The project aims to contribute to the successful reintegration of (former) prisoners into the labour market and society. Individual plans for prisoners as well as regular state and other voluntary programmes are taken into account and appropriately supplemented. To this end, the project partners worked closely with regional stakeholders (prisons, companies, vocational training organisations, voluntary support services such as sports clubs) to test a sustainable process chain that creates and simplifies access for and to prisons. The resulting regional cooperation and networks support prisoners on their way into the primary labour market. Prison officers also receive a pedagogical handout to assess the social skills of inmates in various activities, particularly in the field of sport, with school grades. In this way, individual and suitable work and training opportunities that are offered during the prison term can be identified and support can be provided in finding a suitable placement in the labour market. They are also a reference for good performances that inmates can present to potential employers.
NEXT STEPS is a follow-up to the E+ STEPS project (2018-2020), which was nominated as a "good practice project" by the NA BIBB (The National Agency Education for Europe at the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training) and in which a successful approach to the reintegration of offenders via sport was communicated. It has been shown that key competences of prisoners can be observed in prison sport, the knowledge of which can also be of great value to potential employers. However, prison staff often do not have the pedagogical expertise to objectively assess these skills and thus provide prisoners with a reference for job application procedures. A stable employment relationship has been proven to reduce the recidivism rate. The approach of the North Rhine-Westphalian justice system shows that the placement of prisoners in the labour market is particularly successful if they can acquire vocational qualifications within the prisons. In all participating partner countries, there are considerable barriers to accessing the labour market for ex-prisoners. At the same time, companies are looking for highly motivated workers and non-profit organisations are seeking access to prisons to engage in social activities.