Supporting Social Inclusion of Youth at Risk using Social Software-Impact, Sustainability and Evaluation, One Year after Pilot Testing

The aim of this case study was to report the experiences of four social work organizations in four different European countries (Belgium, Austria, Poland and Scotland) and their efforts to integrate the use of social media into their work with young people at risk. The activities of and challenges met by the organizations in the two years they took part in the EU-INCLUSO (FP7) project and the year after the end of the project (2010) are reported. The initial findings were supplemented and updated by recent, in-depth interviews with representatives from the pilot organizations. The findings indicate that the use of social media to support the work of organization working with youth at risk has much potential and proved to be worthwhile based on the experiences of the organizations that took part in the EU-INCLUSO project. However, the authors warn that successful adoption within the organization depends on management support, sufficient resources and staff coaching and training. The choice of which tools to use in a particular situation is largely influenced by the preferences of the young people involved, putting emphasis on co-designing social media strategies together with the target group. Most of the organizations report that currently available social media tools, while useful, are not always ideal and make the case for custom-built tools.

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