In the framework of the project LLI-402 “risk-free” new methodological manual for staff working with at-risk children and youth was elaborated and is now available online. Methodological manual is available in Latvian language, but at the beginning of 2020 it will be translated in Lithuanian language.

Informative seminar was organized on November 13, 2019 in Daugavpils to present the new handbook to specialists from Latgale region. Participants of the seminar learned elements of non-formal education, which are included in the manual, and shared experience of their professional work with their colleagues from Latgale region.

Child and youth care specialists (sports trainers, social workers, social educators, psychologists, youth workers etc.), who work with at-risk children and youth on a day-to-day basis, deal with the lack of approaches and tools to provide a qualitative support to the learning process of children and young people. Latgale Planning Region has developed methodology and guidelines on how to work with this specific target group and better motivate and involve them in the sports activities.

Methodological material is intended for any child and youth care professional who wants to carry out support work with at-risk children and young people by promoting social inclusion of the target group, using sport as a support tool. This handbook describes the characteristics of at-risk children and youth in the Latgale Planning Region and Utena County (Lithuania). It also describes the role, functions and tasks of youth professionals, as well as the aspects they need to consider when using sport as a support tool for working with at-risk children and youth. It focuses on the practical conditions that need to be considered when engaging at-risk children and young people in sports activities. The methodological material summarizes and includes non-formal education methods for working with project’s target group.

Professionals from the field were involved in the elaboration of the material. They shared their experience, observations and made recommendations for working with the target group. The theoretical framework of the material was elaborated by participants of the training cycle held in late 2018 and early 2019 – youth specialists, representatives of orphan’s and custody courts, social workers, psychologists and sports trainers from Latgale Planning Region and Ignalina and Visaginas regions in Lithuania.

Methodological material is one of the main outputs of the project LLI-402 “risk-free” and it will ensure continuity of the developed social inclusion model through sports with a special focus on at-risk children and youth in remote rural and cross-border areas.

Methodological manual for staff working with at-risk children and youth