About the project

YOUTH: Promoting quality youth work
Constelllation focuses on youngsters at risk of marginalisation with fewer opportunities, particular neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) and fosters their inclusion and employability by building capacity of youth workers and in youth work. Constellation prevents youngsters to become NEET, especially youngsters who live in rural areas.
YOUTH: Promoting empowerment
Constellation strengthens cross-sectorial cooperation between formal educators and youth workers in order to prevent youngsters getting into the NEET group. It is a join co-creation to empower youngsters belong to community, find his/her place within it.

HORIZONTAL: Open education and innovative practices in a digital era
All the created learning materials and tools are Open Educational Resources and digitalized, available for free to everyone. In result there is created an intellectual output #O3, a E-assistant for youth workers and educators.

Project Description

In 2016, more than 6,3 million young people (aged 15-24 years) were NEETs in the EU. In 2011 the direct economic loss across the EU to the high proportion of NEETs was estimated at 153 billion eur or 1,2% of EU’s gross domestic product (https://goo.gl/ghiXA8).
Within the context of the Project Constellation we emphasize two risk factors:

1. living in remote areas increases the probability of becoming NEET up to 1.5 times
   (https://goo.gl/pfMHje);
2. complex background of family of origin and own family : – there is 2.8 times more likely of being NEET for six months or more the ones, who experience pregnancy or parenthood (Commons Library Briefing, 28 December 2017 (UK), http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/30962/).

The main objective of Project Constellation is to build capacity of youth workers and formal educators working with youth in rural areas in high potential of becoming NEET youngster:

• to raise awareness of marginalized youth, especially, NEET youngsters among project target groups (youth workers and educators);
• to set a cross-sectorial cooperation between non-formal and formal education;
• to make a research on patterns of youth that easily pull them into NEET group (Intellectual Output (#O1);
• based on this research make an Educational Resource Kit (including methodology and tools) how prevent youngsters in high risk of becoming NEET (Intellectual Output (#O2);
• to create an online e-Assistant for youth workers and educators for preventing youngsters becoming NEET (Intellectual Output (#O3);
• during Training to create guidelines for youth workers and educators, how to prevent youngsters becoming NEET;
• to share the project results on Disseminations Seminars and Final Conference and other dissemination activities by widespreading the results of the project.

Addressed target groups:

• Youth from rural areas (age 13-25), potential NEET youngsters.
  This age has the highest vulnerability in the context of turbulent inner transitions, when family background and peer pressure leads to drop-out of the education. It is also the age, when youngster can experience early parenthood and drop-out of job or training;

Non formal educators

• Youth workers, youth leaders and all the persons who are involved working with youngsters, including youth organizations and networks, freelance trainers working within non-formal education;
• youth workers or youth leaders, who work with potential and already NEET youngsters;
• youth workers, youth leaders, project coordinators, mentors, support staff who seek to work with potential and already NEET youngsters;
• youth workers and leaders, who have possibility practically use methods in their daily
  work;
• Formal educators
  Teachers and educators including representing schools and intuitions of formal education;
• Associated partners – those are social workers, decision makers of youth policy,
  representatives from municipality ect.

Project Results
Project Constellation makes a system (therefore is the title constellation that stands for the group of elements) how non-formal and formal educators cooperate in order to prevent youngsters become NEET in rural areas. It is transformable, adoptive, flexible system, where innovated Intellectual outputs serves as a binder.

The main gain of the project results is to ease the work of youth workers and educators in work with potential NEET youngsters, it equips them with innovative approaches, tools and mindsets how to work with potential NEET youngsters, raises awareness on opportunities in cross-sectorial cooperation:

Reached numbers:
275 people (participants with fewer opportunities 155) and indirectly around 700 stakeholders in Europe and partner countries (350 youth organizations and 350 from formal education). It also includes associated partners and their networks.