Young Ex-Offenders Support (YES)
Duration: 1. 9. 2020 – 30. 11. 2022
Places of implementation: Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Norway
Donor: Erasmus+ Programme
Objectives:
- To provide youth workers, social workers and employment counsellors with professional knowledge for working with young people with criminal backgrounds.
- To develop a training programme for young people with convictions based on their needs and key competences proposed by the EU.
- Establish an online platform to support clients in finding employment after release.
- To find socially responsible employers who are willing to employ people with a criminal record.
- Create a network between correctional institutions, youth workers and employers.
- Minimize negative social perceptions of people with criminal past.
Summary:
The project will promote the employability of young people with criminal past by providing employers and professionals with the tools to train, mentor and employ this disadvantaged target group. The project will develop a non-formal training programme focusing on the employability of young (ex-)offenders aged 14-30.
The project is designed to have a long-term positive effect on project participants, partners and the general public. It will create, initiate and maintain a robust support system to help young people with criminal past improve their employability chances, thereby reducing the risk of reoffending which ultimately harms released young people and society as a whole.
Outcomes and activities:
- Methodology for increasing the employability of (ex-)offenders in prison and after release.
YES TO EMPLOYMENT: Methodology to boost employability of (ex-)offenders inside the prisons and once released
- Handbook for employers
Handbook for Businesses in Employing Ex-Offenders
- Online support for ex-offenders, professionals and employers on employment.
- A criminal history friendly network of employers, ex-offenders and professionals.
- Short documentaries featuring stories of successful clients and their employers.
- Events for professionals and organisations working in the field of integration of people with criminal backgrounds and the general public.
Registration number: 2020-2-LT02-KA205-006906
Beneficiary: Association Active Youth (Lithuania),
Partners: RUBIKON Centre (Czech Republic), Sławek Foundation (Poland), Wayback (Norway)
Map of organizations working with (ex-)convicts in Czech Republic
Questionnaire survey among employers