The KHIK IT project was designed in response to the emergence of a new form of youth distress, revealed through voluntary social isolation. A phenomenon whose size is not yet defined at the EU level by targeted investigations but is increasingly affecting young people aged 14 to 30 - but not only - all over the world. The multidimensional nature of the phenomenon and the coexistence and interrelation of multiple individual and contextual factors challenge the identification of the root causes that lead young people to self-confinement. However, numerous studies available and the direct experience of the project consortium members converge on the characterization of the phenomenon as a coping mechanism to disruptions and growing social pressures. Recognizing in the inclusive and open environments fostered by youth work the favourable conditions to facilitate the personal and social development of young people at risk of voluntary isolation, through the KHIK IT project, nine non-profit organizations from eight European countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Hungary) aimed to provide youth workers and organizations working with youth with the knowledge, skills and tools to prevent social isolation and, in particular, to intercept and reintegrate young people at risk. Therefore, the project pursued the following specific objectives: OS1. To broaden the knowledge of youth workers on the phenomenon of voluntary social isolation; OS2. Analyze the characteristics of the phenomenon of social withdrawal in the partners' local communities; OS3. Define an operational plan, intervention strategies and techniques to prevent and tackle youth social withdrawal; OS4. Define guidelines for trainers and youth workers to structure information, awareness-raising and prevention activities to be addressed to students, parents, and teachers to identify and prevent cases of distress before it can become deviant.
The project "kHIK it - Strategies to engage socially isolated youngsters" was created in response to the emergence of a new form of youth distress, revealed through a voluntary social isolation. It is a phenomenon that affects young people aged 14 to 30, who often experience school phobia and school withdrawal, anthropophobia, obsessive and compulsive symptoms, social avoidance, apathy and depressed mood. An emerging phenomenon that the proposing organizations met in their activities with young people and which, not defined as for dimensions and characteristics by specific investigations at European level, remains mostly the object of research. So, how can we intercept young people in social withdrawal and those at risk? And when intercepted, how can we help them? "kHIK it" intends to provide these questions with an answer, analyzing the characteristics of the phenomenon of social withdrawal in the realities of the partnership network, involving trainers youth workers in the definition of suitable lines of intervention to intercept and recover young people in condition of social isolation and guidelines to structure information and prevention plans in schools, to be addressed to students, parents and teachers, in order to identify and prevent cases of social desease before it can become deviant. The project then pursues the following objectives: - to broaden the knowledge of youth workers on the phenomenon of voluntary social isolation; - to analyze the characteristics of the phenomenon of social withdrawal in our reference realities; - to define an operational plan, strategies and treatment techniques, to intervene in cases of voluntary social isolation; - to define guidelines, to be addressed to trainers and youth workers, about how to structure information and prevention paths with students, parents and teachers.