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European Project Exyonet: the creation of the first European network to improve the employability of the young offenders

Young people that fulfill or have fulfilled a judicial measure will have the opportunity of explain their real needs of insertion, the difficulties they have to face when they access to the labour market and the solutions.

Meridianos, a reference organization in Spain with programs for young people in risk of social exclusion, will lead the European Project EXYOnet (European Network for employability of young (ex) offenders) inside the UE Youth in Action, with the main objective to create a collaboration network in the European field between the entities implied in the promotion and support in the social and labour insertion of the young people that fulfill or have fulfilled a judicial measure. The delegate of Meridianos in Madrid, José David Linares affirmed that `the intention of the project where entities from United Kingdom, Italy, Turkey, Romania and Lithuania participate is to improve the knowledge exchange for the mutual learning´. The six entities involved in the consortium, Meridianos (Spain), Ealing Council (United Kingdom), Arimo (Italy), the NGO Zmogiskuju istekliu stebesenos (Lithuania), the Romanian Foundation for Democracy (RFD) and the Izmir Government (Turkey) have a consolidated career working with young people in risk of exclusion that fulfill or have fulfilled a judicial measure in diverse regimes (open, semi-open or closed). José David Linares pointed that ‘all the institutions and organizations that are involved understand first-hand the difficulties of the young people in risk of social exclusion have to face nowadays – and in a inmediate future- to confront their incorporation to the work world, in a middle of a economic crisis and with all the social and technological changes’. ‘The European situation of the unemployment of young offenders is completely unknown’ stated the delegate of Meridianos. ‘That is why it has been created the first European network to analyze the future of the young people and guarantee them a future job’ he said.

According to the Eurostat numbers (May 2013), the unemployment rate of young people in the UE 27 is 23%, that is, in 5, 501,000 young people under 25 years old. In Spain, the figure was nearing 946,000 young people under 25, in other words, one out of two young people are in a situation of unemployment (56.2%).
The project of the European network for the employability of young offenders, ‘intend to address to a group, between the young people, that have serious difficulties trying to be in the European labour market’ declared the delegate of Meridianos. In Spain, we could be talking of ‘more that 10,000 young offenders in this situation’. José David Linares added that, according to the last data of the Program of Professional Experiences for the Employment in which Meridianos is involved in ‘one out of two young trained by our organization has got a job’.

This European network for the employment of young offenders will have as an objective to create a space that promote the knowledge exchange and transfer of processes, good practices and cases of success between the European professionals for the social inclusion and labour promotion of teenagers and young offenders.
Moreover, it will promote the investigation, development and innovation of the activities related with the itineraries of insertion and training. Finally, guarantee the participation of the European young (ex) offenders into the design of their services with interactive activities where the young people will have the opportunity of explain their real insertion necessities, the difficulties that they face to access the labour market and their solution proposals.
The delegate of Meridianos affirmed that the creation of this network is an answer of the necessity of facing together the situation of European unemployment between young people in a situation of discrimination and marginalization. He added that the professionals that make possible the tutelage services, education and orientation will have a real and practical support in order to adapt their competences and qualifications to the new obstacles that the young offenders must face to enter the labour world. The European project EXYOnet will have various meetings in the participant’s countries, after the first meeting in Madrid that is the starting point for the formalization of the collaboration agreement of the network. In November, there will be the second meeting in Milan, coordinated by Arimo, and the objectives will be to make a balance of the actual European intervention models for the social and labour integration of young offenders.
Finally, the project will be closed with a meeting in Brussels, coordinated by Meridianos, un June 2014, to establish a formal contact between the network EXYOnet and the public authorities, European authorities, business associations, representatives of the civil society, professionals, other institutions involved in politics for the integration of young offenders and different networks that work with young people in risk and employability. The meeting will be an instrument to expose the results obtained and present the proposals of communitarian action to improve the employability of this population, and edit a White Paper of the European intervention proposals in programs of employability for young people in risk of exclusion.

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