All over Europe, as an effect of Covid 19, unemployment rates are dramatically increasing, also and especially among low-qualified, disadvantaged young people. While in recent years youth unemployment had gone down in most countries (including the partner countries of this project, i.e. DE, AT, SI, UK), e.g. in Austria by 6,7% in the year 2019 (source: statistik austria), current figures are alarming. The increase in general unemployment in Austria is by almost 60% (April 2020) compared with last year, with young population groups being strongly affected again. In addition, many young employees have been put on short-work basis and are at risk of losing their jobs. It is also young people leaving school in these times who face precarious situations, a situation of helplessness and depression. All these elements particularly apply for economically weaker regions (such as in the East of Germany, e.g.). At the same time, the Corona crisis has brought about a new wave of solidarity and “social bonding“ among societies, also -or even first and foremost- initiated and shown by parts of the younger generation (e.g. by taking care of elder people, actively supporting supply of necessary items, volunteering for social services etc.). For the time after the peak of this crisis, it will be crucial for European labour markets, economy and social stability in general to actively promote and make use of such new forms of civic engagement and this new sense of “togetherness“. It will be crucial for youth work providers, professionals in educational and career services for low-qualified young people to react correspondingly, adequately and efficiently. – At this point, our project “Value” will come in by offering new forms of empowering young disadvantaged learners and motivate them to apply hitherto neglected skills and tacit potentials related to civic and social behaviour – also connected to their employability (new jobs in social care and related fields). “Value” will help youngsters overcome a perceived or real absence of control over their situation. By providing innovative pedagogic solutions, our project shall empower young people to change paradigms about helplessness into a new sense of positive control and an active understanding of their management of change towards active and empathic social behaviour, as well as mental wellbeing for both their personal and professional development. In short: we want youngsters to actively become aware of their positive personal potentials and deliberately create added VALUE by applying these for themselves and others in terms of active social and empathic behaviour in job and personal life. In order to strengthen active social participation among youngsters in Europe and combat current negative trends that the Covid19 crises has brought about, the Value operative partnership - consisting of educational providers, youth organisations, social and pedagogic experts from Germany, Austria, Slovenia and the UK - in cooperation with their selected associated and network partners - will bring together their multidisciplinary expertise to: - develop output solutions (new pedagogic concepts, practical tools, youth education models) for practicioners working with the final beneficiaries/end users of this project through three innovative pedagogic outputs (IO1: “Practical Value Roadmap“ which contains a pedagogic concept and guidelines for training and coaching implementation, based on trainers‘/facilitators‘ workshops and reflection/evaluation sessions; IO2: “Value Case Box“: a toolset of exercises and scenario learning techniques for trainers/facilitators – how to foster active empathic behaviour among young disadvantaged learners and IO3: “Value Show Case“, which consists of implementation models and sample projects piloted and validated in each partner country – in order to exemplify the Value approach for further use and multiplication. The outlined situation affects all European countries and citizens. With the present consortium and its geographic coverage, we can produce all our suggested outputs bringing in partners’ strengths and expertise not only for our own situations, but for any interested individual and organisation meeting similar challenges and being able to benefit by implementing “Value” with minor adaptation and contextualisation efforts.
The above shows the reasons why the project was implemented. "Value" enabled young people, through innovative pedagogical solutions, to make a paradigm shift from helplessness to a sense of positive control, an active understanding of how to cope with change, active and empathetic social behaviour and mental well-being for their personal and professional development. In addition, the aim was for the end users of Value to benefit from both the new skills of the youth workers and the materials. Counsellors could better reach out to the target group to raise their awareness and consciousness of social empathy and equip them with the relevant skills and competences they need to actively participate as responsible and well-rounded citizens in times of societal changes,which otherwise negatively affect their self-determined/considered lifestyles. Youth counsellors (e.g. teachers, trainers) should be able to combine their existing competences with new ones in order to better pass them on to the project's target group.
As a result of Covid 19, unemployment rates rose dramatically across Europe, especially among low-skilled, disadvantaged young people. In addition, many young workers were put on short-time work and were at risk of losing their jobs. School leavers were also confronted with precarious situations (e.g. helplessness) during these times. In this context, "Value" should offer new forms of empowerment to young disadvantaged learners and motivate them to use previously neglected skills/potentials in terms of civic and social behaviour - also in connection with their employability. The values were intended to help young people overcome the perceived or actual lack of control over their situation. By providing innovative pedagogical solutions, our project aimed to empower young people to transform paradigms about helplessness into a new sense of positive control. In short, we wanted young people to become actively aware of their positive personal potential and to consciously add value by learning to use it for themselves and others through active social and empathic behaviour in their professional and private lives.