Ni-Ni and Yo-Yo : Youth Trajectories and Dilemma of Social Welfare Systems in Southern Europe is one of its kind project involving the youth grassroots and youth experts to attempt to make change in the social welfare systems which is one of the root causes of the Ni-Ni and Yo-Yo youth trajectories. The project name comes from the both Ni-Ni by referring to the NEETs and drawback youth from the society and Yo-Yo by referring to the prolonged Youth and the repetitive trajectory between the state of being youth and state of being adult. The project aims to create an awareness on the root causes of these issues which is the Social Welfare system structure in the participating countries as it is widely discussed by the scholars. This issue is very well-known by the youth scholars although among the youth workers it is not discussed or advocated.
We addressed these issues for the youth field to act towards to make a change and create a linkage between the youth policy research and the youth practitioners. We aimed to provide a road map for the youth NGOs for advocating the social rights of young people as well as increasing the capacities of youth NGOs in the way of the research with our project as even there are several projects focusing on the very issue of social rights concerning the young people and create an awareness on the issue of the social welfare system by focusing on four areas : housing, education, employment, health rights and participation of the young people.
The objectives of the project :
- To analyze the youth trajectories in Southern Europe countries and implications of Southern Europe Welfare System on young people’s lives
- To develop policy paper as a road map for the governments in respective countries on the life of young people concerning their rights
- To understand the causes behind the existence of NEETs in respective countries and provide a road map for the youth workers to reach these young people
- To increase the skills of youth workers in the issue of denied youth citizenship resulting with the marginalization and exclusion of young people and tackling situation of prolonged youth and Ni-Ni youth trajectories
Within the project, we have implemented several activities from research, documentary making, mobilities for young people and youth workers to increase the capacities of youth organizations as well as the young people to tackle with the challenges derived from the social welfare system in Southern European countries specifically Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Turkey. In this toolbox, you will find the practical approaches towards to the issues that focuses on the lives of young people in Southern Mediterranean countries and tools to increase the capacities of young people and youth workers in this regard.
