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A course for youth workers to learn: 
- how to approach a group of disadvantaged youth,
- how to involve them, to create their own volunteering project to help a community in need,
- and how to train, coach, mentor and support them.

This course is a self-paced, interactive, practical course for Youth Workers to learn how to support groups of disadvantaged youth in creating and realizing their own volunteering projects and use it as an experiential learning process for the volunteers.

You are going to learn about:

- how to approach disadvantaged Youth,
- how to mobilize and recruit them to create their own volunteer projects,
- how to work with them,
- how to inspire, connect, empower, coach and mentor them in this process.


About this course

In this course, you have a chance to learn about supporting disadvantaged youth who come from minority or socially disadvantaged background in the context of youth work. More specifically you can learn about how to support a group of disadvantaged youngsters in a non-formal learning program that is based on volunteering.


The above-mentioned topics are explored by sharing and expanding a field-tested practice of working with Hungarian youth living in foster care and in segregated minority communities run since 2011. This method is called: From Us to You (FUY/FUYI - but we like to pronounce it FUJI).


Aims and objectives of the course

The course aims to introduce the elements of the From Us to You program that make a volunteering based non-formal education program effective. By doing so we would like to share what we have found useful in our work in supporting disadvantaged youth. 
Besides our learnings, we also share the resources and approaches we have learned from within or outside of the field of youth work. More concretely, you will have a short glimpse into: 
- Experiential education
- Solution focused approach
- Trauma informed approach.


Timeline and framework of the course

The modules of the course are self-paced, so you can go through them in a more intense manner, or stretch them out in time. You can use it as a source of inspiration if you are new to the field.


If you are already active in the field of youth and volunteering, we recommend you to take your time and try to implement what's useful from this course in your work. The additional materials provide you with a chance to dive deeper into the three above-mentioned approaches that might help gain a deeper understanding and help you adapt the learnings from this course to your work.  


Participants profile

The course was designed for youth workers, teachers, and facilitators who are working with or plan to work with disadvantaged youth. 
If you are supporting ESC volunteers or groups we think this course might be a good source of inspiration for you. 

We really hope that you find this learning journey useful.


Disclaimer: The creation of this course was Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed in it are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.