The importance of youth work for the whole society and inclusion has been clearly expressed by all European member states. There is no doubt that professional youth work is needed to provide conditions for development, participation and inclusion of young people in Europe which in times of crisis is even more needed than before. owever the challenge for professional youth work especially because of its cross-sectoral approach and also the fact that different support systems are in place and overlapping in relation to different forms of youth work and in particular when it comes to inclusion topics for young people with mental disorders and disabilities. Youth workers in residential youth care as well as crisis intervention centers providing support in situations where living at home with families is no longer possible or an option are confronted with complex situations where youth welfare as well as support for people with mental disabilities start to overlap, where drug abuse, alcohol abues and delinquency appear, where young people in this centeres are partically still in the compulsory school age with school contacts and discussions, where unemployment topics as well as job loss and job search become relevant.In front of this it is not only the social pedagogical competences required from professional youth workers about youth culture, youth problems, learning and social embedding of young people, communication etc. it is much more also knowing about the interfaces to medical services (psychiatric support and disease pattersn), drug abuse support services, services for people with intellectual and multiple disabilities etc. that would help tackle these complex situations for the benefit of the young people in question. The INCREASE project provides an innovative contribution to the training offers for youth workers with an interdiscpinary character reflecting teh challenges of modern youth work in residential youth care and crisis intervention. The main aim and objective of the INCREASE Project is the development of an interdisciplinary further training programme which allows and enables youth workers to tackle the complex situations in daily work in this cross over perspective especially in residential youth care and crisis intervention where these situations and patterns become particularly evident and challenging for youth workers. The INCREASE project will therefore produce three distinct intellectual outputs: 1) Exploration study: during this introduction study the members of the target group as well as experts will be investigated about their concrete content needs and requirements in relation to the training programme developed. 240 members of the target group will participate in this study throughout the partner countries2) INCREASE Training programme: an 80 hours modular training programme will be elaborated by the partneship which will be setup on the principles of units of learning outcomes to make the use of the ECVET approach possible for the acccreditation and recognition of learning outcomes. The pilot training and testing of the training programme is also part of the intellectual output. 3) INCREASE green paper: the experiences of the whole partnership during the project implementation period will be collected and channelled into a policy recommendation paper which will be presentred at a final multiplier event in Austria. This paper should give concrete support and recommendations to policy makers for an improvemenr of an inclusive youth policy in Europe. The partnership of the project consists of 7 experienced organisations from AT, DE, IT, EL, UK and RO. Partners have all experiences with the topic and the target group of the project. They will provide their experiences and expertise for the devlopment of the single intellectual outputs. The partnership reflects well the different stakeholders and interest groups in the subject and as well a sound European geographical balance which will allow for a clear European added value in the ouptuts. A comprehensive dissemination and sustainability strategy will ensure the achievement of the short and long term impact in the project. All results will be made available as open educational resources (OERs) for free after the projec thas finished to ensure widest possible imact and use.
The importance of youth work for both our society in general as well as inclusion in particular has been clearly expressed by all European member states. There is no doubt that professional youth work, even more so in times of crisis, is needed to provide conditions for development, participation and inclusion of young people. However, several aspects make professional youth work a true challenge. While youth work is necessarily based on a cross-sectoral approach, the different support systems in place are overlapping in terms of different forms of youth work. This becomes even more challenging when youth work is about inclusion of young people with mental disorders and disabilities. Youth workers in residential youth care and in crisis intervention centres, who provide support in situations where living at home is no longer possible or an option for the young people, are confronted with complex situations: youth welfare and support systems for people with mental disabilities overlap; drug and alcohol abuse play a role; delinquency and truancy become topics to deal with; job search, job loss and unemployment become relevant. Therefore, it is not only the social-paedagogical competences, including skills with regard to youth culture, youth problems, learning and social embedding of young people, communication etc., that is required from professional youth workers; youth workers also, and sometimes much more so, need to know about the interfaces with medical services (psychiatric support and disease patterns), drug abuse support services, services for people with intellectual and multiple disabilities, services for asylum seekers etc. in order to tackle complex situations for the benefit of their young clients. Focussing on an interdisciplinary approach and reflecting the challenges of youth work in residential youth care and crisis intervention, the INCREASE project provides an innovative contribution to the training offers for youth workers. The main aim and objective of the INCREASE project was the development of an interdisciplinary training programme to allow and enable youth workers to tackle the complex situations in daily work under the aspect of a cross-over perspective. The INCREASE project produced three distinct intellectual outputs: (1) As part of the INCREASE Exploration Study, the project partners asked 259 members of the target group, of cooperating external institutions and experts about their concrete content-related needs and requirements with regard to the training programme to be developed. (2) The INCREASE Training Programme and its curriculum for youth workers is divided into five modules, is scheduled for an intervention of 81 learning hours and follows the ECVET approach in order to allow for accreditation and recognition of learning outcomes. The testing of the training programme (pilot training with 40 youth workers) was also part of the developement of the curriculum. In addition, the partnership created guidelines on the inclusion of volunteers into residential youth care and on their use of the curriculum. (3) The experiences of the partnership during the project implementation period were collected and channelled into the INCREASE Youth Policy Recommendation Paper. This paper focusses on the national and European situation of residental youth care and on lifelong learning of youth workers. The paper provides concrete support and recommendations to policy makers for an improvement of an inclusive youth policy in Europe. In September 2017, the INCREASE Conference was held in Graz, Austria. About 130 youth workers and stakeholders attended the event. Following a researcher's keynote speach, which also stressed the importance to interact with other disciplines in complex situations and the importance of lifelong learning, the project partners presented the intellectual outputs. Additional discourses on a variety of project-related topics offered the possibility to exchange perspectives with experts. The project partnership consisted of 7 organisations from AT, DE, IT, GR, UK and RO. All partners have experiences and expertise with the topic and the target group of the project. The different stakeholders and interest groups were well-reflected by the partnership; its geographical balance also added to the European value in the ouputs. The short-term impact was measured during the pilot implementation and the conference. The feedback was mostly excellent, participants as well as project partners were highly convinced about the relevance of the project's outputs. Partners are already planning further trainings for youth workers in residential youth care; dissemination of the recommendations to policy makers will be continued. Therefore, also a medium- and long-term effect of the project can be expected.