Page 44 - Guiding-at-risk-youth-through-learning-to-work-Lessons-from-across-Europe

Guiding at-risk youth through learning to work
Lessons from across Europe

(a) young migrants and young refugees (e.g. the Nightingale project in
Sweden);
(b) young people at high risk of disadvantage and social and economic
exclusion (e.g. the mentoring activities of the Rainbow Association in
Slovenia);
(c) young people from ethnic minority groups, including young members of the
Roma community (e.g. the scholarship/mentoring projects in the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia);
(d) young people making the transition from school to further education, training
or employment (e.g. Rise and follow your dreams, Denmark).

Through mentoring programmes, these specific groups of young people can
access targeted and individualised guidance and support, which may not be
available to them elsewhere. They can benefit from external advice and contact
with people who may be from outside their usual social, economic and cultural
background. Mentees can gain an insight into the different opportunities open to
them, which they may not have known about or known how to access in their
day-to-day lives. The projects can also bring together people who may not have
otherwise met, enabling them to learn about different people’s lives, which can
have a positive impact on their aspirations and understanding of the world. For
example, mentoring represents one way of familiarising children and young
people from under-represented groups with the opportunities higher education
can bring. This is illustrated with an example from Sweden which also identifies
how mentoring programmes targeting immigrant families can support wider social
goals by fostering dialogue between established community members and new
arrivals and by enhancing the understanding of mentees and mentors of different
cultural, religious and social realities.
Research has shown that young people with strong support networks are
more likely to be resilient in the face of life difficulties, as well as more
socioeconomically successful than those who have no one to turn to (Werner,
1993). One Danish mentoring project, the mentor as a network creator (Mentor
som Netvaerksskaber) was established around the ethos that mentoring should
teach young people to build and use their own support networks. Young people
at risk of dropping out of their vocational studies were supported by trained
mentors whose fundamental aim was to engender independence, teaching young
people to learn to help themselves. One of the key activities was to create a
supportive network, for example by asking them to identify people related to their
education, free time, family and friends that could support them. Follow-up

38