The overall aim of StepForME has been to enhance the professional practices of youth workers aimed at strengthening the employability of young people with pandemic-exacerbated emotional well-being issues through innovative and effective community intervention practices supported by digital tools. Additionally, it includes 4 specific objectives: 1. Identify and better understand the barriers to labor market access faced by young people with emotional well-being issues through a participatory digital process. 2. Identify, capitalize on, and standardize innovative and effective practices in the use of existing digital technologies and tools to enhance the well-being and employability of these young people. 3. Translate these practices into professional competencies and tools for youth workers by developing guides and designing, implementing, and developing training modules for more effective community and socio-labor intervention with young people experiencing these types of difficulties. 4. Disseminate and exploit the acquired knowledge and materials to stakeholders involved in improving the employability and social inclusion of these young people.
The employability of young people with emotional well-being issues has always been lower and more complex than that of the general youth population. Emotional well-being issues create barriers that hinder access to the job market. COVID-19 has exacerbated the emotional well-being issues of European youth, with devastating consequences for their employability, and has led to a sudden acceleration of digital transformation that has allowed exploring the potential of digital tools to help improve youth well-being and employability, facilitating professional intervention and enhancing their socio-labor inclusion. This has sparked interest from social actors to better understand the potential of digital transformation to achieve more effective socio-labor intervention with young people with fewer opportunities. StepForME addresses this challenge by bringing youth workers and young people themselves a set of innovative practices supported by the use of digital tools that have been proven effective in improving their well-being and employability, training youth workers, recommending the generalization of these practices and tools, and disseminating knowledge.