU member states. Currently, 5.5 million young people are unemployed in the EU, meaning that 1 in 5 people under 25 who are willing to work cannot find a job. The unemployment rate among young people is over 20% – double the rate for all age groups combined and nearly 3 times the rate for the over-25s, and 7.5 million people aged 15 to 24 are currently neither in a job nor in education or training. In addition, due to Europe’s current economic climate, the mobility of learners and youth is of paramount importance and it could be argues that access to mobility is even more important for those facing the most disadvantaged and risk of social exclusion. In order to have access to mobility, however, young people must have the skills to enable them to undertake training, education, or work experience. Through the transfer of the Time for Change Programme this project seeks to create opportunities and address the needs of young people most at risk of becoming excluded from socio-economic activities while establishing the basic core competencies need to move into education, work, or training. This project seeks to directly address these issues by working with young people aged 16 – 25 who are most at risk or already defined in these categories. As such this project strongly links to the Europe 2020 Strategy (including the headline education target), the Youth on the Move Agenda, and the European Youth strategy while also ensuring that the most vulnerable young people don’t get left behind or become further socially excluded by new programmes and initiatives. The Time for Change Europe Project aims to tranfer this innovative programme to Germany, Spain and Lithuania, By doing so, the project will ensure the needs of those who are furthest away from opportunity will be addressed, ensuring a greater social equity and inclusion for young people across Europe while building an evidence base for this and similar youth programmes through research, piloting, and evaluation of the project. Furthermore, this project will enhance the cooperation between youth organisations and organisation that work with young people in Europe by developing the international experience of young people, youth workers, and youth organisations in each of the partner countries. By involving youth organisations that are new to European partnerships and organisations that have strong experience working across European projects. The TFCE Project brings together 5 partner oorganisations each with an important area of specialism which they will contribute to the project delivery. we are providing three youth organisations within Europe with the opportunity to collaborate and work cooperatively within the field of youth, this will develop the professionalism of all organisations involved in the project and deepen the European cooperation amongst organisations in the field of youth. This partnership encourages synergies by working across several fields while maintaining a strong focus on youth. The aim of this partnership is to encourage action at all levels and to utilise each partner’s unique skills and experiences to ensure the project is delivered and sustained to its full potential, giving them the opportunity to build capacity and to share knowledge and good practice.
Time for Change Europe (TFCE) tackled some of the most difficult challenges that young people in Europe face: unemployment, homelessness, breakdown of family relationships, and dropping out of training or education. All of these challenges can lead to problems such as exclusion, loss of confidence, substance misuse, as well as aggressive, risk taking and anti-social behaviour which produce negative consequences for young people, affecting both their long term future and the lives of those around them (both their families and communities). The TFCE Project developed and transferred an innovative personal development youth programme called Time for Change (TFC) developed in UK-NI. The programme was transferred to Germany, Lithuania and Spain. The TFCE Programme is unique in its approach to supporting young people at risk of social exclusion as it provides young people with space and time away from situations in their life that are impacting on their situations and choices. These situations include; relationship breakdown, family problems, drug/alcohol misuse, mental health issues, unplanned pregnancy and parenthood, and low confidence issues. All partners in the Project were involved in working with young people and families affected by these issues. TFCE is a unique, intense person centred programme which makes use of group work, peer support, residential and experiential learning using a range of outdoor and centre based activities to explore and reflect on personal circumstances and behaviours. TFCE supports each young person taking part to identify their priorities for change and to build actions into a plan. Each of the partners worked with young people who were vulnerable in some way. Partners were therefore able to integrate TFC into their work with young people during and beyond the Project. For young people who have lost contact with or trust in mainstream services, TFCE served as a first step back. It was suitable for partners to use with their most vulnerable clients, helping to draw them into other training, education and employment support services and programmes. Partners who adapted TFCE identified that, although they already work with vulnerable young people, there were gaps in their provision for a structured programme like TFCE. The value base of TFCE identifies that the young person is not ‘the problem’ and recognises the range of contributing factors that have contributed to the need for change. An important innovative aspect of TFCE was the peer support for young people and the importance of building strong relationships with youth workers, their families, and the community. Activities and interventions in TFCE focused on challenge and reflection and were delivered both as individual and group based sessions. In the final phase of TFCE young people and their youth organisations agreed a ‘ next steps’ action plan, which was shared within the group to create a sense of responsibility and accountability enabling young people to link into group and community support following TFCE. This was a crucial element in sustaining change beyond their time on TFCE. TFCE also includes 'Turning Point', a moving on graduation celebration involving family and community representatives. At this stage, support networks were set in place for the young people which provided encouragement to keep them moving in a positive direction. This was vital for young people to be able to sustain change as the challenges they faced were still there, even when they had become resilient in dealing with them during the programme, it was vital that this progress was maintained. The aspect of drawing in and making use of complementary community based services was replicated by each of the partners. It was supported by the establishment of Stakeholder Forums by each partner. Stakeholders were people who had an interest in supporting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and were able to offer support during and after the life of the project. They were involved in TFCE: advising on design and delivery as well as explaining what additional and complementary services they could offer. To ensure that TFCE remained grounded in the needs of the target group, the Stakeholder Forums also involved young people themselves. The Stakeholders were invited to meet with partners and were invited to attend a Stakeholder Seminar related to project outputs. By addressing the barriers and challenges faced by young people today, this project enabled at risk young people to increase their chances and opportunities for the future, working towards education, training, participation in the labour market, and active citizenship in European society so that they can participate in and benefit fully from the outcomes of strategies such as Europe 2020 and the European Youth Strategy. This project related particularly to the principles of social equity and equality of opportunity for all that underpin those strategies.