Developing an Innovative Tool in Youth Work for Teen Parents Erasmus Project

Project Title

Developing an Innovative Tool in Youth Work for Teen Parents

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Health and wellbeing

Project Summary

A teen parent may not be a suitable mother or father because she/he is overwhelmed by the constant needs of the baby. Their children are more likely to suffer health and cognitive disadvantages, come in contact with the child welfare and correctional systems, live in poverty, drop out of high school and become teen parents themselves. This is a main focus of the project Tool4Teen. Educating about parenting and learning all about how to be an effective mom or dad are the best things to ensure that a child grows up happy, healthy and well-adjusted.

Starting from the mentioned assumptions to motivate our choice of priorities, the project OBJECTIVES are: To design, implement, test and disseminate an innovative effective educational tool easy to use and decode able to support youth workers in developing their daily activities and their channels of communication with the goal to support teen parents in their social integration path starting from the principle that knowledge and skills in positive parenting are crucial for successful integration: the aim of integration calls for efforts by the teen parents to accept the societies standards.

The pointed objectives respond to the need to: improve the quality of youth learning; offer to youth workers an informal learning tool to help them in their role as providers of non-formal learning opportunities to different targets; give youth workers an easy tool to be exploited in their daily work; empower youth workers and teen parents; offer them flexible, updated, easy tailored made instruments.

The background of the project target group are teen parents from different background, and different education status, with slight learning disabilities, drop out of education or did not complete high school, disadvantaged in society, unemployed, socially excluded in society and above all have psycho-social problems which can lead to learning difficulty. Direct beneficiaries – professionals working with this target group – mainly youth workers because professionals lack innovative easy reading tools to provide target group with effective and qualitative services.

The methodological approach will develop a tool, that will be elaborated in the form of short comic strips through which teen parents will be able to improve, with youth worker’s support, their knowledge and skills of positive parenting focusing on a bottom-up and inclusive approach. The methodology will help youth workers in their role of multi-target and multi-topic providers of non-formal learning opportunities, the tools is effective for teaching because they require readers not only to passively receive information, but to interact with both text and images to construct meaning, and that is the key to the magic.

The following results are expected to be attained upon completion of the project:
– Improved access for teen parents, versatility and social integration through new innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses.
– Improved understanding of youth worker’s priorities at European level by civil society actors/professionals working with teen parents.
– Increased confidence among teen parents to use their individual strengths, abilities and qualities for their social integration in general.
– Increased attitudes of responsibility, independence and resourcefulness among teen parents.
– Empowered teen parents to use positive parenting methods.
– Improved self-esteem of teen parents and empowered participation cultures in their integration path way, thus overcoming prejudices and stereotypes.

5 partners from Lithuania, Ireland, Poland, Finland and Malta will collaborate within the project. The aspect in selecting partners was their experience in carrying out European projects and respecting their rigor and characteristics. The constituted cross-sectoral partnership itself is innovative: NGOs focused on family services and comic strips drawing, Universities providing learning to educators and committed to improve training methods, SME with an expertise on social integration issues. Geographical coverage and different local situations will make project results valid.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 99715 Eur

Project Coordinator

Asociacija MINTIES BITES & Country: LT

Project Partners

• Willingness
• The Center of Expertise on Social Welfare in South-East Finland
• WYZSZA SZKOLA BIZNESU I NAUK O ZDROWIU
• FUTURE IN PERSPECTIVE LIMITED