Empowering communities
Erasmus+ project officially named “Empowering and inclusive model to create an experience of a supportive community for NEET youngsters”, acronym: mPow.
”A person becomes a human being only through participation in a human community.”
– Paul Natorp 1899
This Erasmus project will develop and describe a community-based approach to help youth workers better support young people with challenges such as mental health, social situations, and learning. The key elements of this approach are community, peer support and the role of the professional in relation to young people, enabling them to be truly involved.
The project will describe how to create an empowering community, the role of young people in such a community and how professionals can best support young people in their empowerment. Empowerment takes place in communities where young people can not only take a break from social pressures, but where they can also do things that are meaningful to them and engage with their peers. The role of the professional is to educate and guide young people in realizing their own dreams and in maintaining a positive and hopeful atmosphere.
As concrete steps, we will write a handbook for youth workers describing how to create a community and a community-based approach. The handbook will also contain information on the situation in different countries, the results of a survey carried out during the project, best practices of each partner and case stories from young people. The project will also provide training for young people and professionals working with young people, as well as self-reflection materials for professionals. The idea is that the Empowering Community approach can be used in the future by any actor who wants to either create an empowering community for young people or change their current activities to better support young people in challenging life situations.
mPow is a two-year (1 October 2022-30 September 2024) Erasmus+ project with four partners. Sosped (https://www.sosped.fi) is the coordinator, while the other partners are Il Grande Carro from Italy (https://www.ilgrandecarro.it), Check-In from Portugal (https://checkin.org.pt/) and Asociace Trigon from the Czech Republic (https://asociacetrigon.eu/).