Youth work in schools

<< Background >>Young people have the weight of expectations on them and the rise of mental health problems has increased in the pastyears, specifically with COVID-19 having an immense impact on young people and their living conditions. The YWIS project started right after COVID pandemic, and aimed to help shed a light on the support the youth needs. Youth workers are able to support the youth and can create an environment where learning is encouraged but also other, non-formal and informal, learning activities could be realised as an addition.Many children, especially from lower socio-economic levels of society and from disadvantaged families, do not have theprivilege of experiencing youth work outside schools. Families often rely on children to do housework or help in other ways tosupport the family. By bringing youth work to schools, children from disadvantaged families can get increased and moretargeted support.The accessibility for and to youth work is increased by bringing youth work into schools, as barriers like getting to youthclubs and paying for transportation are eliminated. Additionally, it would add a positive aspect to daily school life which canbe stressful and tedious.<< Objectives >>The chosen priority of YWIS project is Increasing quality, innovation and recognition of youthwork.The project of Youth work in schools, YWIS, developed youth work and its quality in educational environments. The aim was to define the role and opportunities of youth work in schools. Another aim was to incorporate informal education opportunities to formaleducation and to integrate the objectives of youth work and curricula in order to strengthen the holistic student wellbeing work.YWIS further increased the quality of youth work through four themes: sustainable development, democracy education, student wellbeing work and strengthening the sense of community.<< Implementation >>YWIS consists of four work packages: Project management, Best practices of local networks, Mixing and testing bestpractices and Arranging learning and teaching activities. YWIS organised transnational meetings, workshops and training,and published materials of youth work in schools for international use. Each partner established local collaboration and disseminated the results through national networks.The best practices are collected to a book published by Xamk: European Perspectives and Good Practices onYouth Work in Schools and Educational Institutions, Inspiration and Approaches for Youth Workers. During the mixing and testing period all partners piloted 4 best practices from another country. The results were collected in a reviewed Article in Youth, 5(2), 52. https://doi.org/10.3390/youth5020052: Youth Work in Schools: Pathways to Sustainability, Well-Being and Democratic Communities by Stelios Pantazidis and Yannis Pechtelidis from Greece.All partners organized one training course for minimum 50 participants. An open access e-learning course YWIS - Youth Work in Schools was published in the end of the YWIS project by UTh. Stories from the piloting and expert texts are published by Xamk in the International Playground.<< Results >>All partners established National networks of school youth work with their stakeholders active in the field of youth work in schools . The project published a handbook: European Perspectives and Good Practices on Youth Work in Schools and Educational Institutions, Inspiration and Approaches for Youth Workers. https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/864818The results of the the mixing and testing period were collected in a reviewed Article in Youth, 5(2), 52. https://doi.org/10.3390/youth5020052: Youth Work in Schools: Pathways to Sustainability, Well-Being and Democratic Communities by Stelios Pantazidis and Yannis Pechtelidis from Greece. The experiences were shared in social media, too.All partners organized one training course nationally for minimum 50 participants. ( In Finland this was international and in English)An open access learning course YWIS - Youth Work in Schools eLearning was published in the end of the YWIS project https://ywis.uth.gr/elearning/ . Stories from the piloting and expert texts from all partner countries were published by Xamk in the International playground.https://www.xamk.fi/en/project/ywis-youth-work-in-schools/#accordion-2