Way To Go!
Start date: Jul 1, 2014,
End date: Dec 31, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
Way To Go (WTG!) aimed to provide new and exciting learning opportunities for young people living in residential care.
The project provided youth exchanges between 24 young people living in care in East Anglia, in Break charity?s children?s homes, and young people living in care in Northern Germany, at Elisabethheim Havetoft. The exchanges provided these extremely vulnerable young people with experience living in new environments, developing their skills, expanding their horizons, and improving their European citizen and cultural awareness.
There were also staff exchanges for 4 youth workers at Break and Elisabethheim Havetoft, which enabled them to share social pedagogy best practice and learn from the different approaches in supporting extremely vulnerable young people at each setting.
The young people who took part had very high levels of need. They all came from difficult and challenging home lives (most had experienced abuse, and parental mental health and drug and alcohol issues). All of them have Special Educational Needs: either in terms of learning difficulties and/or disability, or in terms of mental health or behavioural disorders.
The project impact was that the young people made huge strides in their informal and non-formal learning. They improved in many competency areas but particularly in terms of communication (both in their own language and in foreign languages); in their social and civic competences; and cultural awareness and expression. The youth workers built new networks and learnt about different models of delivering statutory residential care. This knowledge and awareness can now be transferred to the work they do in their own settings and in their national environments. They also learnt about innovation in raising funds which enable them to provide added value services and support to their young people.
This project forms part of a wider development in the area of social pedagogy practice in relation to supporting children and young people in the care system across Europe, and those who are transitioning out of care.
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