Our colleague Aleksandar Todorov took part in a seminar targeted to professionals, working with NEETs entiteled "iNEETiative - Holistic Approach to Youth at Risk and in NEETsituation". The seminar was organized by SALTO and the Romanian National Agency for Erasmus + programme and was conducted between 19th and 23rd of May in Bucharest, Romania. The event was attended by more than 30 professionals from various European countries, working for the non-government and public sector.

 

The seminar started with some energizing games helping the participants to find out more about each other. After that were clarified the basic concepts related to working with young people who are not in employment, education or training. Also in the first part everybody managed to express their hopes and expectations from the seminar. Mr. Ian Goldring presented the different profiles of those young people, categorized as NEETs and the reasons for their social exclusion - unemployment, family background, educational problems etc. After that, the facilitators asked the participants, by using materials at hand, in a creative and attractive way to present the current situation in their countries of the multi-sectorial cooperation in the field of youth.  The day ended with an intercultural picnic where everybody had the chance to present traditional meals and drinks from his/her country of origin. 

 

The second day of the seminar started with the introduction of six good practices in the field of youth inclusion. It was followed by practices analyzing and presenting the current situation in the hosted country-Romania. After the lunch break we had the opportunity to visit local initiatives targeted to the social inclusion of young people who are not in employment, education or training. It was very interesting to visit a local social enterprise which has two noble objectives- prevention of environment pollution and ensuring employability for disabled people.

 

During the seminar, the facilitators presented European programmes which provide financing of projects aiming at the social inclusion of NEETs. After that the whole group was divided into groups each with the task to prepare a short concept for the implementation of a project targeted to young people, living in social isolation. The day ended with a feedback from the participants followed by city guide tour of Bucharest. 

 

At the end of the seminar, all the participants received Youthpass certificates including the competencies which they had upgraded and built up during the event. During the entire seminar, the organizers managed to create an atmosphere which helped the professionals to work as a team and build up a network of partner organizations to work together in the future for reducing the high rate of non-active young people.