For eliminating these above mentioned obstacles - and thus facilitating conditions for NEETs to finish school or obtaining long-term employment - the main project idea is to solve the problems together with the ones affected by them. In other words; creating with rather than creating for the target group. With the NEETs for NEETs-project, partners from Sweden, Germany and Norway aim to exchange best practices and commonly develop/improve new and innovative instruments and activities - formed together with the target group. Taking its starting point in best practice, the project will broaden and modify the ReACT Self-Empowerment model, developed by Save the Children Sweden and the refugee organisation Support Group Network (SGN). The purpose of the ReACT model is to support self-organisation and strategic collaboration for better integration. ReACT was first used by SGN in asylum-seeking accommodations in Sweden. The mobilisation process of SGN resulted in refugees living in camps initiating, implementing and coordinating activities themselves. ReACT was later on embraced by Stuttgart city, used as an embedded method throughout activities within the EaSI-project FIER - Fast Track Integration in European Regions 2018-2020 coordinated by the applicant of this proposal. The proposed NEETs for NEETs project will learn from these experiences and practices, adapting them to the challenges and possibilities of our target group (NEETs), thus improving the ReACT model by making its co-creative and innovative approach applicable to new segments of disadvantaged citizens throughout Europe.
We applied for this project since we want to find new solutions to old problems. For decades, the number of young people neither in employment nor in education and training (NEETs) have remained at high levels. Instead of blaming them for not being job-ready for another decade to come, this project wants to raise the question; how could we improve our own modus operandi, making our activities more relevant for NEETs in question? Thus, in spite of the project title NEETs for NEETs, the main target group of this project concerns our staff members working with young adults (i.e., NEETs). By applying for this project, we want to give these staff members the opportunity to work co-creatively with their target groups, by embarking a journey consisting of pilot trainings and Learning, Teaching and Training activities (LTTs) on self-empowerment activities for - but (most significantly) with- and even by - NEETs themselves. Thanks to years of work experience, together with the collection of data through research publications - as well as the voices of NEETs themselves, obtained thanks to conducted meetings with focus groups - we are convinced that the modus operandi of public administrations, educational sectors, and civil society organisations (CSOs) will become a lot more relevant according to NEETs if we start including themselves in formulating the problems and challenges affecting them. When NEETs start to fully understand their potential as driving forces in their own lives, an opportunity appears where they are capable of becoming subjects in shaping their own futures, instead of mere objects targeted by professionals and experts, who decide which activities lead to empowerment and which do not.