We achieved all the objectives we envisaged: O1. The level of awareness and a proactive attitude increased for at least 70% of the youth at risk of offending and reoffending, (among them prison inmates and probation clients) about the relevance of healthy relationships in their life. We focused mainly on their understanding of the connection between ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and substance abuse, violent behaviour, lack of values, low self-esteem on one hand, and the risk of social exclusion and its effects (high risk of unemployment, unhealthy relationships, tendency to engage in risky and illegal actions), on the other hand. O2. More than 75% of the YW (youth workers) involved in the project demonstrated thorough knowledge on prevention & intervention via the methods developed in the EYP Manual. The YW understand much better the characteristics of their beneficiaries (probation clients, offenders, youth at risk of offending and exclusion). O3. We transferred the EYP Manual to more than 3 organisations/partner. We reached a total number of 60+ organisations that are using at this moment the EYP Manual to different extent.
EYP (Explore your Potential)’ is an initiative launched in 2021 by a consortium of three organisations from EU countries. The project promotes a set of best practices for stimulating the social reintegration of young offenders, young people who are at risk of offending and those at risk of social exclusion. Probably the most notable project result is that we fulfilled the initial needs of the partners in terms of increasing the capacity to better work with young people at risk of offending or re-offending, or at risk of social exclusion. The project incorporates the efforts of three teams of specialists in various fields such as: youth work, NFL, probation services, psychology and psychotherapy, social work, linguistics, teaching, research, community development, international cooperation, and organisational change. With the EYP project, we continued to consolidate our methodological framework and improved the interventions dedicated to youngsters who are offenders or at risk. As the methods from the EYP Manual combine three different perspectives, and address three of the main causes of recidivism (addictions, violence, ACE), this project is a new and highly compatible intervention for us.